report
submitted by Alan M. MacEachren
Abstracts
from the meeting
At our initial Commission on Visualization meeting in Delft (Sept.
1996), we focused on discussion of working papers that represented
the range of research being pursued by commission members and others
who had responded to our call for working papers on exploratory cartographic
visualization and on developing an initiative in desktop virtual reality.
In addition, our collaboration with ACM-SIGGRAPH on the "Carto
Project" was initiated. One result of that meeting was the special
print/CD/WWW issue of Computers & Geosciences on Exploratory Cartographic
Visualization just published.
Our
goals for the meeting just held in Gavle were more focused. Emphasis
was on discussing research priorities and developing a research agenda
that identifies research priorities associated with developing and
using cartographic visualization methods and tools.The meeting format
divided our three days into modules during which we discussed progress
on the Carto Project, addressed specific research themes, and considered
future activities and meetings. In relation to the Carto Project,
Theresa-Marie Rhyne presented results of an initial survey of those
applying visualization to georeferenced data. Results of the survey
are posted on our WWW site.
Prior
to the meeting, four key research themes were selected for specific
attention: animation theory and its application to spatio-temporal
analysis, multimedia and visualization, georeferenced desktop virtual
reality, and visualization of uncertainty. The last, visualization
of uncertainty has occupied the attention of several visualization
commission members in the past, but a variety of circumstances resulted
in only one formal presentation during the meeting that dealt directly
with this issue. For the remaining three themes, we began with a set
of presentations of ongoing research, followed with break-up groups
during which participants focused on specific topics/questions suggested
by theme leaders and/or discussed possible research priorities associated
with that theme. These small group discussions were followed by summaries
to the full group and group discussion.
THEMES
& PRESENTATIONS
Theme
leaders and presenters associated with each theme are listed below.
Abstracts of presentations are attached.
Animation
Theory And Its Application To Spatio-Temporal Analysis (Menno-Jan
Kraak)
Connie
Blok - Dynamic Visualisation Variables in Animations; Their Use for
the Monitoring of Spatio-Temporal Data
Gerd
Buzieck - Experiences in the design of legends for cartographic animations
Alan
MacEachren & Donna J.Peuquet - Integrating Gis and Visualization
for Analysis of Space/Time Environmental Data.
Visualization of Uncertainty (Alan MacEachren)
Lucy Bastin, Pete Fisher and Jo Wood - Visualization of fuzzy spatial
information in spatial decision making
Georeferenced Desktop Virtual Reality (David Fairbairn and
Antonio Camara, the latter helped organize activities on this theme,
but was not able to attend the meeting)
Theresa-Marie
Rhyne- Future Encounters: Visualizing Integrated
Scientific Information
Kate
Moore (presented by Jason Dykes) - Using Java to Interact with Geo-Referenced
VRML
Bin
Jiang- VENUE- Virtual Environment for Urban Environment
Jorge
Nelson Neves- Virtual Environments and Geographical Representation
Dave
Fairbairn- Virtual Reality and Generalization
Multimedia
& Visualization (William Cartwright)
Alexandra
Koussoulakou - The use of Multimedia in Department of Cadastre, Photogrammetry
and Cartography of the University of Thessaloniki
Michael
P. Peterson - Maps and Multimedia on the World Wide Web
William
Cartwright - Multimedia Extensions to Geographical Information Depiction
Research and Development at RMIT
DEVELOPING
A RESEARCH AGENDA
After
the first two days of the meeting, participants were asked to submit
a list of one to three key research topics that they saw as priorities.
These individual contributions together with discussions in the break-out
sessions and full group discussions were used to begin the process
of working toward a consensus on an overall research agenda
Based
on all of the discussions and input received, MacEachren and Kraak
organized suggestions for research priorities into four major themes:
Representation
Interface design
Database - visualization links
- Cognitive
aspects of visualization tool use
An outline of suggested research priorities within each theme was
presented and discussed at the Commission's open meeting in Stockholm
on Thurs. June 26. Commission members are now in the process of evaluating
the suggestions and working toward concensus on highest priority items.
We expect to post a detailed document outlining research priorities
by November 1, 1997.
Participants
at the Gavle meeting:
Alan
M. MacEachren (Penn State, Geography - US) - email: maceachren@psu.edu
Menno-Jan
Kraak (ITC, Geoinformatics - Netherlands) - email: kraak@ITC.NL
Theresa-Marie
Rhyne (US) - email: trhyne@3rdtech.com
William
Cartwright (RMIT, Land Information Systems - Australia) - email: w.cartwright@rmit.EDU.AU
Nelson
Neves (Environmental Systems Analysis Group - Portugal) VR - email:
jnn@laminaria.si.fct.unl.pt
Lucy
Bastin (U of Leicester, Geography - UK) - email: lb26@le.ac.uk
Jason
Dykes (U of Leicester, Geography - UK) - email: jad7@leicester.ac.uk
Marek
Baronowski (UN GRID - Poland) - email: MAREKB@PLEARN.EDU.PL
Maria
Andrzejewska (UN GRID - Poland) - email: gridw@plearn.edu.pl
Alexandra
Kusoulakou (Aristotle U of Thessaloniki, School of Engineering - Greece)
- email: kusulaku@eng.auth.gr
Robert
E. Kuunders (Delft U of Technology, Netherlands) - email: Kuunders@geo.tudelft.nl
Gerd
Buziek (Universitaet Hannover, Institut fuer Kartographie - Germany)
- email: buziek@sepp.ifk.uni hannover.de
Connie
Blok (ITC, Geoinformatics - Netherlands) - email: blok@ITC.NL
Bin
Jiang (Free University Berlin, Inst. of geographic sciences - Germany)
- email: ucfnbxj@ucl.ac.uk
David
Fairbairn (U of Newcastle, Surveying - UK) - email: Dave.Fairbairn@newcastle.ac.uk
Fraser
Taylor (executive liaison) - email: bgeorge@ccs.carleton.ca (c/o:
Barbara George)
Mike
Wood (ICA President) - email: geo125@abdn.ac.uk
From
University College Gavle-Sandviken:
Patrick Ottoson, Johannes Keukelaar, Anna Lundquvist, Mark Ollila,
Jie Shan
