The use of large-scale multifaceted data is common in a wide variety of scientific applications. In many cases, this multifaceted data takes the form of a field-based (Eulerian) and point trajectory-based (Lagrangian) representation as each has a unique set of advantages in characterizing a system of study. Furthermore, studying the increasing scale and complexity of these multifaceted datasets is limited by perceptual ability and available computational resources, necessitating sophisticated data reduction and feature extraction techniques. In this work, we present a new 4D feature segmentation extraction scheme that can operate on both the field and point trajectory data types simultaneously. The resulting features are time-varying data subsets that have both a field and point-based component, and were extracted based on underlying patterns from both data types. This enables researchers to better explore both the spatial and temporal interplay between the two data representations and study underlying phenomena from new perspectives. We parallelize our approach using GPU acceleration and apply it to real world multifaceted datasets to illustrate the types of features that can be extracted and explored.
@cite_26: The ability to efficiently and accurately extract features of interest is an extremely important tool in the field of scientific visualization as it allows researchers to isolate regions based on their domain knowledge. However, the increasing size of large-scale datasets often forces users to rely on distributed computing environments which have many drawbacks in terms of interaction and convenience. Many of the current feature extraction techniques are designed around these distributed environments. The ability to overcome the memory and bandwidth limitations of desktop PCs can broaden their usability towards large-scale applications. In this work, we present a new hybrid feature extraction technique which combines GPU-accelerated clustering with the multi-resolution advantages of supervoxels in order to handle large-scale datasets on standard desktop PCs. Furthermore, this is paired with a user-driven uncertainty-based refinement approach to enhance extraction results into a desired level of detail. We demonstrate the effectiveness and interactivity of this technique using a number of application specific examples utilizing large-scale volumetric datasets.
Since then, @cite_26 have gone on to extend the SLIC algorithm to operate on 3D volumes and use supervoxels'' in conjunction with uncertainty-based refinement to extract volume features from large-scale datasets. Such a technique has a great deal of potential, especially if it can be applied in 4D and extended to operate on both field and point-based data types. As a result, we use the ideas originally established in the SLIC algorithm as a starting point in developing our multifaceted 4D feature segmentation and extraction scheme.