Yes / Scientific data acquired through sensors which monitor natural phenomena, as well as simulation data that imitate time‐identified events, have fueled the need for interactive techniques to successfully analyze and understand trends and patterns across space and time. We present a novel interactive visualization technique that fuses ground truth measurements with simulation results in real‐time to support the continuous tracking and analysis of spatiotemporal patterns. We start by constructing a reference model which densely represents the expected temporal behavior, and then use GPU parallelism to advect measurements on the model and track their location at any given point in time. Our results show that users can interactively fill the spatio‐temporal gaps in real world observations, and generate animations that accurately describe physical phenomena.

<p dir="ltr">This paper introduces a comprehensive Software Toolkit designed to facilitate the design, implementation, and assessment of experimental research within the field of social psychology. The toolkit includes a python tool integrated with Unreal Engine to run simulations using virtual reality. This tool allows Students and Psychologists to conduct experiments for learning purposes by helping them to create real-life like simulations in different environments. Following a series of experiments, we have determined that the tool performs effectively. With the potential for further updates and enhancements, we believe that the tool holds promise for utilization in social psychology experiments.</p>

For many years the software engineering community has been attacking the software reliability problem on two fronts. First via design methodologies, languages and tools as a precheck on quality and second by measuring the quality of produced software as a postcheck. This research attempts to unify the approach to creating reliable software by providing the ability to measure the quality of a design prior to its implementation. Also presented is a comparison of a graphical and a textual design language in an effort to support cognitive science research findings that the human brain works more effectively in images than in text. / Master of Science

This study used a standardized evaluation to compare two direct manipulation graphics interfaces. The Interfaces investigated were (1) object-oriented (vector) graphics and (2) bit-mapped graphics (object-oriented graphics interfaces are not to be confused with object-oriented programming or object-oriented data bases). Experienced and novice subjects performed objectively derived benchmark tasks appropriate for two-dimensional graphics packages. Both performance and preference data were collected. Task completion time, aborted attempts, learning effects, and errors constituted the performance measures. For the preference data, subjects completed questionnaires to rate the interfaces on both an absolute and a relative basis. Results indicate that the object-oriented graphics interface is superior to the bit-mapped interface. Both the performance and preference measures indicate that the object-oriented interface is better suited for manipulation of graphics. / Master of Science

The quadtree is a family of data structures that organize spatial data using recursive subdivision. A pointer-based quadtree uses an explicit tree structure to represent the subdivision, while a linear quadtree holds a sorted list of records corresponding to the leaves of the tree structure. Small quadtrees are typically represented using pointers since this leads to simpler algorithms. However, linear quadtrees have been historically used to represent larger data sets. The primary reason is that linear quadtrees are easily organized on pages in disk files. In addition, linear quadtrees were thought to require less space than pointerbased quadtrees. Though pointer-based quadtrees have many other advantages, there has still been much interest in the linear quadtree. This thesis presents a pointer-based representation for quadtrees called the paged-pointer quadtree. The paged-pointer quadtree overcomes both of the historical advantages of the linear quadtree. It partitions the nodes of a pointer-based quadtree into pages, stores these nodes in order, and manages pages using B-tree techniques. In addition, a paged-pointer quadtree always requires less space than a corresponding linear quadtree. Our representation overcomes the performance problems associated with representing traditional pointer-based quadtrees on disk. As a result, our implementation produces better performance than highly optimized systems based on linear quadtrees. / Master of Science

Each year, thousands of custom CAD/CAM/CAE applications are being created to meet the needs of industry, education and research. To facilitate this process, programmers should have available to them high-level tools which are device-independent These enablers will allow for the rapid creation of highly portable software. From this need, a curve and surface framework is created. This framework allows the engineer to create, manipulate, and analyze geometric entities. The design allows new curve and surface implementations to be fully integrated into the framework without requiring modifications to other entities within the framework. The framework utilizes the International Standards Organization (ISO) and American National Standard Institute (ANSI) 3-D graphics standard, PHIGS, and is thus device independent. Furthermore, the use of the IGES data exchange standard enables the transfer of data through files with an ISO/ANSI/ASME accepted format. Five curve classes and two surface classes are implemented to demonstrate the potential of the framework. The curve classes include a Line, Polyline, Arc, Cubic Bézier, and NonUniform Cubic B-Spline Curve classes, and the surface classes include the Non-Uniform Cubic B-Spline Surface and the Planar Surface classes. The result of the design is a highly extensible and maintainable framework for geometric modeling which reduces the work required by programmers in the creation and integration of geometric entities in complex software. / Master of Science

M.S.

The effectiveness of selected computer-generated graphics display variables was examined in a mixed-factors factorial experiment using thirty-two subjects. All subjects performed four different graph reading tasks consisting of point-reading, point-comparison, trendreading, and trend-comparison. In each task, line, point, bar, and three-dimensional bar graphs were investigated under two levels of task complexity, and two levels of coding (color and black-and-white). The effects of these independent variables on measures of task performance errors, time to complete the task, subjective mental workload, and preference ratings were obtained in real-time by a microcomputer control program. Separate MANOVA analyses of these measures for each task indicated significant effects of graph-type for the point—reading task, main effects of complexity and coding for all tasks, and a graph-by—coding interaction for the point-reading, point-comparison, and trend-reading tasks. Subsequent ANOVA analyses showed significance for these effects across several of the dependent measures which are specified in the thesis. Recommendations are made for selecting the most effective graph and coding combinations for the particular types of graph-interpretation tasks and complexity levels encountered. / Master of Science

A finite element program post-processor is developed to help synthesize a near-optimum mesh. This post-processor displays, interactively, six different energy functions, along with the usual stress functions. The six energy functions are functions of the energy within each element of the mesh. Since it is intended to be an educational package, the post-processor does not automatically generate the new mesh for the user. Instead, guidelines for near-optimum mesh generation are presented. The guidelines are based on the test cases included in the study. These test cases were also used to select the combination of functions that seemed to be more desirable for optimization. A list of possible future work is included. / Master of Science

A simple, user friendly, mesh generator designed as a preprocessor for two-dimensional finite element codes is presented. The program generates both triangular and quadrilateral two-dimensional elements and has automatic transitioning capability. The required input is the definition of the boundary of the structure, a measure of the relative size of the mesh at the key geometry points, and loading information. Both boundary and interior nodal points are generated. The user is not required to develop the overall node and element plan and is not limited to quadrilateral regions with equal number of nodes on opposing sides. The generated mesh density as controlled by the user will automatically transition from low to high density areas. A bandwidth reduction routine is included to renumber the generated nodes most efficiently. An output file is created of node, element, and nodal load definitions which is organized for input to a finite element program. / Master of Science