Drawing in the Flow: A Data-Aware Mixed-Reality Sketching Interface for Illustrative 3D Flow Visualization

Keywords

Extended Reality, Sketching, Flow Visualization.

Abstract

We present “Drawing in the Flow”, a mixed-reality 3D user interface for authoring illustrative, multivariate 3D flow visualizations by sketching on, or better stated, in, 3D data. The approach interprets hand-drawn 3D strokes relative to an underlying data “canvas” and applies animated “ink-data settling” to ensure the strokes accurately reflect vector field data (i.e., 3D streamline paths). Color and other visual properties are interpreted relative to scalar data variables with “lazy data binding” to help users prioritize creative visual design tasks. Results include example 3D illustrations of multiple flow fields. The work is significant because of the ability to make authoring accurate 3D mixed reality data visualizations accessible to stakeholders without programming or scripting experience and because it demonstrates a novel approach to balancing the tradeoff between accuracy and expression in 3D data visualization.