Engineering topics

Hibbard, William

Publications and source records attributed to Hibbard, William.

3 records

NASA NTRS1992

Display of scientific data structures for algorithm visualization

We present a technique for defining graphical depictions for all the data types defined in an algorithm. The ability to display arbitrary combinations of an algorithm's data objects in a common frame of reference, coupled with interactive control of algorithm execution, provides a powerful way to understand algorithm behavior. Type definitions are constrained so that all primitive values occurring in data objects are assigned scalar types. A graphical display, including user interaction with the display, is modeled by a special data type. Mappings from the scalar types into the display model type provide a simple user interface for controlling how all data types are depicted, without the need for type-specific graphics logic.

Hibbard, William↗

NASA NTRS1991

Interactive atmospheric data access via high-speed networks

The VIS-5D system running on large workstations lets scientists interactively explore atmospheric simulation data sets containing up to 5 x 10(exp 7) points. A distributed version of VIS-5D running on a workstation and a supercomputer will make it possible to interactively explore data sets containing up to 10(exp 10) points. Wide area gigabit networks will bring this capability to scientists at most academic and research institutions. This software will help scientists to interactively develop numerical models of atmospheric phenomena.

Hibbard, William↗

NASA NTRS1989

Visualizing large data sets in the earth sciences

The authors describe the capabilities of McIDAS, an interactive visualization system that is vastly increasing the ability of earth scientists to manage and analyze data from remote sensing instruments and numerical simulation models. McIDAS provides animated three-dimensionsal images and highly interactive displays. The software can manage, analyze, and visualize large data sets that span many physical variables (such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed), as well as time and three spatial dimensions. The McIDAS system manages data from at least 100 different sources. The data management tools consist of data structures for storing different data types in files, libraries of routines for accessing these data structures, system commands for performing housekeeping functions on the data files, and reformatting programs for converting external data to the system's data structures. The McIDAS tools for three-dimensional visualization of meteorological data run on an IBM mainframe and can load up to 128-frame animation sequences into the workstations. A highly interactive version of the system can provide an interactive window into data sets containing tens of millions of points produced by numerical models and remote sensing instruments. The visualizations are being used for teaching as well as by scientists.

Hibbard, William↗