Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “visualization application”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2

A Robust and Scalable Software Library for Parallel Adaptive Refinement on Unstructured Meshes

The design and implementation of Pyramid, a software library for performing parallel adaptive mesh refinement (PAMR) on unstructured meshes, is described. This software library can be easily used in a variety of unstructured parallel computational applications, including parallel finite element, parallel finite volume, and parallel visualization applications using triangular or tetrahedral meshes. The library contains a suite of well-designed and efficiently implemented modules that perform operations in a typical PAMR process. Among these are mesh quality control during successive parallel adaptive refinement (typically guided by a local-error estimator), parallel load-balancing, and parallel mesh partitioning using the ParMeTiS partitioner. The Pyramid library is implemented in Fortran 90 with an interface to the Message-Passing Interface (MPI) library, supporting code efficiency, modularity, and portability. An EM waveguide filter application, adaptively refined using the Pyramid library, is illustrated.

Lou, John Z.↗

Visual and x-ray inspection characteristics of eutectic and lead free assemblies

For high reliability applications, visual inspection has been the key technique for most conventional electronic package assemblies. Now, the use of x-ray technique has become an additional inspection requirement for quality control and detection of unique defects due to manufacturing of advanced electronic array packages such as ball grid array (BGAs) and chip scale packages (CSPs).

x-ray↗

Three-dimensional visualization and display technologies; Proceedings of the Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 18-20, 1989

Special attention was given to problems of stereoscopic display devices, such as CAD for enhancement of the design process in visual arts, stereo-TV improvement of remote manipulator performance, a voice-controlled stereographic video camera system, and head-mounted displays and their low-cost design alternatives. Also discussed was a novel approach to chromostereoscopic microscopy, computer-generated barrier-strip autostereography and lenticular stereograms, and parallax barrier three-dimensional TV. Additional topics include processing and user interface isssues and visualization applications, including automated analysis and fliud flow topology, optical tomographic measusrements of mixing fluids, visualization of complex data, visualization environments, and visualization management systems.

Robbins, Woodrow E.↗

Rapid Model Import Tool (RMIT)

Our project is about developing a tool to implement conversion of 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) models produced with software such as Delmia, 3DS Max, or Maya, into a size and format compatible with the Unity 3D environment. RMIT will be used to aid KSC engineering personnel in the design, development, testing, operations, and training on spacecraft, launch vehicles, facilities, and ground support equipment. For our project, we are using Blender, a free/open-source 3D graphics software, with the goal of developing, testing, and deploying a 3D CAD model converter tool. I worked on using Blender to import 3D CAD models exported from CATIA software into Collada file format. The Collada file format has file extension DAE. Importing the Collada DAE file as is into Blender, generates dots and dashes. In 3DS Max, there is an existing OpenCollada plugin and with that plugin, 3DS Max can import the DAE file successfully. But, Blender does not seem to have an OpenCollada plugin, so I worked on writing a new OpenCollada plugin for Blender. Since 3DS Max was able to display the image, I looked into comparing differences between the original DAE file and the DAE file exported from 3DS Max using the OpenCollada plugin. As Collada documents describing digital assets are XML files with file extension DAE, Collada files contains XML tags, making them easily modifiable. After some research, it appears that Blender does not like primitive 2D tags like tristrips and trifans. Changing those tags to polygons slightly improved the image, but the pieces were exploded. I found after further research comparing differences between the original file and the file exported from 3DS Max that the values inside the translate tags in the original file are scaled down by a factor of 25.4 in the exported file from 3DS Max, representing the millimeters to inches conversion (1 inch = 25.4 millimeters). After scaling down values inside all of the translate tags by 25.4, the exploded pieces stuck back in, but the image needed further improvement. I have been able to create a new plugin in Blender that takes the original DAE file, replaces the primitive 2D tags tristrips and trifans with polygons, scales down the values inside the translate tags by a factor of 25.4, and saves the changes into a temporary DAE file. After the temporary DAE file is imported into Blender, the temp file is then deleted, keeping the original DAE file intact. Starting with a DAE file that is exported using the NASA Enterprise Visualization Application (NEVA), a Collada exporter, from CATIA gives better results. NEVA is a Design Visualization product that is used for exporting 3D models from CATIA. With NEVA, the up axis is defined in the top-level node if navigation gravity is enabled. With that file, just replacing the primitive tags tristrips and trifans with polygons in yields a much improved image in Blender. As we identify more differences between the original DAE file and the DAE file exported from 3DS Max, this plugin can be improved further. Our goal is to have a model that is formatted and sized for import into Unity, and we are trying out different 3D programs to see which will work best.

Ayyangar, Arjun↗

Systems and Methods for Data Visualization Using Three-Dimensional Displays

Data visualization systems and methods for generating 3D visualizations of a multidimensional data space are described. In one embodiment a 3D data visualization application directs a processing system to: load a set of multidimensional data points into a visualization table; create representations of a set of 3D objects corresponding to the set of data points; receive mappings of data dimensions to visualization attributes; determine the visualization attributes of the set of 3D objects based upon the selected mappings of data dimensions to 3D object attributes; update a visibility dimension in the visualization table for each of the plurality of 3D object to reflect the visibility of each 3D object based upon the selected mappings of data dimensions to visualization attributes; and interactively render 3D data visualizations of the 3D objects within the virtual space from viewpoints determined based upon received user input.

Djorgovski, Stanislav G.↗

Improving Data Discoverability in NASA Worldview for Spatiotemporally Discontinuous Layers

Over the past ten years, NASA Worldview has continually evolved to remain an essential data visualization application for NASA’s archive of Earth Science data. Hosting over 1000 data layers, each with differing spatial and temporal availability, Worldview has addressed challenges with visualizing this data to ensure that the user interface and user experience remained straightforward to use.

Patrick Moulden↗

NASA Dryden flow visualization facility

This report describes the Flow Visualization Facility at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. This water tunnel facility is used primarily for visualizing and analyzing vortical flows on aircraft models and other shapes at high-incidence angles. The tunnel is used extensively as a low-cost, diagnostic tool to help engineers understand complex flows over aircraft and other full-scale vehicles. The facility consists primarily of a closed-circuit water tunnel with a 16- x 24-in. vertical test section. Velocity of the flow through the test section can be varied from 0 to 10 in/sec; however, 3 in/sec provides optimum velocity for the majority of flow visualization applications. This velocity corresponds to a unit Reynolds number of 23,000/ft and a turbulence level over the majority of the test section below 0.5 percent. Flow visualization techniques described here include the dye tracer, laser light sheet, and shadowgraph. Limited correlation to full-scale flight data is shown.

Delfrate, John H.↗

EOS workstation

This final report summarizes the work done from mid-1989 until January 1992 to develop a prototype set of tools for the analysis of EOS-type images. Such images are characterized by great multiplicity and quantity. A single 'snapshot' of EOS-type imagery may contain several hundred component images so that on a particular pixel, one finds multiple gray values. A prototype EOS-sensor, AVIRIS, has 224 gray values at each pixel. The work focused on the ability to utilize very large images and continuously roam through those images, zoom and be able to hold more than one black and white or color image, for example for stereo viewing or for image comparisons. A second focus was the utilization of so-called 'image cubes', where multiple images need to be co-registered and then jointly analyzed, viewed, and manipulated. The target computer platform that was selected was a high-performance graphics superworkstation, Stardent 3000. This particular platform offered many particular graphics tools such as the Application Visualization System (AVS) or Dore, but it missed availability of commercial third-party software for relational data bases, image processing, etc. The project was able to cope with these limitations and a phase-3 activity is currently being negotiated to port the software and enhance it for use with a novel graphics superworkstation to be introduced into the market in the Spring of 1993.

Leberl, Franz↗

Three-dimensional user interfaces for scientific visualization

The focus of this grant was to experiment with novel user interfaces for scientific visualization applications using both desktop and virtual reality (VR) systems, and thus to advance the state of the art of user interface technology for this domain. This technology has been transferred to NASA via periodic status reports and papers relating to this grant that have been published in conference proceedings. This final report summarizes the research completed over the past three years, and subsumes all prior reports.

VanDam, Andries↗

User Interface Technology Transfer to NASA's Virtual Wind Tunnel System

Funded by NASA grants for four years, the Brown Computer Graphics Group has developed novel 3D user interfaces for desktop and immersive scientific visualization applications. This past grant period supported the design and development of a software library, the 3D Widget Library, which supports the construction and run-time management of 3D widgets. The 3D Widget Library is a mechanism for transferring user interface technology from the Brown Graphics Group to the Virtual Wind Tunnel system at NASA Ames as well as the public domain.

vanDam, Andries↗

Portability and Cross-Platform Performance of an MPI-Based Parallel Polygon Renderer

Visualizing the results of computations performed on large-scale parallel computers is a challenging problem, due to the size of the datasets involved. One approach is to perform the visualization and graphics operations in place, exploiting the available parallelism to obtain the necessary rendering performance. Over the past several years, we have been developing algorithms and software to support visualization applications on NASA's parallel supercomputers. Our results have been incorporated into a parallel polygon rendering system called PGL. PGL was initially developed on tightly-coupled distributed-memory message-passing systems, including Intel's iPSC/860 and Paragon, and IBM's SP2. Over the past year, we have ported it to a variety of additional platforms, including the HP Exemplar, SGI Origin2OOO, Cray T3E, and clusters of Sun workstations. In implementing PGL, we have had two primary goals: cross-platform portability and high performance. Portability is important because (1) our manpower resources are limited, making it difficult to develop and maintain multiple versions of the code, and (2) NASA's complement of parallel computing platforms is diverse and subject to frequent change. Performance is important in delivering adequate rendering rates for complex scenes and ensuring that parallel computing resources are used effectively. Unfortunately, these two goals are often at odds. In this paper we report on our experiences with portability and performance of the PGL polygon renderer across a range of parallel computing platforms.

Crockett, Thomas W.↗

FLOWVIZ

FlowViz is a flow visualization application that uses Line Integral Convolution and the texture mapping capabilities of a graphics workstation to create an animation of flow over a curvilinear grid surface.

Forssell, Lisa↗

Imaging System

The 1100C Virtual Window is based on technology developed under NASA Small Business Innovation (SBIR) contracts to Ames Research Center. For example, under one contract Dimension Technologies, Inc. developed a large autostereoscopic display for scientific visualization applications. The Virtual Window employs an innovative illumination system to deliver the depth and color of true 3D imaging. Its applications include surgery and Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans, viewing for teleoperated robots, training, and in aviation cockpit displays.

Source record↗

Stratway: A Modular Approach to Strategic Conflict Resolution

In this paper we introduce Stratway, a modular approach to finding long-term strategic resolutions to conflicts between aircraft. The modular approach provides both advantages and disadvantages. Our primary concern is to investigate the implications on the verification of safety-critical properties of a strategic resolution algorithm. By partitioning the problem into verifiable modules much stronger verification claims can be established. Since strategic resolution involves searching for solutions over an enormous state space, Stratway, like most similar algorithms, searches these spaces by applying heuristics, which present especially difficult verification challenges. An advantage of a modular approach is that it makes a clear distinction between the resolution function and the trajectory generation function. This allows the resolution computation to be independent of any particular vehicle. The Stratway algorithm was developed in both Java and C++ and is available through a open source license. Additionally there is a visualization application that is helpful when analyzing and quickly creating conflict scenarios.

Hagen, George E.↗

Applications of CFD and visualization techniques

In this paper, three applications are presented to illustrate current techniques for flow calculation and visualization. The first two applications use a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT, performed on a Cray Y-MP. The results are animated with the aid of data visualization software, apE. The third application simulates a particulate deposition pattern using techniques inspired by developments in nonlinear dynamical systems. These computations were performed on personal computers.

Saunders, James H.↗

Hypermedia and visual technology

Applications of a codified professional practice that uses visual representations of the thoughts and ideas of a working group are reported in order to improve productivity, problem solving, and innovation. This visual technology process was developed under the auspices of General Foods as part of a multi-year study. The study resulted in the validation of this professional service as a way to use art and design to facilitate productivity and innovation and to define new opportunities. It was also used by NASA for planning Lunar/Mars exploration and by other companies for general business and advanced strategic planning, developing new product concepts, and litigation support. General Foods has continued to use the service for packaging innovation studies.

Walker, Lloyd↗