Visual Analytics for Complex Engineering Systems: Hybrid Visual Steering of Simulation Ensembles.

In this paper we propose a novel approach to hybrid visual steering of simulation ensembles. A simulation ensemble is a collection of simulation runs of the same simulation model using different sets of control parameters. Complex engineering systems have very large parameter spaces so a naïve sampling can result in prohibitively large simulation ensembles. Interactive steering of simulation ensembles provides the means to select relevant points in a multi-dimensional parameter space (design of experiment). Interactive steering efficiently reduces the number of simulation runs needed by coupling simulation and visualization and allowing a user to request new simulations on the fly. As system complexity grows, a pure interactive solution is not always sufficient. The new approach of hybrid steering combines interactive visual steering with automatic optimization. Hybrid steering allows a domain expert to interactively (in a visualization) select data points in an iterative manner, approximate the values in a continuous region of the simulation space (by regression) and automatically find the "best" points in this continuous region based on the specified constraints and objectives (by optimization). We argue that with the full spectrum of optimization options, the steering process can be improved substantially. We describe an integrated system consisting of a simulation, a visualization, and an optimization component. We also describe typical tasks and propose an interactive analysis workflow for complex engineering systems. We demonstrate our approach on a case study from automotive industry, the optimization of a hydraulic circuit in a high pressure common rail Diesel injection system.

Attractive Flicker--Guiding Attention in Dynamic Narrative Visualizations.

Focus+context techniques provide visual guidance in visualizations by giving strong visual prominence to elements of interest while the context is suppressed. However, finding a visual feature to enhance for the focus to pop out from its context in a large dynamic scene, while leading to minimal visual deformation and subjective disturbance, is challenging. This paper proposes Attractive Flicker, a novel technique for visual guidance in dynamic narrative visualizations. We first show that flicker is a strong visual attractor in the entire visual field, without distorting, suppressing, or adding any scene elements. The novel aspect of our Attractive Flicker technique is that it consists of two signal stages: The first "orientation stage" is a short but intensive flicker stimulus to attract the attention to elements of interest. Subsequently, the intensive flicker is reduced to a minimally disturbing luminance oscillation ("engagement stage") as visual support to keep track of the focus elements. To find a good trade-off between attraction effectiveness and subjective annoyance caused by flicker, we conducted two perceptual studies to find suitable signal parameters. We showcase Attractive Flicker with the parameters obtained from the perceptual statistics in a study of molecular interactions. With Attractive Flicker, users were able to easily follow the narrative of the visualization on a large display, while the flickering of focus elements was not disturbing when observing the context.