Interactive Hierarchical Data Investigation using Abstractions -- the Waltz Visualization Environment

Scientific visualization is becoming common in the work-place; hastened by the growth in the power of computers generating data that needs to be visualized. There is a desire to generate quick representations of the data, that can be used to select and specialize the data into smaller manageable sections. This paper describes a visualization environment (Waltz) where the user can segment the data into interesting features, select a subset of the features, interact and manipulate the images between views: controlled by the notion of linked abstractions. An abstraction is a view of the data in which the data elements are transformed or augmented to facilitate the understanding of the data.