Interactive Exploration of Flow Fields Using Commodity Hardware

Abstract

Flow visualization is a widely-used technique to explore flow fields, which occur in many different research areas. Until now these visualizations are usually performed in traditional desktop settings. But the emergence of tablet PCs offers new possibilities in terms of user interaction. Additionally it facilitates new ways to incorporate flow visualizations into the work process.

The aim of this project is to examine the potentials and limitations of tablet PCs for flow field visualization. Therefore two flow field visualization apps for iPads are created, one standalone and one client-server system. These applications are equipped with common visualization techniques and utilize the tablet PC's specific user interaction methods.

Furthermore the apps are tested with technical performance tests and a user study. The results show that the applications in general received very positive responses from the test-users. Some interaction methods need to be improved, but overall they were perceived as intuitive and easy to understand. Moreover the standalone version performed surprisingly well in the technical tests. The client-server app proved to be a good extension in terms of reducing the processing time.