Research in visualization is centered on transforming complex datasets into representations that are visually meaningful, intuitive, and easier to manipulate and interpret. The goal is to explore computational approaches that facilitate both the representation and interpretation of geometrically complex structures and dynamic processes. Thus, the overall objective is to discover ways to see, and communicate about, such systems. The fundamental issues and scientific questions include:

• How can multidimensional information fields be effectively represented?
• How can complex visualization models, or interpretations of these models, be communicated easily and unambiguously to someone else?
• What constitutes a good (or better) visualization?
• What are appropriate mechanisms for supporting intuitive, highly interactive visualizations of complex systems?
• Can virtual or immersible environments be employed to create useful and effective visualizations?
• What underlying mathematical, graphical, and/or computational methods are appropriate to support useful visualization models?
• How can knowledge from other relevant yet separate disciplines (such as human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and image processing principles and techniques) be integrated within the visualization process?

• Approaches to create interactive, quantitative 3D displays, as in the display of three-dimensional (3D) cardiovascular perfusion distribution data.
• Algorithms for fusing multidimensional, multimodality information, as illustrated by methods aimed at integrating 3D data sets derived from nuclear perfusion and X-ray angiographic imagery.
• Visualization of 4D (dynamic) structures, such as a beating heart obtained from cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (HeartVis).
• Methods to support collaborative visualization of multimedia information, wherein collaborators are geographically distributed.

Publications:

• "Three-Dimensional Cardiac Imaging,"
  L. Klein, E. Garcia, C. Cooke, J. Peifer, and N. Ezquerra. Proceedings of Cardiovascular Science and Technology Conference, 1995.

• "Three-Dimensional Displays of Left Ventricular Epicardial Surface from Standard Cardiac SPECT Perfusion Quantification Techniques,"
  T. Faber, D. Cooke, J. Peifer, et al. Journal Nuclear Medicine, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 697-703, April 1995.

• "PerfSPECTive","
  Software disclosure filed with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Office of Technology Licensing, March 1994.

• "Interactive 3D MRI Display,"
  R. Pettigrew, Y. Jean, and others. Abstracts of 79th. Scientific Assembly of the Radiological Society of North America, Chicago, IL, 1993.

• "Visualization of Multimodality Cardiac Imagery,"
  J. Peifer, E. Garcia, D. Cooke, L. Klein, R. Folks, and N. Ezquerra. Proc. Vis. in Biomed. Comp. Conf. (VBC '92), pp. 225-233, Chapel Hill, NC, October 1992.

• "Visualization of Multimodality Cardiac Imagery,"
  J. W. Peifer, N. F. Ezquerra, C. D. Cooke, R. Mullick, L. Klein, M. E. Hyche, and E. V. Garcia. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 37, no. 8, pp. 744-756, August 1990.

• "Coronary Vasculature Visualization from Limited Angiographic Views,"
  J. W. Peifer, R. Mullick, N. F. Ezquerra, M. E. Hyche, E. V. Garcia, L. Klein, and C. D. Cooke. IEEE Proc. of the First Conference on Visualization in Biomedical Computing, Atlanta, GA, pp. 195-200, May 1990.

• "Visualization of Multimodality Cardiac Imagery,"
  J. Peifer, N. Ezquerra, C. Cooke, R. Mullick, L. Klein, E. Hyche, and E. Garcia. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., August 1989.

• "Techniques and Artificial Intelligence in Cardiac Imaging,"
  E. DePuey, E. Garcia, and N. Ezquerra. Am. Journal of Roentgenology, Vol. 152, pp. 1161-1168, June 1989.

• "Quantification and Visualization of 3D Cardiac Imagery,"
  N. F. Ezquerra, E. V. Garcia, J. W. Peifer, C. D. Cooke, J. L. Klein, and J. P. Skelton. World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, San Antonio, Texas, p. 100, August 1988.

• "3D Visualization of Coronary Arterial Tree Superimposed on Myocardial Distribution,"
  J. W. Peifer, C. D. Cooke, J. P. Skelton, J. L. Klein, N. F. Ezquerra, M. Weingarten, W. S. Briggs, and E. V. Garcia. Journal of Nuc. Med., Vol. 29, No. 5, p. 810, May 1988.

• "A Method for 3D Display of Arterial Structure Superimposed on Myocardial Perfusion Distribution,"
  N. F. Ezquerra, M. Zerbi, D. Cooke, J. W. Peifer, M. S. West, G. J. Bradley, L. Jofre, J. L. Klein, H. L. Hise, and E. V. Garcia. J. Nuc. Med., Vol. 28, No.4, p.675-676, June 1986.