Cuttlefish: Color Mapping for Dynamic Multi‐Scale Visualizations

Abstract

Visualizations of hierarchical data can often be explored interactively. For example, in geographic visualization, there are continents, which can be subdivided into countries, states, counties and cities. Similarly, in models of viruses or bacteria at the highest level are the compartments, and below that are macromolecules, secondary structures (such as α‐helices), amino‐acids, and on the finest level atoms. Distinguishing between items can be assisted through the use of color at all levels. However, currently, there are no hierarchical and adaptive color mapping techniques for very large multi‐scale visualizations that can be explored interactively. We present a novel, multi‐scale, color‐mapping technique for adaptively adjusting the color scheme to the current view and scale. Color is treated as a resource and is smoothly redistributed. The distribution adjusts to the scale of the currently observed detail and maximizes the color range utilization given current viewing requirements. Thus, we ensure that the user is able to distinguish items on any level, even if the color is not constant for a particular feature. The coloring technique is demonstrated for a political map and a mesoscale structural model of HIV. The technique has been tested by users with expertise in structural biology and was overall well received.

Data-Driven Colormap Adjustment for Exploring Spatial Variations in Scalar Fields

“…We would like to extend this framework to support more applicable analytical tasks in the future, such as quantity estimation [24], value comparison [2], feature detection [7], and graphical inference [40]. Fourth, colormap design for dynamical exploration of multi-scale data has been addressed in several previous works [49], [50] that introduced interactive factors (e.g., viewing direction) into the categorical color design. How to incorporate dynamic multi-scale explorations into a continuous color adjustment framework would be an interesting future direction.…”

Considering best practices in color palettes for molecular visualizations

“…Waldin et al. [ 10 ] present a technique that employs an systematically adjustable color scheme that mainly relies on hue shift across different levels of magnification, from atomic resolution to a complete virus. Their technique allows the viewer to clearly distinguish between structures of interest at a given level of magnification between, e.g., atoms, domains in a single molecule, or structural compartments of a virus.…”

“…Limited works in visualization have addressed color treatment in molecular visualizations. These consider the use of illumination models to cue features on molecular surfaces [ 8 , 9 ] and coloring of multiscale molecular visualizations [ 10 , 11 ]. While the application of high luminance colors to focus objects is a consistent recommendation of these works, color assignment on the whole is largely arbitrary and lacks consistent semantic meaning.…”

A new visual design language for biological structures in a cell

“…Another technique is the dynamic adjustment of texture and other visual characteristics, such as color. For example, dynamic multiscale color mapping has been successfully implemented in visualizing models of viruses and bacteria (Waldin et al, 2019). WIAC also explores these techniques in implementing crowded cellular environments using tetrahedral language to further boost visualization and rendering.…”