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Title: Measuring and Modeling the Feature Detection Threshold Functions of Colormaps

Abstract

Pseudocoloring is one of the most common techniques used in scientific visualization. To apply pseudocoloring to a scalar field, the field value at each point is represented using one of a sequence of colors (called a colormap). One of the principles applied in generating colormaps is uniformity and previously the main method for determining uniformity has been the application of uniform color spaces. In this paper we present a new method for evaluating the feature discrimination threshold function across a colormap. The method is used in crowdsourced studies for the direct evaluation of nine colormaps for three feature sizes. The results are used to test the hypothesis that a uniform color space (CIELAB) gives too much weight to chromatic differences compared to luminance differences because of the way it was constructed. The hypothesis that feature discrimination can be predicted solely on the basis of luminance is also tested. Finally, the results reject both hypotheses and we demonstrate how reduced weights on the green-red and blue-yellow terms of the CIELAB color space creates a more accurate model when the task is the detection of smaller features in colormapped data. Both the method itself and modified CIELAB can be used in colormapmore » design and evaluation.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
1839832
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1463498
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-21476
Journal ID: ISSN 1077-2626; 8413174
Grant/Contract Number:  
AS52-06NA25396; SC-0012438; SC-0012516; AC52-06NA25396; SC0012438; SC0012516; NA15NOS4000200
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Journal Volume: 25 Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 1077-2626
Publisher:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; colormapping; color perception

Citation Formats

Ware, Colin, Turton, Terece L., Bujack, Roxana, Samsel, Francesca, Shrivastava, Piyush, and Rogers, David H. Measuring and Modeling the Feature Detection Threshold Functions of Colormaps. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2018.2855742.
Ware, Colin, Turton, Terece L., Bujack, Roxana, Samsel, Francesca, Shrivastava, Piyush, & Rogers, David H. Measuring and Modeling the Feature Detection Threshold Functions of Colormaps. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2018.2855742
Ware, Colin, Turton, Terece L., Bujack, Roxana, Samsel, Francesca, Shrivastava, Piyush, and Rogers, David H. Sun . "Measuring and Modeling the Feature Detection Threshold Functions of Colormaps". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2018.2855742.
@article{osti_1839832,
title = {Measuring and Modeling the Feature Detection Threshold Functions of Colormaps},
author = {Ware, Colin and Turton, Terece L. and Bujack, Roxana and Samsel, Francesca and Shrivastava, Piyush and Rogers, David H.},
abstractNote = {Pseudocoloring is one of the most common techniques used in scientific visualization. To apply pseudocoloring to a scalar field, the field value at each point is represented using one of a sequence of colors (called a colormap). One of the principles applied in generating colormaps is uniformity and previously the main method for determining uniformity has been the application of uniform color spaces. In this paper we present a new method for evaluating the feature discrimination threshold function across a colormap. The method is used in crowdsourced studies for the direct evaluation of nine colormaps for three feature sizes. The results are used to test the hypothesis that a uniform color space (CIELAB) gives too much weight to chromatic differences compared to luminance differences because of the way it was constructed. The hypothesis that feature discrimination can be predicted solely on the basis of luminance is also tested. Finally, the results reject both hypotheses and we demonstrate how reduced weights on the green-red and blue-yellow terms of the CIELAB color space creates a more accurate model when the task is the detection of smaller features in colormapped data. Both the method itself and modified CIELAB can be used in colormap design and evaluation.},
doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2018.2855742},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
number = 9,
volume = 25,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2018.2855742

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Sea surface height rendered in the nine test colormaps in this paper. Using the acronyms introduced in Section IV-B, the data is rendered in: (top row, left to right) RA, CW, ECW, (middle row, left to right) BOD, GP, GR, (bottom row, left to right) BY, VI, TH.

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