Interchanging Interactive 3-d Graphics for Astronomy

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for efficiently exchanging interactive 3D astronomical visualizations across various mediums using a unified format and interface, facilitating knowledge discovery and presentation.

Contribution

It introduces an interchange format and interaction interface that simplifies adapting desktop visualizations for web and publication use in astronomy.

Findings

Successful adaptation of desktop visualizations to the Web

Reduced effort in producing medium-specific visualizations

Demonstrations available online

Abstract

We demonstrate how interactive, three-dimensional (3-d) scientific visualizations can be efficiently interchanged between a variety of mediums. Through the use of an appropriate interchange format, and a unified interaction interface, we minimize the effort to produce visualizations appropriate for undertaking knowledge discovery at the astronomer's desktop, as part of conference presentations, in digital publications or as Web content. We use examples from cosmological visualization to address some of the issues of interchange, and to describe our approach to adapting S2PLOT desktop visualizations to the Web. Supporting demonstrations are available at http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/interchange/