Chameleon Dynamic Color Mapping for Multi-Scale Structural Biology Models

Information

• Publication Type: Conference Paper
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Visualization Group
  • Visual Information Foraging on the Desktop
• Date: 2016
• Lecturer: Nicholas Waldin
• Event: VCBM
• Booktitle: Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and Medicine

Abstract

Visualization of structural biology data uses color to categorize or separate dense structures into particular semantic units. In multiscale models of viruses or bacteria, there are atoms on the finest level of detail, then amino-acids, secondary structures, macromolecules, up to the compartment level and, in all these levels, elements can be visually distinguished by color. However, currently only single scale coloring schemes are utilized that show information for one particular scale only. We present a novel technology which adaptively, based on the current scale level, adjusts the color scheme to depict or distinguish the currently best visible structural information. We treat the color as a visual resource that is distributed given a particular demand. The changes of the color scheme are seamlessly interpolated between the color scheme from the previous views into a given new one. With such dynamic multi-scale color mapping we ensure that the viewer is able to distinguish structural detail that is shown on any given scale. This technique has been tested by users with an expertise in structural biology and has been overall well received.

Additional Files and Images

Weblinks

• https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/vcbm20161266

BibTeX

@inproceedings{Waldin_Nicholas_2016_Chameleon,
  title =      "Chameleon Dynamic Color Mapping for Multi-Scale Structural
               Biology Models",
  author =     "Nicholas Waldin and Mathieu Le Muzic and Manuela Waldner and
               Eduard Gr\"{o}ller and David Goodsell and Ludovic Autin and
               Ivan Viola",
  year =       "2016",
  abstract =   "Visualization of structural biology data uses color to
               categorize or separate dense structures into particular
               semantic units. In multiscale models of viruses or bacteria,
               there are atoms on the finest level of detail, then
               amino-acids, secondary structures, macromolecules, up to the
               compartment level and, in all these levels, elements can be
               visually distinguished by color. However, currently only
               single scale coloring schemes are utilized that show
               information for one particular scale only. We present a
               novel technology which adaptively, based on the current
               scale level, adjusts the color scheme to depict or
               distinguish the currently best visible structural
               information. We treat the color as a visual resource that is
               distributed given a particular demand. The changes of the
               color scheme are seamlessly interpolated between the color
               scheme from the previous views into a given new one. With
               such dynamic multi-scale color mapping we ensure that the
               viewer is able to distinguish structural detail that is
               shown on any given scale. This technique has been tested by
               users with an expertise in structural biology and has been
               overall well received.",
  event =      "VCBM",
  booktitle =  "Eurographics Workshop on Visual Computing for Biology and
               Medicine",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2016/Waldin_Nicholas_2016_Chameleon/",
}