Self-Illustrating Phenomena
April 7, 2008 1:54 AM Subscribe
Self-Illustrating Phenomena. Slides from a 2005 talk by Pat Hanrahan. Scroll down his page for more talks.
The link above is just a set of images. Without the text, the slides are pretty inscrutable. If you want the text of his speech and have access to the ACM archives, view the full text of Self-Illustrating Phenomena.
From the abstract:
A self-illustrating phenomenon is an image which exposes the science behind it. Some famous examples are pictures of iron filings aligned along magnetic lines of force, sand particles collecting at the stationary points of the standing waves of a violin, stress in a mechanical part revealed through birefringence, and particle tracks in a bubble chamber. Such images brilliantly combine experimental design, analysis, and visualization. Quoting J. Tukey, "the general purposes of conducting experiments and analyzing data match, point by point". We argue in this talk that computer tools for visual analysis should normally be conceived of as aids in constructing computational visual experiments; and that the resulting visualizations be consciously designed to help validate or invalidate the hypothesis being tested by the experiment.
This is an interesting approach. I do however think that computer tools for visual analysis should not merely exist to test a specific hypothesis but can also help you learn more about your data and formulate new hypotheses.
posted by honest knave at 3:43 AM on April 7, 2008
From the abstract:
A self-illustrating phenomenon is an image which exposes the science behind it. Some famous examples are pictures of iron filings aligned along magnetic lines of force, sand particles collecting at the stationary points of the standing waves of a violin, stress in a mechanical part revealed through birefringence, and particle tracks in a bubble chamber. Such images brilliantly combine experimental design, analysis, and visualization. Quoting J. Tukey, "the general purposes of conducting experiments and analyzing data match, point by point". We argue in this talk that computer tools for visual analysis should normally be conceived of as aids in constructing computational visual experiments; and that the resulting visualizations be consciously designed to help validate or invalidate the hypothesis being tested by the experiment.
This is an interesting approach. I do however think that computer tools for visual analysis should not merely exist to test a specific hypothesis but can also help you learn more about your data and formulate new hypotheses.
posted by honest knave at 3:43 AM on April 7, 2008
Beautiful, and not way too over my head... thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 4:50 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by not_on_display at 4:50 AM on April 7, 2008
Interesting. Although I do find myself wondering if diarrhoea is also often a self-illustrating (if arguably less photogenic) phenomenon.
posted by rhymer at 5:07 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by rhymer at 5:07 AM on April 7, 2008
Cool photos and all. But shouldn't the talk just be titled "stuff you can see"?
posted by Ella Fynoe at 5:09 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by Ella Fynoe at 5:09 AM on April 7, 2008
The link above is just a set of images.
Nope, the text is after the images. Scroll down.
posted by signal at 6:17 AM on April 7, 2008
Nope, the text is after the images. Scroll down.
posted by signal at 6:17 AM on April 7, 2008
The link above is just a set of images. Without the text, the slides are pretty inscrutable.
Huh? The notes are below the slides.
posted by smackfu at 6:29 AM on April 7, 2008
Huh? The notes are below the slides.
posted by smackfu at 6:29 AM on April 7, 2008
Great stuff, thanks Taksi Putra. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end (28 slides), because that last slit scan photo of the 2000 Sydney sprint finish is amazing. Note that it is now known that Marion Jones was doping.
My only criticism is that he did not summarize how a bubble chamber works like he did for the other scientific techniques (e.g. Schlieren images).
posted by intermod at 6:32 AM on April 7, 2008
My only criticism is that he did not summarize how a bubble chamber works like he did for the other scientific techniques (e.g. Schlieren images).
posted by intermod at 6:32 AM on April 7, 2008
For two seconds I was like "Ghosts!" and was a bit disappointed when I clicked through.
posted by parmanparman at 6:42 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by parmanparman at 6:42 AM on April 7, 2008
Whoops. I completely missed that. Thanks!
posted by honest knave at 9:54 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by honest knave at 9:54 AM on April 7, 2008
Interesting stuff—thanks!
posted by languagehat at 11:05 AM on April 7, 2008
posted by languagehat at 11:05 AM on April 7, 2008
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:17 AM on April 7, 2008