Abstract
We present Gryphon, a ‘little’ domain-specific programming language (DSL) for visualizing diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (DMRI). A key contribution is its compositional approach to customizing visualizations for evolving analytical tasks. The language is designed for non-programmer, here brain scientists for exploratory studies. The semantics of Gryphon includes a simple set of keywords derived from brain scientists vocabulary while performing imaging tasks of mapping data to graphic marks such as color, shape, value, and size. A pilot study with two neuroscientists suggested that Gryphon was easy to learn, though some additional functions and interface components are needed to empower brain scientists.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akers, D.: CINCH: A cooperatively designed marking interface for 3d pathway selection. In: Proceedings of the 19th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, pp. 33–42. ACM (2006)
Bentley, J.: Programming pearls: little languages. pp. 711–721. ACM (1986)
Bertin, J.: Semiology of graphics: diagrams, networks, maps (1983)
Bostock, M., Heer, J.: Protovis: A graphical toolkit for visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 15(6), 1121–1128 (2009)
Bostock, M., Ogievetsky, V., Heer, J.: D3 data-driven documents. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 17(12), 2301–2309 (2011)
Chiw, C., Kindlmann, G., Reppy, J., Samuels, L., Seltzer, N.: Diderot: a parallel dsl for image analysis and visualization. In: Proceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, pp. 111–120. ACM (2012)
Correia, S., Lee, S., Voorn, T., Tate, D., Paul, R., Zhang, S., Salloway, S., Malloy, P., Laidlaw, D.: Quantitative tractography metrics of white matter integrity in diffusion-tensor mri. Neuroimage 42(2), 568 (2008)
Demiralp, C., Hughes, J.F., Laidlaw, D.H.: Coloring 3D line fields using Boy’s real projective plane immersion. IEEE Trans. on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. Visualization ’09) 15(6), 1457–1463 (2009)
Demiralp, Ç., Zhang, S., Tate, D., Correia, S., Laidlaw, D.: Connectivity-aware sectional visualization of 3d dti volumes using perceptual flat-torus coloring and edge rendering. Eurographics (2006)
Elmqvist, N., Tsigas, P.: A taxonomy of 3d occlusion management for visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 14(5), 1095–1109 (2008)
Everts, M., Bekker, H., Roerdink, J., Isenberg, T.: Depth-dependent halos: Illustrative rendering of dense line data. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 15(6), 1299–1306 (2009)
Forsberg, A., Chen, J., Laidlaw, D.: Comparing 3d vector field visualization methods: A user study. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 15(6), 1219–1226 (2009)
Goldau, M., Wiebel, A., Hlawitschka, M., Scheuermann, G., Tittgemeyer, M.: Visualizing DTI parameters on boundary surfaces of white matter fiber bundles. In: Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition, and Applications/722: Computer Graphics and Imaging. ACTA Press (2011)
Harrower, M., Brewer, C.: Colorbrewer.org: an online tool for selecting colour schemes for maps. The Cartographic Journal 40(1), 27–37 (2003)
Jiang, H., Van Zijl, P., Kim, J., Pearlson, G., Mori, S.: DtiStudio: resource program for diffusion tensor computation and fiber bundle tracking. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine 81(2), 106–116 (2006)
Johnson, C., Parker, S., Weinstein, D.: Large-scale computational science applications using the scirun problem solving environment. Citeseer (2000)
Koenig, M., Spindler, W., Rexilius, J., Jomier, J., Link, F., Peitgen, H.: Embedding vtk and itk into a visual programming and rapid prototyping platform. In: Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 6141, p. 61412O (2006)
Leemans, A., Jeurissen, B., Sijbers, J., Jones, D.: ExploreDTI: a graphical toolbox for processing, analyzing, and visualizing diffusion MR data. In: Proceedings 17th Scientific Meeting, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 17 (2009)
Mackinlay, J.: Automating the design of graphical presentations of relational information. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 5(2), 110–141 (1986)
Metoyer, R., Lee, B., Riche, N., Czerwinski, M.: Understanding the verbal language and structure of end-user descriptions of data visualizations. ACM CHI (2012)
Mori, S.: Introduction to diffusion tensor imaging. Elsevier Science (2007)
Mori, S., van Zijl, P.: Fiber tracking: principles and strategies–a technical review. pp. 468–480. Wiley Online Library (2002)
Myers, B., Pane, J., Ko, A.: Natural programming languages and environments. pp. 47–52. ACM (2004)
Peeters, T., Vilanova, A., Strijkers, G., ter Haar Romeny, B.: Visualization of the fibrous structure of the heart. In: Vision, Modeling and Visualization, pp. 309–316 (2006)
Pieper, S., Halle, M., Kikinis, R.: 3d slicer. In: IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, pp. 632–635. IEEE (2004)
Reas, C., Fry, B.: Processing: a programming handbook for visual designers and artists. The MIT Press (2007)
Rheingans, P., Ebert, D.: Volume illustration: Nonphotorealistic rendering of volume models. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 7(3), 253–264 (2001)
Rogowitz, B., Kalvin, A.: The which blair project: A quick visual method for evaluating perceptual color maps. In: Proceedings of the conference on Visualization, pp. 183–190. IEEE Computer Society (2001)
Roth, S., Kolojejchick, J., Mattis, J., Goldstein, J.: Interactive graphic design using automatic presentation knowledge. In: Intelligent User Interfaces, p. 237 (1998)
Stalling, D., Westerhoff, M., Hege, H., et al.: Amira: A highly interactive system for visual data analysis. pp. 749–67 (2005)
Tory, M., Moller, T.: Rethinking visualization: A high-level taxonomy. In: IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, pp. 151–158. IEEE (2004)
Toussaint, N., Souplet, J., Fillard, P., et al.: Medinria: Medical image navigation and research tool by inria. In: Proceedings of MICCAI, vol. 7, pp. 1–8 (2007)
Wang, R., Wedeen, V.: Diffusion toolkit and trackvis. Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 3720 (2007)
Wilkinson, L., Wills, G.: The grammar of graphics. Springer Verlag (2005)
Zheng, L., Wu, Y., Ma, K.: Perceptually based depth-ordering enhancement for direct volume rendering. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (to appear) (2012)
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants for their time and effort, Drs. Juebin Huang, Stephen Correia, and Judy James for their help on task analyses. We also thank Katrina Avery for her editorial support. This work was supported in part by NSF IIS-1018769, IIS-1016623, IIS-1017921, OCI-0923393, EPS-0903234, DBI-1062057, and CCF-1785542, and NIH (RO1-EB004155-01A1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chen, J., Cai, H., Auchus, A.P., Laidlaw, D.H. (2014). Gryphon: A ‘Little’ Domain-Specific Programming Language for Diffusion MRI Visualizations. In: Huang, W. (eds) Handbook of Human Centric Visualization. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7485-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7485-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7484-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7485-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)