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Gryphon: A ‘Little’ Domain-Specific Programming Language for Diffusion MRI Visualizations

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Handbook of Human Centric Visualization

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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.

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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).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jian Chen (Assistant professor)

  2. School of Computing, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA

    Haipeng Cai (Graduate student)

  3. Department of Neurology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA

    Alexander P. Auchus (Professor)

  4. Computer Science Department, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    David H. Laidlaw (Professor)

Authors
  1. Jian Chen
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  2. Haipeng Cai
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  3. Alexander P. Auchus
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  4. David H. Laidlaw
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Correspondence to Jian Chen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO ICT Centre, Marsfield, New South Wales, Australia

    Weidong Huang

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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

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7485-2_2

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