Seeing and Hearing Dynamic Loess Surfaces

Scientific video, combining animated images with sound, is a powerful tool for understanding transient two dimensional or static three-dimensional data. Animation of colored perspective plots often reveals subtle data characteristics not seen in a series of static images. Using the multidimensional data fitting technique loess, it is possible to construct dashed plots that visually represent the smoothed approximation and its local error. Sound can be used to add scalar parameters like time tick marks or the amplitude of an associated quantity; we describe means of processing such scalar data using variation-diminishing splines and specifics of sound generation including loudness equilibration. We also explain the limitations of our techniques and suggest some extensions. This article is from 'Computing Science and Statistics: Proceedings of the Symposium on the Interface Critical Applications of Scientific Computing: Biology, Engineering, Medicine, Speech Held in Seattle, Washington on 21-24 April 1991,' AD-A252 938, p224-228.