WHAT IS VISUALIZATION?

It is computer graphics, combined with special focus on the goals of the visualization process.

E.g., we are not just interested in photorealism (big concern of computer graphics). We may be interested in super-human visualization capabilities (such as X-ray vision) that helps us understand a model.

Computer graphics is concerned with techniques for producing, transforming, manipulating synthetic images using computers.

Computer graphics need to exploit
-- physical properties of light
-- physical properties of the computer devices (CRTs, etc).
-- properties of the human visual system.

But visualization further exploits the human psychology of vision.

Visualization techniques are needed to understand hugh or complex data
-- multidimensional data
-- complex graphs (e.g., internet hyperlinks)