Harnessing Preattentive Perceptual Processes in Visualization

We present an overview of our visualization work at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. We first describe our general approach of creating iconographic displays and the perceptual rationale for how we design those displays. We then describe our accomplishments to date, mainly to develop a general purpose system for creating iconographic displays and to produce illustrative displays with different types of icons and on a wide variety of databases. We conclude with a description of two main long-term goals: (1) to develop a more capable display system; and (2) to conduct basic applied research.