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Reference Terms
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Scientific visualization

Scientific and Information visualization are branches of computer graphics and user interface design that are concerned with presenting data to users, by means of images. The goal of this area is usually to improve understanding of the data being presented. For example, scientists interpret potentially huge quantities of laboratory or simulation data or the results from sensors out in the field to aid reasoning, hypothesis building and cognition. The field of data mining offers many abstract visualizations related to these visualization types. They are active research areas, drawing on theory in information graphics, computer graphics, human-computer interaction and cognitive science. Desktop programs capable of presenting interactive models of molecules and microbiological entities are becoming relatively common (Molecular graphics). The field of Bioinformatics and the field of Cheminformatics make a heavy use of these visualization engines for interpreting lab data and for training purposes.

Medical imaging is a huge application domain for scientific visualization with an emphasis on enhancing imaging results graphically, e.g. using pseudo-coloring or overlaying of plots. Real-time visualization can serve to simultaneously image analysis results within or beside an analyzed (e.g. segmented) scan.

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August 24, 2025

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