Topology exploration with hierarchical landscapes
Dogan Demir, Kenes Beketayev, Gunther H. Weber, Peer‐Timo Bremer, Valerio Pascucci, Bernd Hamann · 2012
Topological landscapes have been proposed as a visual metaphor for contour trees that does not require an understanding of the theory involved in defining contour trees. The idea is to create a representative terrain with the same topological structure as a given contour tree. This representation exploits the natural human ability to interpret topography and results in an intuitive visualization of otherwise abstract information. However, topological landscapes still suffer from some of the same limitations as traditional contour tree visualization. Most notable is the fact that for complex functions landscapes can quickly become highly complex, exceeding the limits of human comprehension as well as the available computing resources.