Modeling and visualization of scattered volumetric data

This paper is concerned with the problem of analyzing and visualizing volumetric data. Volumetric data is a collection of fourtuples, (xi, yi, zi; Fi), i equals 1, ..., N where Fi is the value of a dependent variable at the location of the independent variables (xi, yi, zi). No assumptions are made about the location of the samples of the independent variables. Most of the currently available methods for visualizing volumetric data assume that the independent data sites are at points of a cuberille grid. In order to make these methods available for the more general situation of scattered, volumetric data, a modeling function F(x, y, z) can be determined and then sampled on a cuberille grid. This report covers some techniques for obtaining the modeling relationship and reports on the results of some experiments involving the application of these methods.