Abstract
Interactive data exploration plays a fundamental role in analyzing three dimensional scientific data. Occlusion management and context preservation are among the key factors to ensure effective identification and extraction of three-dimensional features. In this paper, we present an interactive data exploration system that utilizes a physically based deformation method to investigate hidden structures of data in three dimensional data sets. While non-physically based methods are popular for visual analytic applications due to their lower computational cost, physically based deformation methods can often better preserve features and their context. Our physically based deformation method preserves data features by setting the mesh properties according to interesting data attributes. We design effective and intuitive interfaces by using a metaphor of virtual retractor, which reflects the cutting and splitting of data that our system is simulating. We demonstrate case studies on multiple particle datasets and volume datasets, and present feedback from a domain user.