A01 | Uncertainty Quantification and Analysis in Visualization
Our long-term goal is the modeling, handling, and quantification of uncertainty throughout the complete visual computing process, from visual-computing specific models of uncertainty to the visual representation of, and interaction with, uncertainty information. We aim to investigate models and methods for quantifying individual sources of uncertainty, the propagation of uncertainty through the visual computing pipeline, and the impact of uncertainty on the components of the visual computing process. Furthermore, we will advance the visualization and visual analytics of uncertainty, and investigate several different application examples.
Research Questions
How can we integrate and combine the different aspects of uncertainty in the various subareas of visual computing?
How can uncertainty be modeled and propagated through the different steps of the visualization process?
What are effective ways to communicate uncertainty to humans and how can they meaningfully interact with such displays?
Which methods are best suited to evaluate uncertainty visualization, and how can we quantify human understanding of uncertainty?
Fig. 1: Uncertainty-Aware Principal Component Analysis. The data consists of multivariate probability distributions, the plots shows the impact of different levels of variance.
Fig. 2: Bubble Treemap for visualizing uncertainty in hierarchical data. The uncertainty of the values in the hierarchy is visually encoded by the waviness of the outlines.
Publications
- P. Paetzold, R. Kehlbeck, Y. Xue, B. Chen, Y. Wang, and O. Deussen, “Neighborhood-Preserving Voronoi Treemaps,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 32, Art. no. 1, 2026, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2025.3633905.
- M. Evers et al., “Uncertainty-Aware Visual Analysis of Force Networks in 2D Granular Materials,” Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 45, Art. no. 3, May 2026, doi: 10.1111/cgf.70438.
- S. A. Vriend and D. Weiskopf, “User Study on the Influence of Prior Beliefs on Gaze Behavior in Scatterplots,” in Proceedings of the 2026 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, New York, NY, USA: ACM, May 2026, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1145/3797246.3805720.
- B. Chen, Y. Xue, P. Paetzold, and O. Deussen, “Demystifying UMAP artifacts: An interactive study on diagnosis and steering using 3D probes,” Information Visualization, 2026, doi: 10.1177/14738716261434908.
- C. Wu et al., “Probabilistic Inclusion Depth for Fuzzy Contour Ensemble Visualization,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, pp. 1–11, 2026, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2026.3694451.
- S. A. Vriend, D. Hägele, and D. Weiskopf, “Two Empirical Studies on Audiovisual Semiotics of Uncertainty,” in Proceedings of the 20th International Audio Mostly Conference, ACM, Ed., New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2026, pp. 107–123. doi: 10.1145/3771594.3771604.
- D. Blumberg, P. Paetzold, M. Stroh, O. Deussen, D. A. Keim, and F. L. Dennig, “FluidMap: Proportional and Spatially Consistent Layout Enrichments in Multidimensional Projections,” Computer Graphics Forum, 2026, doi: 10.1111/cgf.70293.
- M. Stroh et al., “Using Saliency for Semantic Image Abstractions in Robotic Painting,” Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 44, Art. no. 7, 2025, doi: 10.1111/cgf.70259.
- M. Evers and D. Weiskopf, “Uncertainty-Aware Spectral Visualization,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 31, Art. no. 10, 2025, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2025.3542898.
- R. Bauer, M. Evers, Q. Q. Ngo, G. Reina, S. Frey, and M. Sedlmair, “Voronoi Cell Interface‐Based Parameter Sensitivity Analysis for Labeled Samples,” Computer Graphics Forum, May 2025, doi: 10.1111/cgf.70122.
- S. A. Vriend, S. Vidyapu, K.-T. Chen, and D. Weiskopf, “Which Experimental Design is Better Suited for VQA Tasks?: Eye Tracking Study on Cognitive Load, Performance, and Gaze Allocations,” in Proceedings of the 2024 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, ACM, Ed., New York, NY, USA: ACM, Jun. 2024, pp. 77:1–77:7. doi: 10.1145/3649902.3653519.
- D. Saupe, K. Rusek, D. Hägele, D. Weiskopf, and L. Janowski, “Maximum Entropy and Quantized Metric Models for Absolute Category Ratings,” IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 31, pp. 2970–2974, 2024, doi: 10.1109/lsp.2024.3480832.
- F. L. Dennig et al., “The Categorical Data Map: A Multidimensional Scaling-Based Approach,” in 2024 IEEE Visualization in Data Science (VDS), IEEE, 2024, pp. 25–34. doi: 10.1109/vds63897.2024.00008.
- Y. Xue et al., “Reducing Ambiguities in Line-Based Density Plots by Image-Space Colorization,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization & Computer Graphics, vol. 30, Art. no. 1, Jan. 2024, [Online]. Available: https://www.computer.org/csdl/journal/tg/2024/01/10297597/1RyY1MBMcIo
- P. Paetzold, D. Hägele, M. Evers, D. Weiskopf, and O. Deussen, “UADAPy: An Uncertainty-Aware Visualization and Analysis Toolbox.” IEEE, pp. 48–50, 2024. doi: 10.1109/uncertaintyvisualization63963.2024.00011.
- M. Xue et al., “Taurus: Towards a Unified Force Representation and Universal Solver for Graph Layout,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 29, Art. no. 1, 2023, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2022.3209371.
- P. Paetzold, R. Kehlbeck, H. Strobelt, Y. Xue, S. Storandt, and O. Deussen, “RectEuler: Visualizing Intersecting Sets using Rectangles,” Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 42, Art. no. 3, 2023, doi: 10.1111/cgf.14814.
- N. Rodrigues, C. Schulz, S. Döring, D. Baumgartner, T. Krake, and D. Weiskopf, “Relaxed Dot Plots: Faithful Visualization of Samples and Their Distribution,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 29, Art. no. 1, Jan. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2022.3209429.
- J. Görtler et al., “Neo: Generalizing Confusion Matrix Visualization to Hierarchical and Multi-Output Labels,” in Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in CHI ’22. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2022, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1145/3491102.3501823.
- F. Schreiber and D. Weiskopf, “Quantitative Visual Computing,” it - Information Technology, vol. 64, pp. 119–120, 2022, doi: 10.1515/itit-2022-0048.
- Y. Zhang, K. Klein, O. Deussen, T. Gutschlag, and S. Storandt, “Robust Visualization of Trajectory Data,” it - Information Technology, vol. 64, pp. 181–191, 2022, doi: 10.1515/itit-2022-0036.
- R. Kehlbeck, J. Görtler, Y. Wang, and O. Deussen, “SPEULER: Semantics-preserving Euler Diagrams,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 28, Art. no. 1, 2022, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2021.3114834.
- K. Schatz et al., “2019 IEEE Scientific Visualization Contest Winner: Visual Analysis of Structure Formation in Cosmic Evolution,” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 41, Art. no. 6, 2021, doi: 10.1109/MCG.2020.3004613.
- K. Gadhave et al., “Predicting intent behind selections in scatterplot visualizations,” Information Visualization, vol. 20, Art. no. 4, 2021, doi: 10.1177/14738716211038604.
- N. Rodrigues, C. Schulz, A. Lhuillier, and D. Weiskopf, “Cluster-Flow Parallel Coordinates: Tracing Clusters Across Subspaces,” in Proceedings of the Graphics Interface Conference (GI) (forthcoming), Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society / Société canadienne du dialogue humain-machine, 2020, pp. 0:1–0:11. doi: 10.20380/GI2020.38.
- J. Görtler, R. Kehlbeck, and O. Deussen, “A Visual Exploration of Gaussian Processes,” Distill, vol. 4, Art. no. 4, 2019, doi: 10.23915/distill.00017.
- T. Spinner, J. Körner, J. Görtler, and O. Deussen, “Towards an Interpretable Latent Space: An Intuitive Comparison of Autoencoders with Variational Autoencoders,” in Proceedings of the Workshop on Visualization for AI Explainability (VISxAI), IEEE VIS, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://thilospinner.com/towards-an-interpretable-latent-space/
- C. Schulz, M. Burch, F. Beck, and D. Weiskopf, “Visual Data Cleansing of Low-Level Eye Tracking Data,” in Eye Tracking and Visualization: Foundations, Techniques, and Applications. ETVIS 2015, M. Burch, L. L. Chuang, B. Fisher, A. Schmidt, and D. Weiskopf, Eds., Springer International Publishing, 2017, pp. 199–216. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-47024-5_12.
- C. Schulz, A. Nocaj, J. Görtler, O. Deussen, U. Brandes, and D. Weiskopf, “Probabilistic Graph Layout for Uncertain Network Visualization,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 23, Art. no. 1, 2017, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2016.2598919.
- C. Schulz, M. Burch, and D. Weiskopf, “Visual Data Cleansing of Eye Tracking Data,” in Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking and Visualization (ETVIS), 2015. [Online]. Available: http://etvis.visus.uni-stuttgart.de/etvis2015/papers/etvis15_schulz.pdf
Project Group A
Models and Measures
Completed
Project Group B
Adaptive Algorithms
Completed
Project Group C
Interaction
Completed
Project Group D
Applications
Completed
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