Oral Presentation Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting including HWWS 2013

Further adventures in three-dimensional visualisation: Leaping into your data (#16)

Christopher Fluke 1 , David Barnes 2
  1. Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
  2. Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, Australia

Two long-standing problems in three-dimensional visualisation are the need for 1) a method to publish interactive 3D data as part of a research paper and 2) an intuitive, low-cost, desktop-based 3D pointing device. The S2PLOT programming library was developed with the 3D data visualisation needs of astronomers in mind.  Along with providing a simple, yet powerful, programming interface for C/C++/Fortran codes at the desktop, S2PLOT provides a solution for the first problem through its pathway for creating interactive 3D figures for PDF documents.  This capability has now been enhanced, enabling the creation of 3D-PDFs directly from LaTeX documents using only free, open source software.  A solution to the second problem is now also in hand, thanks to the new Leap Motion Controller gesture-based device. We will demonstrate how S2PLOT continues to help astronomers to get in touch with their 3D data and share it with the world.