NIST Digital Library of Math Functions Meets Virtual Reality
October 18, 2018
Sandy Ressler
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Kevin Chen
Poolesville High School / NIST SHIP Intern
https://slides.com/sressler/dlmfvrumd/
The Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality Innovation Conference (MAVRIC) at University of Maryland
Original Physical Book
Most cited resource in NIST's first 100 Years
M. Abramowitz and I. A. Stegun (Eds.) (1964) Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Series, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C..
DLMF based on Handbook
nearly 20 years/world class experts
I am NOT one of those
world class experts
Updated Book
Existing DLMF Graphics
What would happen if we put all the DLMF surfaces into a VR environment?
DLMF VR
New Methods of Visual Browsing
Holding in Hand
Desktop Overview
keyboard navigation
Whoah!
Seriously cool dude!
Why do this?
Novel intuitive interaction..grab like a physical object
Novel color ... new color mapping relating to the math, existing is very minimal
Slicing and dicing simply physically...using results as shape searching
Novel browsing, filtering ...not limited to constraints of book and TOC
It's FUN!!!
FUN is Important
The Serious Stuff
Shneiderman's Info Viz Mantra:
Overview first,
Zoom and filter,
details on demand
How to apply this to DLMF surfaces and info in a VR environment?
- Math Contributions
Coloring complex surfaces
Still Serious
Surface Intersections
Interactive variable manipulation
WebVR now WebXR
- Web Baby
- Still the best for distribution
- Native understanding of hardware
- no special software
- it's all in the browser
These are WEB Accessable
Aframe for the Win
Lots of Ideas for Future Work
- UI and AR work with the DLMF book
- Integration with real time math processing
- shape search / clipping
- 3D printing
- https://math.nist.gov/~SRessler/projects.html
- DLMF in VR or smaller DLMF in VR links
Music: Wes Montgomery "Winds of Barcelona"
Thanks Very Much!
All Done
Links
All dlmf surfaces
about 1/3 of the surfaces
0-9 keypress for random DLMF
GammaVR