Visualization and User Interaction Methods for Multiscale Biomedical Data

Biological processes in the human body interact continuously in order to sustain physiological function. A complete study of a phenomenon in human physiology requires merging data from several measurements, not only from different domains of knowledge (chemistry, biology, physics, and medicine) but also across different spatiotemporal scales. As an example, a musculoskeletal disease of the human knee affecting themotion (behavior scale), can be seen on aCTorMRI scan (organic scale) and has its cause on cellular or evenmolecular level. To simulate the related processes, different temporal scales have to be taken into account as well. Those time scales range from seconds on the behavioral level to microseconds on the cellular scale. However, merging of data alone is not enough to obtain valuable knowledge. Visualization that generates images from these measurements is necessary to help scientists understanding complex relations between modalities and spatiotemporal scales. Multiscale visualization deals with the question: “How can visualization help in extracting information from several scales that cannot be attained or understood by traditional techniques?” More specifically, multiscale visualization will also support extracting information that cannot be obtained or understood from evaluating data from a single scale alone or even from different scales without having the flexibility