Visualization and analysis of large data collections: a case study applied to confocal microscopy data

In this paper we propose an approach in which interactive visualization and analysis are combined with batch tools for the processing of large data collections. Large and heterogeneous data collections are difficult to analyze and pose specific problems to interactive visualization. Application of the traditional interactive processing and visualization approaches as well as batch processing encounter considerable drawbacks for such large and heterogeneous data collections due to the amount and type of data. Computing resources are not sufficient for interactive exploration of the data and automated analysis has the disadvantage that the user has only limited control and feedback on the analysis process. In our approach, an analysis procedure with features and attributes of interest for the analysis is defined interactively. This procedure is used for off-line processing of large collections of data sets. The results of the batch process along with "visual summaries" are used for further analysis. Visualization is not only used for the presentation of the result, but also as a tool to monitor the validity and quality of the operations performed during the batch process. Operations such as feature extraction and attribute calculation of the collected data sets are validated by visual inspection. This approach is illustrated by an extensive case study, in which a collection of confocal microscopy data sets is analyzed.