Zachary Justin Wartell, Ph.D.


Assistant Professor

Data Visualization Group
Charlotte Visualization Center

Department of Computer Science

zwartell@uncc.edu
 

 

Classes:

• ITCS 4120/5120
• ITSC 8110
   
• prior semesters

 

Research:
 
I am a Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and member of the Data Visualization Group at the Charlotte Visualization Center.    I also hang out with folks at the Future Computing Lab. 

My research focuses on  interactive 3D graphics,  3D interaction and stereoscopic display especially with applications to geographic data visualization.   Much of this work is implemented using the  VGIS system.  My thesis research related to virtual reality environments that use stationary, head-tracked, stereoscopic display systems .   Such systems are often called stereoscopic HTD's (Head-Tracked Display).   Example systems are the CAVE, the virtural workbench, and fishtank VR.

• Thomas Butkiewicz, Wenwen Dou, Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky, Remco Chang. Multi-Focused Geospatial Analysis Using Probes. InfoVis 2008 (IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics), to appear. (PDF)
• Thomas Butkiewicz, Remco Chang, Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky. Visual Analysis and Semantic Exploration of Urban LIDAR Change Detection EuroVis 2008 / Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 27, num. 3, 2008. (PDF)
• Amy Ulinski, Catherine Zanbaka, Zachary Wartell, Paula Goolkasian, Larry F. Hodges. Two Handed Selection Techniques for Volumetric Data. IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces 2007. Charlotte, North Carolina, March 10-11, 2007. pg 107-114. (PDF)
• Thomas Butkiewicz, Remco Chang, William Ribarsky, and Zachary Wartell. "Visual Analysis of Urban Terrain Dynamics." In Understanding Dynamics of Geographic Domains, May Yuan, Kathleen S. Hornsby. CRC Press/Taylor and Francis. 2007. (manuscript PDF, figures PDF)
• Thomas Butkiewicz, Remco Chang, Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky. Analyzing Sampled Terrain Volumetrically with Regard to Error and Geologic Variation, Proc. SPIE Visualization and Data Analysis 2007, San Jose, CA. (PDF)
• Remco Chang, Thomas Butkiewicz, Caroline Ziemkiewicz, Zachary Wartell, Nancy Pollard, and Bill Ribarsky. Hierarchical Simplification of City Models to Maintain Urban Legibility. SIGGRAPH '06: ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches, pp. 130, 2006. (PDF)
• E. Houtgast, O. Pfeiffer, Z. Wartell, W. Ribarsky, and F. Post, Navigation and interaction in a multi-scale stereoscopic environment, Poster Paper in Proc. IEEE Virtual Reality 2005 (B. Fröhlich, S. Julier, and H. Takemura, eds.), pp. 275-276, IEEE Computer Society Press,  March 2005.   (PDF , Poster - PPT )
• Zachary Wartell, Eunjung Kang, Tony Wasilewski, William Ribarsky, and Nickolas Faust.   " Rendering Vector Data over Global, Multiresolution 3D Terrain."  Eurographics-IEEE Visualization Symposium 2003, pp. 213-222 (2003).   [GVU Tech Report 03-06: Abstract, PDF, Postscript).
• Zachary Wartell, Larry F. Hodges, William Ribarsky.   "An Analytic Comparison of Alpha-False Eye Separation, Image Scaling and Image Shifting in Stereoscopic Displays,"   IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, April-June 2002, Volume 8, Number 2, pp. 129-143. (GVU Tech Report 00-09 ( Abstract , PDF , Postscript .)
• Zachary Wartell, "Stereoscopic Head-Tracked Displays: Analysis and Development of Display Algorithms,"  Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, August 2001. ( Abstract ,  PDF ,  Postscript)
• Zachary Wartell and Larry Hodges and William Ribarsky,  "Characterizing Image Fusion Techniques in Stereoscopic HTDs", Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2001, Ottawa, Canada, June 2001, p223-232.   (PDF)
• Bastian Leibe, Thad Starner, William Ribarsky, Zachary Wartell, David Krum, Justin Weeks, Bradley Singletary, and Larry Hodges. Toward Spontaneous Interaction with the Perceptive Workbench. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.November/December 2000. p 2-12. (PDF).
• Bastian Leibe, Thad Starner, William Ribarksy, Zachary Wartell, David Krum, Brad Singletary, Larry F. Hodges.   "The Perceptive Workbench:  Towards Spontaneous and Natural Interaction in Semi-Immersive Virtual Environments." Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality 2000 Conference. March 18-22, New Brunswick, NJ: IEEE Computer Society Press, 2000.   Won Best Paper Award.  (also GVU Tech Report 99-33, Abstract ,  PDF ,  Postscript).
• Zachary Wartell, Larry F. Hodges, William Ribarsky.   Balancing Fusion, Image Depth, and Distortion in Stereoscopic Head-Tracked Displays. SIGGRAPH 99 Conference Proceedings, Annual Conference Series. ACM SIGGRAPH, Addison Wesley, August 1999, p351-357. (Abstract, PDF , Postscript ; SIGGRAPH CD-ROM Supplement, supplement.zip, supplement.tar.Z ).
• Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky, Larry Hodges. "Efficient Ray Intersection for Visualization and Navigation of Global Terrain using Spheroidal Height-Augmented Quadtrees."  VisSym '99,  Joint EUROGRAPHICS - IEEE TCCG Symposium on Visualization, May 26-28, 1999,  in Vienna, Austria. (GVU Tech Report 99-20: Abstract , PDF , Postscript ).
• Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky, Larry Hodges .  "Third-Person Navigation of Whole-Planet Terrain in a Head-Tracked Stereoscopic Environment". Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality '99 Conference, March 13-17, Houston, Texas: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1999, pp. 141-148. (GVU Tech Report 98-31: Abstract , PDF , Postscript).
• Durbin, Jim, J. Edward Swan II, Brad Colbert, John Crowe, Rob King, Tony King, Chris Scannell, Zachary Wartell, Terry Welsh, "Battlefield Visualization on the Responsive Workbench", Proceedings  IEEE Visualization '98 , October 18-23, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1998, pp.463-6, 568.

• Thomas Butkiewicz, Remco Chang, Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky. "Analyzing sampled terrain volumetrically with regard to error and geologic variation", Proc. SPIE Visualization and Data Analysis 2007, San Jose, CA. 2007.
• Thomas Butkiewicz,Remco Chang, William Ribarsky and Zachary Wartell. "Visual Analysis of Urban Terrain Dynamics." Charlotte Visualiation Center Technical Report CVC-UNCC-06-11. (Abstract, PDF ). 2006.
• Zachary Wartell, Larry F. Hodges, William Ribarsky.    "An Analytic Comparison of Alpha-False Eye Separation, Image Scaling and Image Shifting in Stereoscopic Displays."   GVU Tech Report 00-09. ( Abstract , PDF, Postscript).  (shortened version submitted to IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics).
• Zachary Wartell, Larry Hodges, William Ribarksy. "The Analytic Distortion Induced by False-Eye Separation in Head-Tracked Stereoscopic Displays." GVU Tech Report 99-01.  1999. ( Abstract , PDF , Postscript).
• Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky, Larry Hodges. "Efficient Ray Intersection with Global Terrain using Spheroidal Height-Augmented Quadtrees." GVU Tech Report 98-38.  1998. ( Abstract , PDF , Postscript ).
• Jim Durbin,  S.J. Julier, B. Colbert,  J. Crowe,  B. Doyle,  R. King,  T. King, C. Scannell, Z.J. Wartell,  T. Welsh. "Making information overload work: the Dragon software system on a virtual reality responsive workbench." Digitization of the Battlespace III, April 1998.   Proceedings of the SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, vol.3393, pp.96-107.
• Tarlton, Mark A, P. N. Tarlton, E.J. Lee, Zachary Wartell.   "Objects, Modeling and Media: A Framework for Interactive 3D Applications."   AT&T Middleware Day and Software Symposium.   October 24-26, 1995 Holmdel, New Jersey.

Data Visualization Group:   Graphics, Visualization and Usablity Center
         Research Scientist I, 9/01 - 9/02

Virtual Environments Group:  Graphics, Visualization and Usablity Center
            Graduate Research Assistant 1/96-12/96, 9/97- 8/2001

           Internship 6/97-8/97

            Member Technical Staff,  11/94-8/95 (Full-time),  9/95-11/96 (Part-time)

• worked in Synthetic Environments Group developing, designing, coding, and  documenting an object-oriented interactive 3D graphics library called   Mirage (C++,OpenGL, SGI, Windows NT)
• R&D on various visualizations and navigation methods for large-scale, hierarchical information spaces

Virtual Environments Group:  Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center
            Guided Research                                                 6/94-8/94

• modified tracker software for the locally developed VR package SVE (C,SGI)

            Undergraduate Research Assistant   7/92-3/93, 6/93-9/93
            (NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates)

• Designed and programmed software for 3D visualization of computer networks (C,GL,SGI) with small team
• Developed a interactive 2D graphing tool (C,Motif, SGI)

            Undergraduate Assistant     6/92-8/92

• ported code from FORTRAN to C under DOS
• installed and upgraded DOS computers

            Laboratory Student Teaching Assistant   4/92-6/92

• Instructed 2 sections of the Physics 2121 Laboratory