Navigable videos for presenting scientific data on head-mounted displays

Abstract: Immersive, stereoscopic viewing enables scientists to better analyze the spatial structures of visualized physical phenomena. However, their findings cannot be properly presented in traditional media, which lack these core attributes. Creating a presentation tool that captures this environment poses unique challenges, namely related to poor viewing accessibility. Immersive scientific renderings often require high-end equipment, which can be impractical to obtain. We address these challenges with our authoring tool and navigational interface, which is designed for affordable head-mounted displays. With the authoring tool, scientists can show salient data features as connected 360{\deg} video paths, resulting in a "choose-your-own-adventure" experience. Our navigational interface features bidirectional video playback for added viewing control when users traverse the tailor-made content. We evaluate our system's benefits by authoring case studies on several data sets and conducting a usability study on the navigational interface's design. In summary, our approach provides scientists an immersive medium to visually present their research to the intended audience--spanning from students to colleagues--on affordable virtual reality headsets.