Moving iconic objects in scientific visualization

The idea of independently moving, interacting graphical objects is introduced as a method for the visualization of continuous fields. Bird-oid objects or boids are discussed. These boids derive from: (1) icons which are geometric objects whose shape and appearance are related to the field variables, (2) three-dimensional cursors by which a user interactively picks a point in space, (3) particle traces, which are numerically integrated trajectories in space, (4) moving frames of vectors along space curves, and (5) actors, which are programming objects that can create and destroy instances of themselves, act according to internal logic, and communicate with each other and with a user. A software prototype in the C++ language has been developed which demonstrates some of the capabilities of these objects for the visualization of scalar, vector, and tensor fields defined over finite elements or finite volumes