Semantic Depth of Field

Way back in 2003 I wrote a paper entitled "The Application of Semantic Depth of Field to Visualisation Problems" which explored using fundamental photography techniques, such as depth of field (i.e. blur), for data visualisation.

Abstract (excerpt)

There is a major problem associated with the vast improvements in computing power and the expansion of technologies such as the World-Wide-Web. The problem is the inability to perceive the resulting large amount of data without the assistance of some visualisation technique. We've since come to call this 'Big Data'.Data visualisation is an exciting and developing area of Computer Science that attempts to address this problem. In particular, Semantic Depth of Field is a recently proposed concept that applies the traditional focus techniques used in photography to modern day Computer Graphics. The aim of this project was to develop an application that demonstrated the potential of Semantic Depth of Field as well as any other techniques that the extensive research may have revealed. The conclusion of this project was that Semantic Depth of Field is indeed a powerful visualisation technique, but that its implementation using current technology requires an open-minded and innovative approach.

I'd like to re-implement this POC using D3, it was originally written using the the now defunct Java 3D API.