Layered Surfaces: Optimal Texturing
Problem
Displaying layered surfaces is a common visualization problem in areas like medical imaging, oceanography, visualization of clouds or sediment layers. The problem was reduced to finding optimal textures for the case of two layered surfaces.

Experiment
The possible texture space was parameterized in 26 parameters. Examples are color, opacity, roundness, rotation angle, filter, randomness. A human-in-the-loop genetic algorithm was run to rate pairs of top and bottom textures. The result is a large database of texture pairs rated by quality.

Data Analysis
I am working on various methods of data analysis to make sense of this database.

ANOVA

Linear Discriminant Analysis

Decision Trees

Parallel Component Analysis

Results
Parameter 'Rules':

Bright top, and brighter bottom
Long, thin lines on top
Medium to high randomness
Prominent marks on top
Subtle, small marks on bottom
Medium top background opacity with medium-sized top marks
Or
Low top background opacity with large top marks
Color freely chosen
Little blur on top, higher blur on bottom