Visualizing Data

Since we have yet to acquire a sonar, I have been developing a set of test data to use to test the software. In order to create a mathematically realistic lake (ie. a lake where the depth changes are gradual) I visualized the lake as a set of XYZ coordinates. X and Y are evenly spaced, and I let Z = ABS(SIN(X)) which creates a gradual, psudo-realistic contour for the bottom of the lake and keeps Z values between 0 and 1.

Below is a screenshot of the 3d graph I was able to make in excel.


If we can manage to use the data that we collect to come up with evenly spaced X and Y points (easy through interpolation, weighted averages, etc...) we should be able to generate these graphs easily. We could even use OLE controls to make the process transparent to the end user (of course this would require the user to have excel and windows installed, and we'd have to use ruby or something because Java doesn't support OLE to my knowledge).