67,595 research outputs found
A review of data visualization: opportunities in manufacturing sequence management.
Data visualization now benefits from developments in technologies that offer innovative ways of presenting complex data. Potentially these have widespread application in communicating the complex information domains typical of manufacturing sequence management environments for global enterprises. In this paper the authors review the visualization functionalities, techniques and applications reported in literature, map these to manufacturing sequence information presentation requirements and identify the opportunities available and likely development paths. Current leading-edge practice in dynamic updating and communication with suppliers is not being exploited in manufacturing sequence management; it could provide significant benefits to manufacturing business. In the context of global manufacturing operations and broad-based user communities with differing needs served by common data sets, tool functionality is generally ahead of user application
Investigating the use of semantic technologies in spatial mapping applications
Semantic Web Technologies are ideally suited to build context-aware information retrieval applications. However, the geospatial aspect of context awareness presents unique challenges such as the semantic modelling of geographical references for efficient handling of spatial queries, the reconciliation of the heterogeneity at the semantic and geo-representation levels, maintaining the quality of service and scalability of communicating, and the efficient rendering of the spatial queries' results. In this paper, we describe the modelling decisions taken to solve these challenges by analysing our implementation of an intelligent planning and recommendation tool that provides location-aware advice for a specific application domain. This paper contributes to the methodology of integrating heterogeneous geo-referenced data into semantic knowledgebases, and also proposes mechanisms for efficient spatial interrogation of the semantic knowledgebase and optimising the rendering of the dynamically retrieved context-relevant information on a web frontend
Visual and interactive exploration of point data
Point data, such as Unit Postcodes (UPC), can provide very detailed information at fine
scales of resolution. For instance, socio-economic attributes are commonly assigned to
UPC. Hence, they can be represented as points and observable at the postcode level.
Using UPC as a common field allows the concatenation of variables from disparate data
sources that can potentially support sophisticated spatial analysis. However, visualising
UPC in urban areas has at least three limitations. First, at small scales UPC occurrences
can be very dense making their visualisation as points difficult. On the other hand,
patterns in the associated attribute values are often hardly recognisable at large scales.
Secondly, UPC can be used as a common field to allow the concatenation of highly
multivariate data sets with an associated postcode. Finally, socio-economic variables
assigned to UPC (such as the ones used here) can be non-Normal in their distributions
as a result of a large presence of zero values and high variances which constrain their
analysis using traditional statistics.
This paper discusses a Point Visualisation Tool (PVT), a proof-of-concept system
developed to visually explore point data. Various well-known visualisation techniques
were implemented to enable their interactive and dynamic interrogation. PVT provides
multiple representations of point data to facilitate the understanding of the relations
between attributes or variables as well as their spatial characteristics. Brushing between
alternative views is used to link several representations of a single attribute, as well as
to simultaneously explore more than one variable. PVT’s functionality shows how the
use of visual techniques embedded in an interactive environment enable the exploration
of large amounts of multivariate point data
Multi Visualization and Dynamic Query for Effective Exploration of Semantic Data
Semantic formalisms represent content in a uniform way according to ontologies. This enables manipulation and reasoning via automated means (e.g. Semantic Web services), but limits the user’s ability to explore the semantic data from a point of view that originates from knowledge representation motivations. We show how, for user consumption, a visualization of semantic data according to some easily graspable dimensions (e.g. space and time) provides effective sense-making of data. In this paper, we look holistically at the interaction between users and semantic data, and propose multiple visualization strategies and dynamic filters to support the exploration of semantic-rich data.
We discuss a user evaluation and how interaction challenges could be overcome to create an effective user-centred framework for the visualization and manipulation of semantic data. The approach has been implemented and evaluated on a real company archive
Usability testing for improving interactive geovisualization techniques
Usability describes a product’s fitness for use according to a set of predefined criteria.
Whatever the aim of the product, it should facilitate users’ tasks or enhance their performance
by providing appropriate analysis tools. In both cases, the main interest is to satisfy users in
terms of providing relevant functionality which they find fit for purpose. “Testing usability
means making sure that people can find and work with [a product’s] functions to meet their
needs” (Dumas and Redish, 1999: 4). It is therefore concerned with establishing whether
people can use a product to complete their tasks with ease and at the same time help them
complete their jobs more effectively.
This document describes the findings of a usability study carried out on DecisionSite Map
Interaction Services (Map IS). DecisionSite, a product of Spotfire, Inc.,1 is an interactive
system for the visual and dynamic exploration of data designed for supporting decisionmaking.
The system was coupled to ArcExplorer (forming DecisionSite Map IS) to provide
limited GIS functionality (simple user interface, basic tools, and data management) and
support users of spatial data. Hence, this study set out to test the suitability of the coupling
between the two software components (DecisionSite and ArcExplorer) for the purpose of
exploring spatial data. The first section briefly discusses DecisionSite’s visualization
functionality. The second section describes the test goals, its design, the participants and data
used. The following section concentrates on the analysis of results, while the final section
discusses future areas of research and possible development
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Towards Rapid Generation and Visualisation of Large 3D Urban Landscapes for Mobile Device Navigation
In this paper a procedural 3D modelling solution for mobile devices is presented based on scripting algorithms allowing for both the automatic and also semi-automatic creation of photorealistic quality virtual urban content. The combination of aerial images, GIS data, 2D ground maps and terrestrial photographs as input data coupled with a user-friendly customized interface permits the automatic and interactive generation of large-scale, accurate, georeferenced and fully-textured 3D virtual city content, content that can be specially optimized for use with mobile devices but also with navigational tasks in mind. Furthermore, a user-centred mobile virtual reality (VR) visualisation and interaction tool operating on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for pedestrian navigation is also discussed. Via this engine, the import and display of various navigational file formats (2D and 3D) is supported, including a comprehensive front-end user-friendly graphical user interface providing immersive virtual 3D navigation
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Geovisualization of dynamics, movement and change: key issues and developing approaches in visualization research
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