10,186 research outputs found
Rapid Sampling for Visualizations with Ordering Guarantees
Visualizations are frequently used as a means to understand trends and gather
insights from datasets, but often take a long time to generate. In this paper,
we focus on the problem of rapidly generating approximate visualizations while
preserving crucial visual proper- ties of interest to analysts. Our primary
focus will be on sampling algorithms that preserve the visual property of
ordering; our techniques will also apply to some other visual properties. For
instance, our algorithms can be used to generate an approximate visualization
of a bar chart very rapidly, where the comparisons between any two bars are
correct. We formally show that our sampling algorithms are generally applicable
and provably optimal in theory, in that they do not take more samples than
necessary to generate the visualizations with ordering guarantees. They also
work well in practice, correctly ordering output groups while taking orders of
magnitude fewer samples and much less time than conventional sampling schemes.Comment: Tech Report. 17 pages. Condensed version to appear in VLDB Vol. 8 No.
The State of the Art in Cartograms
Cartograms combine statistical and geographical information in thematic maps,
where areas of geographical regions (e.g., countries, states) are scaled in
proportion to some statistic (e.g., population, income). Cartograms make it
possible to gain insight into patterns and trends in the world around us and
have been very popular visualizations for geo-referenced data for over a
century. This work surveys cartogram research in visualization, cartography and
geometry, covering a broad spectrum of different cartogram types: from the
traditional rectangular and table cartograms, to Dorling and diffusion
cartograms. A particular focus is the study of the major cartogram dimensions:
statistical accuracy, geographical accuracy, and topological accuracy. We
review the history of cartograms, describe the algorithms for generating them,
and consider task taxonomies. We also review quantitative and qualitative
evaluations, and we use these to arrive at design guidelines and research
challenges
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