23,881 research outputs found
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. PVTâs functionality shows how the
use of visual techniques embedded in an interactive environment enable the exploration
of large amounts of multivariate point data
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Visualisation of Origins, Destinations and Flows with OD Maps
We present a new technique for the visual exploration of origins (O) and destinations (D) arranged in geographic space. Previous attempts to map the flows between origins and destinations have suffered from problems of occlusion usually requiring some form of generalisation, such as aggregation or flow density estimation before they can be visualized. This can lead to loss of detail or the introduction of arbitrary artefacts in the visual representation. Here, we propose mapping OD vectors as cells rather than lines, comparable with the process of constructing OD matrices, but unlike the OD matrix, we preserve the spatial layout of all origin and destination locations by constructing a gridded twoâlevel spatial treemap. The result is a set of spatially ordered small multiples upon which any arbitrary geographic data may be projected. Using a hash grid spatial data structure, we explore the characteristics of the technique through a software prototype that allows interactive query and visualisation of 105â106 simulated and recorded OD vectors. The technique is illustrated using US county to county migration and commuting statistics
Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Graph Editing on Interactive Surfaces
Graph exploration and editing are still mostly considered independently and
systems to work with are not designed for todays interactive surfaces like
smartphones, tablets or tabletops. When developing a system for those modern
devices that supports both graph exploration and graph editing, it is necessary
to 1) identify what basic tasks need to be supported, 2) what interactions can
be used, and 3) how to map these tasks and interactions. This technical report
provides a list of basic interaction tasks for graph exploration and editing as
a result of an extensive system review. Moreover, different interaction
modalities of interactive surfaces are reviewed according to their interaction
vocabulary and further degrees of freedom that can be used to make interactions
distinguishable are discussed. Beyond the scope of graph exploration and
editing, we provide an approach for finding and evaluating a mapping from tasks
to interactions, that is generally applicable. Thus, this work acts as a
guideline for developing a system for graph exploration and editing that is
specifically designed for interactive surfaces.Comment: 21 pages, minor corrections (typos etc.
Collocating Interface Objects: Zooming into Maps
May, Dean and Barnard [10] used a theoretically based model to argue that objects in a wide range of interfaces should be collocated following screen changes such as a zoom-in to detail. Many existing online maps do not follow this principle, but move a clicked point to the centre of the subsequent display, leaving the user looking at an unrelated location. This paper presents three experiments showing that collocating the point clicked on a map so that the detailed location appears in the place previously occupied by the overview location makes the map easier to use, reducing eye movements and interaction duration. We discuss the benefit of basing design principles on theoretical models so that they can be applied to novel situations, and so designers can infer when to use and not use them
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Exploring Uncertainty in Geodemographics with Interactive Graphics
Geodemographic classifiers characterise populations by categorising geographical areas according to the demographic
and lifestyle characteristics of those who live within them. The dimension-reducing quality of such classifiers provides a simple and effective means of characterising population through a manageable set of categories, but inevitably hides heterogeneity, which varies within and between the demographic categories and geographical areas, sometimes systematically. This may have implications for their use, which is widespread in government and commerce for planning, marketing and related activities. We use novel interactive graphics to delve into OAC â a free and open geodemographic classifier that classifies the UK population in over 200,000 small geographical areas into 7 super-groups, 21 groups and 52 sub-groups. Our graphics provide access to the original 41 demographic variables used in the classification and the uncertainty associated with the classification of each geographical area on-demand. It also supports comparison geographically and by category. This serves the dual purpose of helping understand the classifier itself leading to its more informed use and providing a more comprehensive view of population in a comprehensible manner. We assess the impact of these interactive graphics on experienced OAC users who explored the details of the classification, its uncertainty and the nature of between â and within â class variation and then reflect on their experiences. Visualization of the complexities and subtleties of the classification proved to be a thought-provoking exercise both confirming and challenging usersâ understanding of population, the OAC classifier and the way it is used in their organisations. Users identified three contexts for which the techniques were deemed useful in the context of local government, confirming the validity of the proposed methods
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Evaluating the appropriateness of visually combining quantitative data representations with 3D desktop virtual environments using mixed methods
Open source environment to define constraints in route planning for GIS-T
Route planning for transportation systems is strongly related to shortest path algorithms, an optimization problem extensively studied in the literature. To find the shortest path in a network one usually assigns weights to each branch to represent the difficulty of taking such branch. The weights construct a linear preference function ordering the variety of alternatives from the most to the least attractive.Postprint (published version
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