227 research outputs found
AdaVis: Adaptive and Explainable Visualization Recommendation for Tabular Data
Automated visualization recommendation facilitates the rapid creation of
effective visualizations, which is especially beneficial for users with limited
time and limited knowledge of data visualization. There is an increasing trend
in leveraging machine learning (ML) techniques to achieve an end-to-end
visualization recommendation. However, existing ML-based approaches implicitly
assume that there is only one appropriate visualization for a specific dataset,
which is often not true for real applications. Also, they often work like a
black box, and are difficult for users to understand the reasons for
recommending specific visualizations. To fill the research gap, we propose
AdaVis, an adaptive and explainable approach to recommend one or multiple
appropriate visualizations for a tabular dataset. It leverages a box
embedding-based knowledge graph to well model the possible one-to-many mapping
relations among different entities (i.e., data features, dataset columns,
datasets, and visualization choices). The embeddings of the entities and
relations can be learned from dataset-visualization pairs. Also, AdaVis
incorporates the attention mechanism into the inference framework. Attention
can indicate the relative importance of data features for a dataset and provide
fine-grained explainability. Our extensive evaluations through quantitative
metric evaluations, case studies, and user interviews demonstrate the
effectiveness of AdaVis
Understanding Hidden Memories of Recurrent Neural Networks
Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been successfully applied to various
natural language processing (NLP) tasks and achieved better results than
conventional methods. However, the lack of understanding of the mechanisms
behind their effectiveness limits further improvements on their architectures.
In this paper, we present a visual analytics method for understanding and
comparing RNN models for NLP tasks. We propose a technique to explain the
function of individual hidden state units based on their expected response to
input texts. We then co-cluster hidden state units and words based on the
expected response and visualize co-clustering results as memory chips and word
clouds to provide more structured knowledge on RNNs' hidden states. We also
propose a glyph-based sequence visualization based on aggregate information to
analyze the behavior of an RNN's hidden state at the sentence-level. The
usability and effectiveness of our method are demonstrated through case studies
and reviews from domain experts.Comment: Published at IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and
Technology (IEEE VAST 2017
A Survey on ML4VIS: Applying Machine Learning Advances to Data Visualization
Inspired by the great success of machine learning (ML), researchers have
applied ML techniques to visualizations to achieve a better design,
development, and evaluation of visualizations. This branch of studies, known as
ML4VIS, is gaining increasing research attention in recent years. To
successfully adapt ML techniques for visualizations, a structured understanding
of the integration of ML4VISis needed. In this paper, we systematically survey
88 ML4VIS studies, aiming to answer two motivating questions: "what
visualization processes can be assisted by ML?" and "how ML techniques can be
used to solve visualization problems?" This survey reveals seven main processes
where the employment of ML techniques can benefit visualizations:Data
Processing4VIS, Data-VIS Mapping, InsightCommunication, Style Imitation, VIS
Interaction, VIS Reading, and User Profiling. The seven processes are related
to existing visualization theoretical models in an ML4VIS pipeline, aiming to
illuminate the role of ML-assisted visualization in general
visualizations.Meanwhile, the seven processes are mapped into main learning
tasks in ML to align the capabilities of ML with the needs in visualization.
Current practices and future opportunities of ML4VIS are discussed in the
context of the ML4VIS pipeline and the ML-VIS mapping. While more studies are
still needed in the area of ML4VIS, we hope this paper can provide a
stepping-stone for future exploration. A web-based interactive browser of this
survey is available at https://ml4vis.github.ioComment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 4 table
A Vector Field Design Approach to Animated Transitions
Animated transitions can be effective in explaining and exploring a small number of visualizations where there are drastic changes in the scene over a short interval of time. This is especially true if data elements cannot be visually distinguished by other means. Current research in animated transitions has mainly focused on linear transitions (all elements follow straight line paths) or enhancing coordinated motion through bundling of linear trajectories. In this paper, we introduce animated transition design, a technique to build smooth, non-linear transitions for clustered data with either minimal or no user involvement. The technique is flexible and simple to implement, and has the additional advantage that it explicitly enhances coordinated motion and can avoid crowding, which are both important factors to support object tracking in a scene. We investigate its usability, provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of this technique through metric evaluations and user study and discuss limitations and future directions
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