Visual Analytics

A visual analytics approach to dynamic social networks

by Lukas Zenk

Federico, P., Aigner, W., Miksch, S., Windhager, F. & Zenk, L. (2011). A visual analytics approach to dynamic social networks. In S. Lindstaedt and M. Granitzer (Eds.), i-KNOW '11: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Technologies. New York: ACM Press.

The visualization and analysis of dynamic networks have become increasingly important in several fields, for instance... more The visualization and analysis of dynamic networks have become increasingly important in several fields, for instance sociology or economics. The dynamic and multi-relational nature of this data poses the challenge of understanding both its topological structure and how it changes over time. In this paper we propose a visual analytics approach for analyzing dynamic networks that integrates: a dynamic layout with user-controlled trade-off between stability and consistency; three temporal views based on different combinations of node-link diagrams (layer superimposition, layer juxtaposition, and two-and-a-half- dimensional view); the visualization of social network analysis metrics; and specific interaction techniques for tracking node trajectories and node connectivity over time. This integration of visual, interactive, and automatic methods supports the multi- faceted analysis of dynamically changing networks.

Kommunikationsflüsse im Bild. Dynamische Netzwerkvisualisierung in der internen Organisationskommunikation anhand des Fallbeispiels eines Universitätsinstituts

by Lukas Zenk

Zenk, L., Windhager, F., Ettl-Huber, S. & Smuc, M. (2011). Kommunikationsflüsse im Bild. Medien Journal, 35/2, 50-61. (Preprint Version)

Die Stärken der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in der Darstellung tatsächlicher Kommunikationsflüsse und informeller Muster... more Die Stärken der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in der Darstellung tatsächlicher Kommunikationsflüsse und informeller Muster der Zusammenarbeit in Gruppen und Organisationen wurden bereits weitgehend diskutiert. Verschiedene Kombinationen von Methoden und Algorithmen stehen zu Verfügung, um kommunikative Beziehungsmuster zu erheben und als statische Netzwerke zu visualisieren. Die laufende Veränderung dieser Netzwerke über die Zeit bringt jedoch die Frage mit sich, wie diese Dynamiken sichtbar gemacht werden können. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden vier Methoden der dynamischen Netzwerkvisualisierung vorgestellt, um die Veränderung von sozialen Netzwerken visuell zu analysieren. Anhand des Fallbeispiels eines Universitätsinstituts wird deren Anwendung demonstriert und aufgezeigt, wie dadurch kommunikationswissenschaftliche Forschung in Organisationen unterstützt werden kann.

Visual Analytics for Understanding Spatial Situations from Episodic Movement Data

by Thomas Liebig

Co-authored with Natalia Andrienko, Gennady Andrienko, Hendrik Stange, Dirk Hecker

Continuing advances in modern data acquisition techniques result in rapidly growing amounts of georeferenced data... more Continuing advances in modern data acquisition techniques result in rapidly growing amounts of georeferenced data about moving objects and in emergence of new data types.We define episodic movement data as a new complex data type to be considered in the research fields relevant to data analysis. In episodic movement data, position measurements may be separated by large time gaps, in which the positions of the moving objects are unknown and cannot be reliably reconstructed. Many of the existing methods for movement analysis are designed for data with fine temporal resolution and cannot be applied to discontinuous trajectories. We present an approach utilising Visual Analytics methods to explore and understand the temporal variation of spatial situations derived from episodic movement data by means of spatio-temporal aggregation. The situations are defined in terms of the presence of moving objects in different places and in terms of flows (collective movements) between the places. The approach, which combines interactive visual displays with clustering of the spatial situations, is presented by example of a real dataset collected by Bluetooth sensors.

Analyzing video produced by a stationary surveillance camera

by Paolo Buono

Evacuation Traces Mini Challenge: User Testing to Obtain Consensus - Discovering the Terrorist

by Paolo Buono

A. L. Simeone, P. Buono, Evacuation Traces Mini Challenge: User Testing to Obtain Consensus - Discovering the Terrorist, Proc. of IEEE Symposium on VAST 2008, October 21-23, 2008, Columbus, Ohio USA, pp. 209-210, D. Ebert and T. Ertl (Eds.) IEEE Computer Society Press, ISBN: 978-1-4244-2935-6.

The adoption of visual analytics methodologies in security applications is an approach that could lead to interesting... more The adoption of visual analytics methodologies in security applications is an approach that could lead to interesting results. Usually, the data that has to be analyzed finds in a graphical representation its preferred nature, such as spatial or temporal relationships. Due to the nature of these applications, it is very important that key-details are made easy to identify. In the context of the VAST 2008 Challenge, we developed a visualization tool that graphically displays the movement of 82 employees of the Miami Department of Health (USA). We also asked 13 users to identify potential suspects and observe what happened during an evacuation of the building caused by an explosion. In this paper we explain the results of the user testing we conducted and how the users interpreted the event taken into account.

Black Swan: A Film Analysis

by Danielle Marquez

Draft

This was my first film/visual analysis, written for my Visual Communication class (under Ms. Isabel Kenny) when I was... more This was my first film/visual analysis, written for my Visual Communication class (under Ms. Isabel Kenny) when I was in my Sophomore year. This paper is a visual analysis of the first 6 minutes of the movie. Please disregard citation errors/Wikipedia references. This was a draft (I cannot seem to find a copy of the final paper.)

Analytical Workflow of Monitoring Human Mobility in Big Event Settings using Bluetooth

by Thomas Liebig

Co-athored with Hendrik Stange, Dirk Hecker, Gennady Andrienko, Natalia Andrienko

In recent times, consumer research at major social events received significant interest by organizing companies.... more In recent times, consumer research at major social events received significant interest by organizing companies. Understanding the movements and motivations of the customers
enables new business strategies and is needed to minimize the risk of investment. The spatiotemporal complexity of major events poses high demands on survey and analytical methods. New technological advances in both event monitoring systems and evaluation methods of movement data provide new insights into the behavioral patterns of customers by preserving their privacy. In this paper we present a work that seeks to systematize the research process of design, collection, and analysis of visitor behavior in a mixed indoor-outdoor event setting using Bluetooth sensor technology. The defined workflow is comprised of 5 steps and designed to answer heterogeneous business questions with respect to customer movement behavior in a single event context. Our approach is applied in a real-world business application for a Formula 1 event.

Visual Sensitivity Analysis for Artificial Neural Networks

by Roberto Theron

Roberto Therón, Juan Francisco de Paz: Visual Sensitivity Analysis for Artificial Neural Networks. IDEAL 2006: 191-198

A challenge in ANN research is how to reduce the number of
inputs to the model in high dimensional problems, so... more A challenge in ANN research is how to reduce the number of
inputs to the model in high dimensional problems, so it can be efficiently applied. The ANNs black-box operation makes not possible to explain the relationships between features and inputs. Some numerical methods, such as sensitivity analysis, try to fight this problem. In this paper, we combine a sensitivity analysis with a linked multi-dimensional visualization that
takes advantage of user interaction, providing and efficient way to analyze and asses both the dimension reduction results and the ANN behavior.

Visual analytics: A novel Approach in corpus linguistics and the Nuevo Diccionario Histórico del Español

by Roberto Theron

ROBERTO THERÓN, LAURA FONTANILLO FONTANILLO, ANDRÉS ESTEBAN MARCOS, CARLOS SEGUÍN HERRERO

III CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE LINGÜÍSTICA DE CORPUS

Abstract
The aim of this article is to introduce visual analysis in corpus linguistics. This is a novel approach... more Abstract
The aim of this article is to introduce visual analysis in corpus linguistics. This is a novel approach that is based on the integration of automated processes and the unique humans' abilities, within a common effort to gain insight into complex problems that have to deal with vast amounts of data. Concretely, we intend to advance in the application of information visualization techniques to the diachronic linguistics field. The proposal of novel, highly interactive, visual solutions is approached by means of the Computational Information Design methodology, an integral process that brings together fields such as information visualization, computational linguistics, data mining and graphic design, for the realization of tools that truly support knowledge discovery and other general tasks of linguists. We discuss here the choices made for the design and development of interactive visual tools triggered by the creation of the New Spanish Historical Dictionary (Nuevo Diccionario Histórico del Español, NDHE).

Rapid reconstruction of paleoenvironmental features using a new multiplatform program

by Roberto Theron

Overlapper: movie analyzer

by Roberto Theron

Visualising semantic coupling among entities in an OWL ontology

by Roberto Theron

A Framework to Analyze Biclustering Results on Microarray Experiments

by Roberto Theron

Fast visual trajectory analysis using Spatial Bayesian Networks

by Thomas Liebig

Co-authored with Christine Körner and Michael May

During the past years the first tools for visual analysis of trajectory data appeared. Considering the growing sizes... more During the past years the first tools for visual analysis of trajectory data appeared. Considering the growing sizes of trajectory collections, one important task is to ensure user interactivity during data analysis. In this paper we present a fast, model-based visualization approach for the analysis of location dependencies in large trajectory collections. Existing approaches are not suitable for visual dependency analysis as the size and complexity of trajectory data constrain ad hoc and advance computations. Also recent developments in the area of trajectory data warehouses cannot be applied because the spatial correlations are lost during trajectory aggregation. Our approach builds a compact model which represents the dependency structures of the data. The visualisation toolkit then interacts only with the model and is thus independent of the size of the underlying trajectory database. More precisely, we build a Bayesian network model using the scalable sparse Bayesian network learning (SSBNL) algorithm, which we improve to represent also negative correlations. We implement our approach into the GIS MapInfo using MapBasic scripts for the user interface and an independent mediator script to retrieve patterns from the model. We demonstrate our approach using mobile phone data of the city of Milan, Italy.

CorpusExplorer : Supporting a Deeper Understanding of Linguistic Corpora

by Roberto Theron

Andrés Esteban, Roberto Therón (2011)  CorpusExplorer : Supporting a Deeper Understanding of Linguistic Corpora  In:Smart Graphics - 11th International Symposium, SG 2011, Bremen, Germany, July 18-20, 2011. Proceedings, vol. 6815 126-129 Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer 

Word trees are a common way of representing frequency in-
formation obtained by analyzing natural language data.... more Word trees are a common way of representing frequency in-
formation obtained by analyzing natural language data. This article ex-plores their usage and possibilities, and addresses the development of an application to visualize the relative frequencies of 2-grams and 3-grams in Google's "English One Million" corpus using a two-sided word tree and sparklines to show usage trends through time. It also discusses how
the raw data was processed and trimmed to speed up access to it.

Usability Evaluation of a Visual Modelling Tool for OWL Ontologies

by Roberto Theron

Juan Garcí­a, Francisco J Garcí­a-Peñalvo, Roberto Therón, Patricia Ordoñez de Pablos (2011) Usability Evaluation of a Visual Modelling Tool for OWL Ontologies Journal of Universal Computer Science 17: 9. 1299-1313 may

The literature in educational research has established that monitoring student learning is a crucial component of high... more The literature in educational research has established that monitoring student learning is a crucial component of high quality education. When instructors and students are not in a face-to-face traditional environment, new forms of student monitoring must be explored. The effective use of CMS requires that instructors have been provided with appropriate means of diagnosing problems so that they can take immediate actions to prevent or overcome those situations. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of an Object Oriented Programming course supported by a Moodle platform. Therefore, we have carried out the mining of an eLearning database and represented the more relevant results by depicting them a visualization based on the tag cloud visual representation.

Visual Analysis of a Moodle-based Object Oriented Programming Course

by Roberto Theron

F J G-Penalvo, Miguel A Conde, Sergio Bravo, Diego A Gomez and Roberto Theron. Visual Analysis of a Moodle-based Object Oriented Programming Course. IJCA Proceedings on Design and Evaluation of Digital Content for Education (DEDCE) (1):8–14, 2011. Published by Foundation of Computer Science

The literature in educational research has established that monitoring student learning is a crucial component of high... more The literature in educational research has established that monitoring student learning is a crucial component of high quality education. When instructors and students are not in a face-to-face traditional environment, new forms of student monitoring must be explored. The effective use of CMS requires that instructors have been provided with appropriate means of diagnosing problems so that they can take immediate actions to prevent or overcome those situations. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of an Object Oriented Programming course supported by a Moodle platform. Therefore, we have carried out the mining of an eLearning database and represented the more relevant results by depicting them a visualization based on the tag cloud visual representation.

Visual Enterprise Network Analytics - Visualizing organizational change

by Lukas Zenk

Windhager, F., Zenk, L., & Federico, P. (2011). Visual Enterprise Network Analytics - Visualizing organizational change, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 22, 59-68.

Despite its well-known potential for applied use in organizations, social network analysis seems to fail relevant... more Despite its well-known potential for applied use in organizations, social network analysis seems to fail relevant business analytical requirements in the areas of organizational change and software usability for non-expert users like managers and consultants. This position paper takes on this challenge by outlining a strategy of user-driven software development which aims to shift analytical procedures from the numerical to the visual realm. As network dynamics can be visualized using various methods, a comparative analysis of their respective strengths and weaknesses lays the basis for the suggested integration of additional visual methods into network exploration and interpretation procedures.

Targeted Projection Pursuit for Interactive Exploration of High-Dimensional Data Sets

by Joe Faith

published in Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Information Visualisation, Zurich, 2007

High-dimensional data is, by its nature, difficult to visualise. Many current techniques involve reducing themore High-dimensional data is, by its nature, difficult to visualise. Many current techniques involve reducing the
dimensionality of the data, which results in a loss of information. Targeted Projection Pursuit is a novel
method for visualising high-dimensional datasets which allows the user to interactively explore the space of
possible views to find those that meet their requirements. A prototype tool that utilises this method is
introduced, and is shown to allow users to explore data through an interface that is transparent and efficient.
The tool and underlying technique are general purpose -- applicable to any high-dimensional numeric data, and
supporting a wide range of exploratory data analysis activities -- but are evaluated on three particular tasks
using gene expression data: identifiying dis- criminatory genes, visualising diagnostic classes, and detecting
misdiagnosed samples. It is found to perform well in comparison with standard techniques.

Exploratory Discriminant Analysis

by Joe Faith

The concept of Exploratory Discriminant Analysis (EDA) is introduced: a form of exploratory data analysis concerned... more The concept of Exploratory Discriminant Analysis (EDA) is introduced: a form of exploratory data analysis concerned with understanding the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Theoretical graphical examples are used to show that the understanding of this relationship is not exhausted by regression analysis or the use of classification algorithms, and that visual methods are required to understand the nature and source of classification errors. Types of errors, and their origins and appropriate responses, are identified. It is shown how Targeted Projection Pursuit (TPP) can be extended to perform EDA and its use is evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, it is shown to reliably select significant discriminating variables; qualitatively, it is shown to distinguish types of classification error in real-world data, to identify sources of that error, and to suggest responses.