In situ exploration of large dynamic networks

The analysis of large dynamic networks poses a challenge in many fields, ranging from large bot-nets to social networks. As dynamic networks exhibit different characteristics, e.g., being of sparse or dense structure, or having a continuous or discrete time line, a variety of visualization techniques have been specifically designed to handle these different aspects of network structure and time. This wide range of existing techniques is well justified, as rarely a single visualization is suitable to cover the entire visual analysis. Instead, visual representations are often switched in the course of the exploration of dynamic graphs as the focus of analysis shifts between the temporal and the structural aspects of the data. To support such a switching in a seamless and intuitive manner, we introduce the concept of in situ visualization--a novel strategy that tightly integrates existing visualization techniques for dynamic networks. It does so by allowing the user to interactively select in a base visualization a region for which a different visualization technique is then applied and embedded in the selection made. This permits to change the way a locally selected group of data items, such as nodes or time points, are shown--right in the place where they are positioned, thus supporting the user's overall mental map. Using this approach, a user can switch seamlessly between different visual representations to adapt a region of a base visualization to the specifics of the data within it or to the current analysis focus. This paper presents and discusses the in situ visualization strategy and its implications for dynamic graph visualization. Furthermore, it illustrates its usefulness by employing it for the visual exploration of dynamic networks from two different fields: model versioning and wireless mesh networks.     

A Survey of Visualization for Live Cell Imaging

Live cell imaging is an important biomedical research paradigm for studying dynamic cellular behaviour. Although phenotypic data derived from images are difficult to explore and analyse, some researchers have successfully addressed this with visualization. Nonetheless, visualization methods for live cell imaging data have been reported in an ad hoc and fragmented fashion. This leads to a knowledge gap where it is difficult for biologists and visualization developers to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different visualization methods, and for visualization researchers to gain an overview of existing work to identify research priorities. To address this gap, we survey existing visualization methods for live cell imaging from a visualization research perspective for the first time. Based on recent visualization theory, we perform a structured qualitative analysis of visualization methods that includes characterizing the domain and data, abstracting tasks, and describing visual encoding and interaction design. Based on our survey, we identify and discuss research gaps that future work should address: the broad analytical context of live cell imaging; the importance of behavioural comparisons; links with dynamic data visualization; the consequences of different data modalities; shortcomings in interactive support; and, in addition to analysis, the value of the presentation of phenotypic data and insights to other stakeholders.     

Advanced empirical testing

In today’s industrial applications, we see that knowledge systems are successfully implemented. However, critical domains require the elaborate and thoughtful validation of the knowledge bases before the deployment. Empirical testing, also known as regression testing, denotes the most popular validation technique, where predefined test cases are used to simulate and review the correct behavior of the system. In this paper, we motivate that the classic notions of a test case and the corresponding measures are not sufficient in many application scenarios. We present enhanced notions generalizing the standard test case, and we show appropriate extensions of the measures precision and recall, that work on these test case notions. Furthermore, the effective inspection of test runs is important whenever test cases fail. We introduce a novel visualization technique that allows for the effective and intuitive analysis of test cases and test run outcomes. The new visualization is useful for debugging a knowledge base and test case, respectively, but it also provides an intuitive overview of the status of the entire test suite. A case study reports on the (repeated) validation of a medical decision-support system and demonstrates the practical relevance of the presented work.     

ICEAGE: Interactive Clustering and Exploration of Large and High-Dimensional Geodata

The unprecedented large size and high dimensionality of existing geographic datasets make the complex patterns that potentially lurk in the data hard to find. Clustering is one of the most important techniques for geographic knowledge discovery. However, existing clustering methods have two severe drawbacks for this purpose. First, spatial clustering methods focus on the specific characteristics of distributions in 2- or 3-D space, while general-purpose high-dimensional clustering methods have limited power in recognizing spatial patterns that involve neighbors. Second, clustering methods in general are not geared toward allowing the human-computer interaction needed to effectively tease-out complex patterns. In the current paper, an approach is proposed to open up the black box of the clustering process for easy understanding, steering, focusing and interpretation, and thus to support an effective exploration of large and high dimensional geographic data. The proposed approach involves building a hierarchical spatial cluster structure within the high-dimensional feature space, and using this combined space for discovering multi-dimensional (combined spatial and non-spatial) patterns with efficient computational clustering methods and highly interactive visualization techniques. More specifically, this includes the integration of: (1) a hierarchical spatial clustering method to generate a 1-D spatial cluster ordering that preserves the hierarchical cluster structure, and (2) a density- and grid-based technique to effectively support the interactive identification of interesting subspaces and subsequent searching for clusters in each subspace. The implementation of the proposed approach is in a fully open and interactive manner supported by various visualization techniques.     

数据挖掘在足球运动中的应用

数据挖掘是指从数据库的大量数据中揭示隐含的、先前未知的、潜在有用信息的非平凡的过程.使用可视化数据挖掘的技术从足球比赛的数据集中找到模式.这些模式可以在足球比赛中直接或间接地提供有益的见解,并在比赛中运用决策支持系统.     

空间数据可视化的研究与发展

随着3S技术的融合和空间信息处理技术的发展和广泛应用,空间数据的可视化以及基于可视化技术的空间分析、空间数据挖掘和知识发现已经发展成为空间信息处理的重要手段和关键技术。可视化方法已由数据的空间展现逐步发展成为可以表现数据的内在复杂结构、关系和规律的技术。由静态空间关系的可视化发展到表示系统演变过程的可视化。可视化方法不仅用于数据的理解,而且用于空间知识的呈现。可视化技术充分利用了人对于色彩和空间的敏锐的感知能力使人机有机地融合,在空间信息和知识的发现过程中发挥着重要作用。该文总结了空间分析中可视化技术的研究成果,分析了可视化技术的发展现状,给出了可视化方法的分类。从认知和空间数据所表征的客观对象的复杂性及非线性动力学特征分析了其发展演化规律的可视化方法,并对空间数据可视化技术的现状及发展趋势进行探讨。     

Voronoi-based extraction and visualization of molecular paths

Visual analysis is widely used to study the behavior of molecules. Of particular interest are the analysis of molecular interactions and the investigation of binding sites. For large molecules, however, it is difficult to detect possible binding sites and paths leading to these sites by pure visual inspection. In this paper, we present new methods for the computation and visualization of potential molecular paths. Using a novel filtering method, we extract the significant paths from the Voronoi diagram of spheres. For the interactive visualization of molecules and their paths, we present several methods using deferred shading and other state-of-the-art techniques. To allow for a fast overview of reachable regions of the molecule, we illuminate the molecular surface using a large number of light sources placed on the extracted paths. We also provide a method to compute the extension surface of selected paths and visualize it using the skin surface. Furthermore, we use the extension surface to clip the molecule to allow easy visual tracking of even deeply buried paths. The methods are applied to several proteins to demonstrate their usefulness.     

State of the Art Report on Video‐Based Graphics and Video Visualization

In recent years, a collection of new techniques which deal with video as input data, emerged in computer graphics and visualization. In this survey, we report the state of the art in video‐based graphics and video visualization. We provide a review of techniques for making photo‐realistic or artistic computer‐generated imagery from videos, as well as methods for creating summary and/or abstract visual representations to reveal important features and events in videos. We provide a new taxonomy to categorize the concepts and techniques in this newly emerged body of knowledge. To support this review, we also give a concise overview of the major advances in automated video analysis, as some techniques in this field (e.g. feature extraction, detection, tracking and so on) have been featured in video‐based modelling and rendering pipelines for graphics and visualization.     

一种通用的智能化可视框架

为经推理过程产生的影像提供了一种通用的可视化框架,这一框架与以往采用的方法有很大的区别：可视化系统将从一个基于外部数据源的知识库中取回可视信息,从而能够满足用户的不同可视化需求。这一知识库由用户以逻辑语言编写,主要包括关于可视目标、它们的相互关系以及其几何视觉特征的描述。此外详细介绍了知识的表达方式,同时运用一个简单的实例来对其智能可视化进行说明。     

基于多通道的移动目标监控协同仿真技术研究

多通道虚拟现实仿真技术是1种支持大场景、具有高度沉浸感的仿真支撑技术,系统研究了多通道技术实现的数学模型基础、基于移动目标空间模型构建和协同仿真技术、选择合适的多通道技术应用方案、构建实验室仿真平台并实现了基于空间六自由度的多通道移动目标监控仿真。实践证明,所采用的多通道目标监控仿真技术具有较强的实用性,结合移动目标空间模型与协同仿真技术的优势,能够解决目标观测的大范围、真实感、沉浸感要求。     

The State of the Art of Spatial Interfaces for 3D Visualization

We survey the state of the art of spatial interfaces for 3D visualization. Interaction techniques are crucial to data visualization processes and the visualization research community has been calling for more research on interaction for years. Yet, research papers focusing on interaction techniques, in particular for 3D visualization purposes, are not always published in visualization venues, sometimes making it challenging to synthesize the latest interaction and visualization results. We therefore introduce a taxonomy of interaction technique for 3D visualization. The taxonomy is organized along two axes: the primary source of input on the one hand and the visualization task they support on the other hand. Surveying the state of the art allows us to highlight specific challenges and missed opportunities for research in 3D visualization. In particular, we call for additional research in: (1) controlling 3D visualization widgets to help scientists better understand their data, (2) 3D interaction techniques for dissemination, which are under‐explored yet show great promise for helping museum and science centers in their mission to share recent knowledge, and (3) developing new measures that move beyond traditional time and errors metrics for evaluating visualizations that include spatial interaction.     

SYSTEMATIC KNOWLEDGE BASE DESIGN FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS

Experienced diagnosticians draw on a rich variety of reasoning techniques, ranging from the association of symptoms and diseases to causal reasoning about disease mechanisms and first-principle analysis grounded in basic science. The entire range of diagnostic reasoning strategies is also necessary for a computer program to be truly proficient and robust. The development of such a program has been impeded by the inherent complexity of the domain and the consequent lack of an adequate methodology for knowledge organization and integration. We present a methodology for structuring medical knowledge and managing its complexity. We illustrate this methodology in the context of an experimental knowledge base in the domain of jaundice. We believe that this systematic knowledge base design will support the development of automated reasoning methods that span the entire range of reasoning techniques used by physicians.     

Automatic Registration of Multi‐Projector Domes Using a Single Uncalibrated Camera

In this paper we present a novel technique for easily calibrating multiple casually aligned projectors on spherical domes using a single uncalibrated camera. Using the prior knowledge of the display surface being a dome, we can estimate the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and the projector to display surface correspondences automatically using a set of images. These images include the image of the dome itself and a projected pattern from each projector. Using these correspondences we can register images from the multiple projectors on the dome. Further, we can register displays which are not entirely visible in a single camera view using multiple pan and tilted views of an uncalibrated camera making our method suitable for displays of different size and resolution. We can register images from any arbitrary viewpoint making it appropriate for a single head‐tracked user in a 3D visualization system. Also, we can use several cartographic mapping techniques to register images in a manner that is appropriate for multi‐user visualization. Domes are known to produce a tremendous sense of immersion and presence in visualization systems. Yet, till date, there exists no easy way to register multiple projectors on a dome to create a high‐resolution realistic visualizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method that can achieve accurate geometric registration of multiple projectors on a dome simply and automatically using a single uncalibrated camera.     

Interactive blood damage analysis for ventricular assist devices

Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) support the heart in its vital task of maintaining circulation in the human body when the heart alone is not able to maintain a sufficient flow rate due to illness or degenerative diseases. However, the engineering of these devices is a highly demanding task. Advanced modeling methods and computer simulations allow the investigation of the fluid flow inside such a device and in particular of potential blood damage. In this paper we present a set of visualization methods which have been designed to specifically support the analysis of a tensor-based blood damage prediction model. This model is based on the tracing of particles through the VAD, for each of which the cumulative blood damage can be computed. The model's tensor output approximates a single blood cell's deformation in the flow field. The tensor and derived scalar data are subsequently visualized using techniques based on icons, particle visualization, and function plotting. All these techniques are accessible through a Virtual Reality-based user interface, which features not only stereoscopic rendering but also natural interaction with the complex three-dimensional data. To illustrate the effectiveness of these visualization methods, we present the results of an analysis session that was performed by domain experts for a specific data set for the MicroMed DeBakey VAD.     

The optimal location of inspection stations using a rule-based methodology

The location of inspection stations is a significant component of production systems. In this paper, a prototype expert system is designed for deciding the optimal location of inspection stations. The production system is defined as a single channel of n serial operation stations. The potential inspection station can be located after any of the operation stations. Non-conforming units are generated from a compound binomial distribution with known parameters at any given operation station.

Traditionally Dynamic programming, Zero-one integer programming or Non-linear programming techniques are used to solve this problem. However a problem using these techniques is that the computation time becomes prohibitively large when the number of potential inspection stations are fifteen or more. An expert system has the potential to solve this problem using a rule-based system to determine the near optimal location of inspection stations.

The prototype expert system is divided into a static database, dynamic database and knowledge base. Based on defined production systems, the sophisticated rules are generated by the simulator as part of a knowledge base. A generate-and-test inference mechanism is utilized to search the solution space by applying appropriate symbolic and quantitative rules. The goal of the system is to determine the location of inspection stations while minimizing total cost.     

FarsBase-KBP: A knowledge base population system for the Persian Knowledge Graph

While most of the knowledge bases already support the English language, there is only one knowledge base for the Persian language, known as FarsBase, which is automatically created via semi-structured web information. Unlike English knowledge bases such as Wikidata, which have tremendous community support, the population of a knowledge base like FarsBase must rely on automatically extracted knowledge. Knowledge base population can let FarsBase keep growing in size, as the system continues working. In this paper, we present a knowledge base population system for the Persian language, which extracts knowledge from unlabelled raw text, crawled from the Web. The proposed system consists of a set of state-of-the-art modules such as an entity linking module as well as information and relation extraction modules designed for FarsBase. Moreover, a canonicalization system is introduced to link extracted relations to FarsBase properties. Then, the system uses knowledge fusion techniques with minimal intervention of human experts to integrate and filter the proper knowledge instances, extracted by each module. To evaluate the performance of the presented knowledge base population system, we present the first gold dataset for benchmarking knowledge base population in the Persian language, which consisting of 22015 FarsBase triples and verified by human experts. The evaluation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed system.     

基于内容的Focus+Context可视化技术

尽管一些研究通过可视化技术较好地解决了大数据量信息在相对较小的屏幕上的显示问题,但很少有方法可以给用户提供一种直观灵活可控的交互方式。提出一种允许用户随意指定Focus区域的方法,并设计了一个巧妙的能量模型来保持Focus区域的细节。为了减少Context 区域的扭曲,用户可以指定一个Glue区域。通过变形能量的光滑扩散,Focus区域的扭曲被分布到其他区域。大量实验结果证明,所提出的方法能极大地改善可视化效果,帮助用户在较小的屏幕上了解更多信息。     

Process knowledge based multi-class support vector classification (PK-MSVM) approach for surface defects in hot rolling

Random surface defects occur during the hot bar rolling of steels and are identified either by manual or by automated inspection techniques. Manual inspection techniques are purely based on the process knowledge of the inspector such as the location, type and kind of defects, and the primary sources of these defects. The automated techniques, to identify and classify the defects, rely on machine vision technologies and image processing algorithms based on support vector machines, wavelets, image processing and statistical inference. Both these approaches have their own advantages and limitations. To improve the accuracy of classification of these defects a process knowledge based support vector classification scheme is proposed (called PK-MSVM) which combines feature extraction task of automated inspection with the process knowledge. The defect observation data from the imaging sensor is transformed to include this process knowledge. Three attributes of the defects – length to width ratio, longitudinal location and transverse location- are used for this transformation are they are closely related to the thermo-mechanics of the rolling process. Different formulations of the multi-class support vector machines (MSVMs) are compared for this classification with or without process knowledge based transformation: one-against-one, one-against-all and Hastie’s algorithm of multi class SVM. It is found that the new approach (PK-MSVM) performs better than traditional MSVM for all the three formulations. For the best case, the performance sees a jump of more than 100%. Thus incorporating process knowledge in identification and classification does increase the reliability of inspection considerably.     

Visualization of Eye Tracking Data: A Taxonomy and Survey

This survey provides an introduction into eye tracking visualization with an overview of existing techniques. Eye tracking is important for evaluating user behaviour. Analysing eye tracking data is typically done quantitatively, applying statistical methods. However, in recent years, researchers have been increasingly using qualitative and exploratory analysis methods based on visualization techniques. For this state‐of‐the‐art report, we investigated about 110 research papers presenting visualization techniques for eye tracking data. We classified these visualization techniques and identified two main categories: point‐based methods and methods based on areas of interest. Additionally, we conducted an expert review asking leading eye tracking experts how they apply visualization techniques in their analysis of eye tracking data. Based on the experts' feedback, we identified challenges that have to be tackled in the future so that visualizations will become even more widely applied in eye tracking research.