Exploration Of Multidimensional Data Research Articles

GLC-Frame: A Framework and Library for Exploration of Multidimensional Data with General Line Coordinates

General Line Coordinates (GLC) are a relatively new set of line-based representations for visualizing multidimensional data with the distinctive characteristics of being reversible and lossless. Given these characteristics, the GLC have a high potential for exploratory multidimensional data analysis, however only partial implementations of some of the GLC techniques are available for the visualization community. In this paper, we present the GLC-Frame, an online exploration tool that supports a dual view and allows users to upload their own dataset and interactively explore the different GLC representations without writing code. We also present the GLC-Vis Library, an open-source data visualization library supporting GLC along with traditional interactions. Finally, we provide a set of usage examples showing how the different techniques behave in both the occlusion and the cluster identification problem. In addition, we present the interactions on GLC representations using the cars dataset. Both the GLC-Frame and the GLC-Vis Library provide an exploration space that will allow the visualization community to use these new techniques and evaluate their potential.

HyperCube4x: Exploring and Analyzing Data in Virtual Reality Using HyperRelational and HyperAnalyzer

Hypercube is a novel viewport management and information visualization system proposal that introduces three applications (called WorkScenes), focusing on interaction, immersive reading, data exploration, analysis, and visualization concepts. After presenting the conceptual description, interaction metaphors, and the prototype in a previous publication, this article presents HyperRelational and HyperAnalyzer, the WorkScenes focused on multidimensional data exploration, analysis, and visualization. First, the manuscript explores previous work on Human-Computer Interaction-related disciplines, such as cognitive psychology, cognitive engineering, and neuroscience. Then, we introduce HyperRelational and HyperAnalyzer, focusing on their fundamental concepts 1) Geometrical visualization; 2) mapping relationships among information as spatial dimensions. Also, the Screenshots help illustrate the mentioned concepts. Finally, the “Results and Discussion” section demonstrates how these features integrate with the flow, presence, and immersion of Virtual Reality, fit Shneiderman’s visual-information-seeking mantra and solve some desktop metaphor-related issues. Additionally, we present test results conducted with 26 participants that show an acceptability rate of 74% amongst users and highlight their positive feedback/experience regarding HyperAnalyzer. On the other hand, the System Usability Scale (SUS) evaluation scored 60.6731. The score demonstrates that HyperAnalyser scored a little better than Microsoft Excel. Therefore, we conclude that the concepts presented here are viable, but it is still necessary to evolve usability to make HyperCube commercially viable.

Active Pattern Classification for Automatic Visual Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Data

The practice of applying a classifier (called a pattern classifier and abbreviated as PC below) in a visual analysis system to identify patterns from interactively generated visualizations is gradually emerging. Demonstrated cases in existing works focus on ideal scenarios where the analyst can determine all the pattern types in advance without adjusting the classifier settings during the exploration process. However, in most real-world scenarios, analysts know nothing about data patterns before exploring the dataset and inevitably find novel patterns during the exploration. This difference makes the traditional classifier training and application mode less suitable. Analysts have to artificially determine whether each generated visualization contains new data patterns to adjust the classifier setting, thus affecting the automation of the data exploration. This paper proposes a novel PC-based data exploration approach. The core of the approach is an active-learning indicator for automatically identifying visualizations involving new pattern classes. Analysts thus can apply PCs to explore data while dynamically adjusting the PCs using these visualizations. We further propose a PC-based visualization framework that takes full advantage of the PC in terms of efficiency by allowing analysts to explore an exploring space, rather than a single visualization at a time. The results of the quantitative experiment and the performance of participants in the user study demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of the method.

MING: An interpretative support method for visual exploration of multidimensional data

Dimensionality reduction enables analysts to perform visual exploration of multidimensional data with a low-dimensional map retaining as much as possible of the original data structure. The interpretation of such a map relies on the hypothesis of preservation of neighborhood relations. Namely, distances in the map are assumed to reflect faithfully dissimilarities in the data space, as measured with a domain-related metric. Yet, in most cases, this hypothesis is undermined by distortions of those relations by the mapping process, which need to be accounted for during map interpretation. In this paper, we describe an interpretative support method called Map Interpretation using Neighborhood Graphs (MING) displaying individual neighborhood relations on the map, as edges of nearest neighbors graphs. The level of distortion of those relations is shown through coloring of the edges. This allows analysts to assess the reliability of similarity relations inferred from the map, while hinting at the original structure of data by showing the missing relations. Moreover, MING provides a local interpretation for classical map quality indicators, since the quantitative measure of distortions is based on those indicators. Overall, the proposed method alleviates the mapping-induced bias in interpretation while constantly reminding users that the map is not the data.

Toward a Quantitative Survey of Dimension Reduction Techniques.

Dimensionality reduction methods, also known as projections, are frequently used in multidimensional data exploration in machine learning, data science, and information visualization. Tens of such techniques have been proposed, aiming to address a wide set of requirements, such as ability to show the high-dimensional data structure, distance or neighborhood preservation, computational scalability, stability to data noise and/or outliers, and practical ease of use. However, it is far from clear for practitioners how to choose the best technique for a given use context. We present a survey of a wide body of projection techniques that helps answering this question. For this, we characterize the input data space, projection techniques, and the quality of projections, by several quantitative metrics. We sample these three spaces according to these metrics, aiming at good coverage with bounded effort. We describe our measurements and outline observed dependencies of the measured variables. Based on these results, we draw several conclusions that help comparing projection techniques, explain their results for different types of data, and ultimately help practitioners when choosing a projection for a given context. Our methodology, datasets, projection implementations, metrics, visualizations, and results are publicly open, so interested stakeholders can examine and/or extend this benchmark.

Exploratory Data Analysis of Adverse Birth Outcomes and Exposure to Oxides of Nitrogen Using Interactive Parallel Coordinates Plot Technique

We propose that a parallel coordinates plot can be used to study multidimensional data particularly to explore discovery of patterns across the variables. This can assist researchers from the health sciences to visualize their cohort data with interactive data analysis. The study used data from Mother and Child in the Environment birth cohort in Durban, South Africa for the period 2013 to 2017 retrospectively registered. In this paper, we demonstrate that the exploration of multidimensional data with parallel coordinates plot and use of brushing using different colours assists with the identification of relationships and patterns. Parallel coordinates plot visualization facilitates the researcher’s skills to find trends, identify outliers and perform quality checks in large multivariate data. We have identified trends in the data that provide directions for further research, and illustrated thereby the potential of parallel coordinates plot to explore patterns and relationships of prenatal oxides of nitrogen exposure with multidimensional birth outcomes. The study recognized the co-occurrence of adverse birth outcomes among infants and these infants had mothers with moderate to high level of NOx exposure during pregnancy. Brushing using different colours facilitated the detection of patterns of relationships to perform basic and advanced statistical model-based analysis.

Cluster-aware arrangement of the parallel coordinate plots

The dimension ordering of parallel coordinate plots has been widely studied, aiming at the insightful exploration of multi-dimensional data. However, few works focus on the category distributions across dimensions and construct an effective dimension ordering to enable the visual exploration of clusters. Therefore, we propose a cluster-aware arrangement method of the parallel coordinate plots and design a visualization framework for the multi-dimensional data exploration. Firstly, a hierarchical clustering scheme is employed to identify the categories of interest across different dimensions. Then we design a group of icicle views to present the hierarchies of dimensions, the colors of which also indicate the relationships between different categories. A cluster-aware correlation is defined to measure the relationships between different attribute axes, based on the distributions of categories. Furthermore, a matrix map is designed to present the relationships between dimensions, and the MDS method is employed to transform the dimensions into 2D coordinates, in which the correlations among the dimensions are conserved. At last, we solve the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and achieve an automated dimension ordering of the parallel coordinate plots, which largely highlights the relations of categories across dimensions. A set of convenient interactions are also integrated in the visualization system, allowing users to get insights into the multi-dimensional data from various perspectives. A large number of experimental results and the credible user studies further demonstrate the usefulness of the cluster-aware arrangement of the parallel coordinate plots.

Multidimensional Data Exploration by Explicitly Controlled Animation

Understanding large multidimensional datasets is one of the most challenging problems in visual data exploration. One key challenge that increases the size of the exploration space is the number of views that one can generate from a single dataset, based on the use of multiple parameter values and exploration paths. Often, no such single view contains all needed insights. The question thus arises of how we can efficiently combine insights from multiple views of a dataset. We propose a set of techniques that considerably reduce the exploration effort for such situations, based on the explicit depiction of the view space, using a small multiple metaphor. We leverage this view space by offering interactive techniques that enable users to explicitly create, visualize, and follow their exploration path. This way, partial insights obtained from each view can be efficiently and effectively combined. We demonstrate our approach by applications using real-world datasets from air traffic control, software maintenance, and machine learning.

The BioDICE Taverna plugin for clustering and visualization of biological data: a workflow for molecular compounds exploration

BackgroundIn many experimental pipelines, clustering of multidimensional biological datasets is used to detect hidden structures in unlabelled input data. Taverna is a popular workflow management system that is used to design and execute scientific workflows and aid in silico experimentation. The availability of fast unsupervised methods for clustering and visualization in the Taverna platform is important to support a data-driven scientific discovery in complex and explorative bioinformatics applications.ResultsThis work presents a Taverna plugin, the Biological Data Interactive Clustering Explorer (BioDICE), that performs clustering of high-dimensional biological data and provides a nonlinear, topology preserving projection for the visualization of the input data and their similarities. The core algorithm in the BioDICE plugin is Fast Learning Self Organizing Map (FLSOM), which is an improved variant of the Self Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm. The plugin generates an interactive 2D map that allows the visual exploration of multidimensional data and the identification of groups of similar objects. The effectiveness of the plugin is demonstrated on a case study related to chemical compounds.ConclusionsThe number and variety of available tools and its extensibility have made Taverna a popular choice for the development of scientific data workflows. This work presents a novel plugin, BioDICE, which adds a data-driven knowledge discovery component to Taverna. BioDICE provides an effective and powerful clustering tool, which can be adopted for the explorative analysis of biological datasets.

Morphological Differentiation of Polish Arabian Horses - Multivariate Analysis

Abstract The aim of the study was to show the variability of exterior type in Arabian horses bred in three leading stud farms in Poland. A total of 334 adult animals from the basic herd of stud farms in Bialka, Janow Podlaski, and Michalow were studied. Each horse underwent 26 exterior measurements. In the first stage, the method of exploration of multidimensional data - principal component analysis, was used, and subsequently, a stepwise canonical discriminant analysis. It was found that each stud farm breeds horses with a different metrical pattern. Horses bred in Bialka represent clearly different morphotype comparing to horses from the other stud farms. Individuals from Janow Podlaski are more similar to horses originating from Michalow but morphological variation also occurs between them. From among the 26 metric traits, 10 parameters have a meaningful discriminative power. These include in particular such parameters as the length of the metatarsus, pelvis, arm, and neck, and depth of the chest.

FromDaDy: Spreading Aircraft Trajectories Across Views to Support Iterative Queries

When displaying thousands of aircraft trajectories on a screen, the visualization is spoiled by a tangle of trails. The visual analysis is therefore difficult, especially if a specific class of trajectories in an erroneous dataset has to be studied. We designed FromDaDy, a trajectory visualization tool that tackles the difficulties of exploring the visualization of multiple trails. This multidimensional data exploration is based on scatterplots, brushing, pick and drop, juxtaposed views and rapid visual design. Users can organize the workspace composed of multiple juxtaposed views. They can define the visual configuration of the views by connecting data dimensions from the dataset to Bertin's visual variables. They can then brush trajectories, and with a pick and drop operation they can spread the brushed information across views. They can then repeat these interactions, until they extract a set of relevant data, thus formulating complex queries. Through two real-world scenarios, we show how FromDaDy supports iterative queries and the extraction of trajectories in a dataset that contains up to 5 million data.

Conjunctive Visual Forms

Visual exploration of multidimensional data is a process of isolating and extracting relationships within and between dimensions. Coordinated multiple view approaches are particularly effective for visual exploration because they support precise expression of heterogeneous multidimensional queries using simple interactions. Recent visual analytics research has made significant progress in identifying and understanding patterns of composed views and coordinations that support fast, flexible, and open-ended data exploration. What is missing is formalization of the space of expressible queries in terms of visual representation and interaction. This paper introduces the Conjunctive Visual Form model in which visual exploration consists of interactively-driven sequences of transitions between visual states that correspond to conjunctive normal forms in boolean logic. The model predicts several new and useful ways to extend the space of rapidly expressible queries through addition of simple interactive capabilities to existing compositional patterns. Two recent related visual tools offer a subset of these capabilities, providing a basis for conjecturing about such extensions.

The exploration of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data using interactive three-dimensional graphs, a tool borrowed from particle physics

Computerized interactive 3-dimensional graphical displays were originally developed to aid in the exploration of multidimensional data from particle physics experiments. This technique can be equally well applied to speed the analysis of multivariate pharmaco-kinetic and pharmacodynamic data. The application of this technique to the results of a drug study demonstrated its effectiveness in providing a rapid overview of the data and in displaying new perspectives on the multivariate data, helping to identify sources of variability within the study. Multiple concentration-time curves from a given administration period can be distinguished within a single plot, using visual cues provided by rotating the display. Simultaneous comparison of large numbers of curves allows rapid evaluation of intersubject variability. Comparing the concentration-time curves from a single subject, each in succession, quickly identifies sources of intra-subject variability. Manipulating the display by a fourth dimensional parameter shows the degree of relationship between the concentration-time curves and associated dynamic variables. Exploratory analysis using such kinematic display software, provides a rapid, visually concrete impression of the relationships present in kinetic and dynamic data before the application of standard statistical routines.