The cartographic Principle of Constant Information Density suggests that the amount of information in an interactive visualization should remain constant as the user pans and zooms. In previous work, we presented a system, VIDA (Visual Information Density Adjuster), which helps users manually construct applications in which overall display density remains constant. In the context of semantic zoom systems, this approach ensures uniformity in the z dimension, but does not extend naturally to ensuring uniformity in the x and y dimensions. In this paper,

We present a new approach for using physically constrained tokens to express, manipulate, and visualize parameterized database queries. This method extends tangible interfaces to enable interaction with large aggregates of information. We describe two interface prototypes that use physical tokens to represent database parameters. These tokens are manipulated upon physical constraints, which map compositions of tokens onto interpretations including database queries, views, and Boolean operations. We propose a framework for "token + consmint" interfaces, and evaluate one of our prototypes together with a comparable graphical interface in a preliminary user study.

The storage of various media in multimedia databases poses new challenges to query techniques --- challenges that exceed the expressive power of traditional text-based query languages. New query interfaces should take advantage of characteristics inherent in multimedia data, such as the dynamic temporal nature of video, the visual and spatial characteristics of images, the pitch of audio, etc. The focus of our research is to exploit the temporal continuity and combined spatio-temporal characteristics of video data for the purpose of video analysis. We do so by integrating a visual query paradigm with a dynamic visual presentation of results into a user-friendly interactive visualization environment. In this chapter, we present our overall approach for identifying trends in video data via querying for relationships between video annotations. Our approach allows users to analyze the video in terms of temporal relationships between events (e.g., events of type A frequently follow events ...

This paper presents VIQING, an environment for expressing queries via direct manipulation of data visualizations. VIQING provides a simple graphical interface for connecting visualizations, and has the expressive power of the basic relational operators select, project and join. VIQING has been implemented in the Tioga DataSplash visualization system to provide a seamless integration of querying and browsing. The resulting system is unique in providing a unified visual interface for developing database applications, encompassing both querying and data visualization. Key Words: database visualization, graphical query languages, direct-manipulation interfaces 1. Introduction Database systems are hard to use. Untrained users often find query interfaces frustrating and even trained database users frequently have difficulty analyzing the results of queries. Despite over 25 years of research in this area, these problems persist today. The goal of the Tioga project [14] has been to address th...

. In our new paradigm for video analysis, we advocate the use of interactive visualizations where users can browse video data in search of temporal trends by specifying temporal queries via direct manipulation. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of our MultiMedia Visual Information Seeking (MMVIS) system that successfully realizes this exploratory approach to temporal analysis. We present our design goals and decisions, including the design specifications of our subset selection query interface, our direct manipulation temporal visual query language (TVQL), and our temporal visualization (TViz) of results. We also present our strategies for implementing MMVIS---focusing in particular on our overall system architecture and the TVQL query processor. Finally, we briefly review a case study using real CSCW data and preliminary results of a user study, used to validate the utility of TVQL and MMVIS. KEYWORDS Interactive visualizations, video analysis, temporal visual...

Dynamic query interfaces (DQIs) are a recently developed database access mechanism that provides continuous real-time feedback to the user during query formulation. Previous work shows that DQIs are an elegant and powerful interface to small databases. Unfortunately, when applied to large databases, previous DQI algorithms slow to a crawl. We present a new incremental approach to DQI algorithms and display updates that works well with large databases, both in theory and in practice. Keywords Data Structure, Algorithm, Database, User Interface, Information Visualization, Direct Manipulation, and Dynamic Query. 1. Dynamic Querying Dynamic query interfaces (DQIs) are a recently developed mechanism for specifying queries and visualizing their results [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 8, 12, 14]. Unlike textual query languages such as SQL, DQIs are graphical. A great advantage of DQIs is that they provide continuous feedback to the user as the query is being formulated. Experiments have shown that quer...

. We present a geometric counting problem that arises in browsing and solve it in constant time per query using nonexhaustive tables. On the other hand, we prove that several closely related problems require exhaustive tables, no matter how much time we allow per query. 1 Introduction In this paper we address some algorithmic problems that arise in connection with browsing a really large collection of datasets. The interface paradigms we present have been developed and user-tested as part of the visual data mining effort (cf. [14]) at the Human--Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) in the University of Maryland. The target application is the EOSDIS collection of datasets in development by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 1.1 What is EOSDIS? The NASA EOSDIS (Earth Observing System Data and Information System) project is attempting to provide online access to a rapidly growing archive of scientific data about the Earth's land, water, and air. Data is col...

We present a new visualization approach for metadata combining different visualizations into a so-called SuperTable accompanied by a Scatterplot. The goal is to improve user experience during the information seeking process. Our new visualizations are based on our experiences developing a visual information retrieval system called INSYDER to supply small and medium size enterprises with business information from the Internet. Based on extensive user tests the original visualizations have been redesigned in two different design variants. Instead of offering multiple visualizations to choose from the SuperTable + Scatterplot combines them in a new way. Therefore, the user has the feeling that he is working with one single visualization in different states. Further the SuperTable solves a problem which seemed to be immanent to visualizations in document retrieval: the change of modalities.

The growth of the global Internet is causing a dramatic change in both the kind of people who access the information and the types of information itself, which range from unstructured multimedia data to traditional record-oriented data. To cope with these new needs, the interaction techniques traditionally offered to DBMS users have to evolve and eventually integrate in a powerful interface to the global information infrastructure. In particular, from the user's point of view there is the need of both effective visualizations of multimedia information and retrieval tools able to overcome the existing dichotomy between browsing and querying. This paper concentrates on the mutual relationship between database querying and Internet navigation, by reviewing some important contributions from different areas, such as information retrieval, database research, and visualization techniques. Keywords: Internet, database, user interaction, visualization 1. Introduction At the beginning, informa...

Data Lineage and Information Density in Database Visualization by Allison Gyle Woodruff Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science University of California at Berkeley Professor Michael Stonebraker, Chair Visual representations of data help users interpret and analyze information. We have identified two key issues in existing visualization systems: data lineage and information density. This dissertation defines these problems and details solutions for them. We show that our techniques can be applied in database visualization systems, and we discuss how they improve the usability of these systems. The data lineage problem occurs when users apply a sequence of processing steps to input data sources; when viewing the final result, these users may wish to trace certain elements in the result back to the original input items. We call these types of queries data lineage queries. Current systems, e.g., geographic information systems or scientific visualization systems, provide little support fo...