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Open Access 2023 | Open Access | Book

Cover of the book

Visualization of Time-Oriented Data

Authors: Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Publisher: Springer London

Book Series : Human–Computer Interaction Series

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About this book

This is an open access book.

Time is an exceptional dimension with high relevance in medicine, engineering, business, science, biography, history, planning, or project management. Understanding time-oriented data via visual representations enables us to learn from the past in order to predict, plan, and build the future.

This second edition builds upon the great success of the first edition. It maintains a brief introduction to visualization and a review of historical time-oriented visual representations. At its core, the book develops a systematic view of the visualization of time-oriented data. Separate chapters discuss interaction techniques and computational methods for supporting the visual data analysis. Many examples and figures illustrate the introduced concepts and techniques.

So, what is new for the second edition? First of all, the second edition is now published as an open-access book so that anyone interested in the visualization of time and time-oriented data can read it. Second, the entire content has been revised and expanded to represent state-of-the-art knowledge. The chapter on interaction support now includes advanced methods for interacting with visual representations of time-oriented data. The second edition also covers the topics of data quality as well as segmentation and labeling. The comprehensive survey of classic and contemporary visualization techniques now provides more than 150 self-contained descriptions accompanied by illustrations and corresponding references. A completely new chapter describes how the structured survey can be used for the guided selection of suitable visualization techniques.

For the second edition, our TimeViz Browser, the digital pendant to the survey of visualization techniques, received a major upgrade. It includes the same set of techniques as the book, but comes with additional filter and search facilities allowing scientists and practitioners to find exactly the solutions they are interested in.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Open Access

Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
Space and time are two outstanding dimensions because, in conjunction, they represent the four-dimensional space or simply the world we are living in. Basically, every piece of data we measure is related and often only meaningful within the context of space and time. Consider, for example, the price of a barrel of oil. The data value of $129 alone is not very useful. Only if assessed in the context of where (space) and when (time) is the oil price valid, and only then it is possible to meaningfully interpret the cost of $129.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 2. Historical Background
Abstract
This chapter takes a look back in time and presents a selection of historical visual representations of time-oriented data. The representation of time in the arts is a second aspect covered in this chapter.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 3. Time and Time-Oriented Data
Abstract
This chapter investigates in detail the characteristics of time and time-oriented data. Design aspects for modeling time and time-oriented data are introduced and discussed using examples. The chapter also sheds some light on data quality.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 4. Crafting Visualizations of Time-Oriented Data
Abstract
Many different types of data are related to time. Meteorological data, financial data, census data, medical data, simulation data, news articles, photo collections, or project plans, to name only a few examples, all contain temporal information. In theory, because all these data are time-oriented, they should be representable with one and the same visualization approach. In practice, however, the data exhibit specific characteristics and hence each of the above examples requires a dedicated visualization.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 5. Involving the Human via Interaction
Abstract
This chapter explains why involving the human is important when visually analyzing time and time-oriented data. Some general assertions will be made and basic interaction concepts introduced. The chapter also covers advanced interaction methods and goes beyond mouse and keyboard interaction.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 6. Computational Analysis Support
Abstract
This chapter is concerned with computational methods to support the analysis of time-oriented data. A general overview of temporal data analysis is provided and specific application examples will be used for demonstration.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 7. Guiding the Selection of Visualization Techniques
Abstract
This chapter describes how researchers and practitioners can be guided in making informed decisions when selecting visualization techniques for time and time-oriented data. The TimeViz Browser is introduced and a general conceptual model for guided search for visualization techniques is outlined.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski

Open Access

Chapter 8. Conclusion
Abstract
This chapter briefly summarizes the content of the book and describes practical concerns of visualizing time-oriented data in real-world data settings. Visual analytics is briefly outlined as a modern approach that combines visualization, interaction, and computational analysis more tightly to facilitate data analysis activities better. Finally, research opportunities for future work are discussed.
Wolfgang Aigner, Silvia Miksch, Heidrun Schumann, Christian Tominski
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Visualization of Time-Oriented Data
Authors
Wolfgang Aigner
Silvia Miksch
Heidrun Schumann
Christian Tominski
Copyright Year
2023
Publisher
Springer London
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4471-7527-8
Print ISBN
978-1-4471-7526-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7527-8