Premium
Managing Spatial Selections With Contextual Snapshots
Author(s) -
Mindek P.,
Gröller M. E.,
Bruckner S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/cgf.12406
Subject(s) - computer science , generality , visualization , semantics (computer science) , context (archaeology) , visual analytics , information visualization , spatial analysis , data visualization , human–computer interaction , spatial contextual awareness , data mining , information retrieval , artificial intelligence , programming language , psychology , paleontology , remote sensing , biology , psychotherapist , geology
Abstract Spatial selections are a ubiquitous concept in visualization. By localizing particular features, they can be analysed and compared in different views. However, the semantics of such selections often depend on specific parameter settings and it can be difficult to reconstruct them without additional information. In this paper, we present the concept of contextual snapshots as an effective means for managing spatial selections in visualized data. The selections are automatically associated with the context in which they have been created. Contextual snapshots can also be used as the basis for interactive integrated and linked views, which enable in‐place investigation and comparison of multiple visual representations of data. Our approach is implemented as a flexible toolkit with well‐defined interfaces for integration into existing systems. We demonstrate the power and generality of our techniques by applying them to several distinct scenarios such as the visualization of simulation data, the analysis of historical documents and the display of anatomical data.