EECE 5698

Foundation of Visualization

Data Representation

Yun Raymond Fu
Assistant Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), COE
College of Computer and Information Science (CCIS)
Northeastern University
Example 1: Visualizing a Zipcode

http://benfry.com/zipdecode/

Ben Fry, http://benfry.com/

9****

0****
02***

021**
 Example 2: Visualizing a Music

Viva la Vida
(MUSIC VIDEO)

Mp3 wma rm

Dancing Particles Reflection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bdKMT1znJ0
http://www.whitedots.net/2013/07/29/tutorial-dancing-particles-
reflection/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yeGHyRavAA&feature=related
 Dancing Particles Reflection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bdKMT1znJ0
 Viva la Vida (MUSIC VIDEO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSNyWGc0gsU
Example 3: Visualizing 200 countries, 200 years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
 Visualization Pipeline
Collection Data table can be Rendering components
a table of figures, network, graphs draw the contents of the
a social network graph, and trees visual abstraction into any
a file directory structure, number of interactive
or any other data set. views

mouse and
keyboard
feedback
varying
a data model that
Internal representations perspectives
includes visual
reading in the data from a panning and
features such as
formatted file or database, zooming,
spatial layout, color,
could potentially involve snapshots
size, and shape
transformations.
Information to
draw

http://prefuse.org/doc/manual/introduction/structure/
 Seven Stages of Visualizing Data

Acquire: Obtain the data, whether from a file on a disk or a

source over a network.
Parse: Provide some structure for the datas meaning, and
order it into categories.
Filter: Remove all but the data of interest.
Mine: Apply methods from statistics or data mining as a way
to discern patterns or place the data in mathematical context.
Represent: Choose a basic visual model, such as a bar graph,
list or tree.
Refine: Improve the basic representation to make it clearer
and more visually engaging.
Interact: Add methods for manipulating the data or
controlling what features are visible.

Visualizing Data, Ben Fry, OReilly (2007)

The Visualization Pipeline - Recall

any kind formatted filtered spatial 2D

of data data data data image
Dataset Process Dataset Process Dataset Process Dataset Process Dataset

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

The Visualization Pipeline - Recall

any kind formatted filtered spatial 2D

of data data data data image
Dataset Input Dataset Filtering Dataset Mapping Dataset Rendering Dataset

1. Input data
your primary raw source of information
can be anything (measurements, simulations, databases, )
2. Formatted data
converted to points, cells, attributes (discussed next in this module)
Ready to use for visualization algorithms
3. Filtered data
eliminates the unneeded data, adds the needed information
read and written by visualization algorithms
4. Spatial (mapped) data
has spatial embedding can be drawn
5. 2D Image
final image you look at to get your answers

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

Explosive Era of Data: Did You Know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jDOkzrVew&feature=related
Explosive Era of Data: Did You Know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jDOkzrVew&feature=related
 Data Display Requires Planning

Too Much Information

Data Collection
Thinking About Data
Data Never Stays the Same
What is the Question?
A Combination of Many Disciplines
Process

Visualizing Data, Ben Fry, OReilly (2007)

Subway map

http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
 Two Fundamental Forms of Data
--Bertin (1977)

Entities (data values)

Objects of interest.
People, hurricanes, fish, fishponds
A group of things can be considered as a single entity
Relationships (data structure)
Structures and patterns that relate entities
Structural, physical, conceptual, causal, temporal, etc.
Attributes of Entities or Relationships
Both entities and relationships can have attributes
A property of some entity and cannot be thought of
independently
Color of apple, temperature of water, duration of a journey, etc.

Information Visualization (perception for design) (2nd Edition), Colin Ware, Elsevier Press.
50 Great Examples of Data Visualization
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/
50 Great Examples of Data Visualization
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/
Entityrelationship model ---software engineering

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model
Attribute Quality - Four Measurements
--S.S. Stevens (1946)

Nominal (Labeling function)

Fruits: Apples, Oranges, Banana, etc.
Numbers: On the front of a bus to identify the route
Ordinal (Ordering things in a sequence)
Rank a group of courses in order of preference
Display a gift pool from lowest price to highest
Quantitative: Interval (Gap between data values)
Departure time and arrival time of an aircraft
Temperature of a day
Quantitative: Ratio (A real number for a ratio scale)
Object A is twice as large as object B
Money is defined on a ratio scale

Information Visualization (perception for design) (2nd Edition), Colin Ware, Elsevier Press.
 Typical Data Classes in Visualization

Three Typical Levels of Measurement

Category Data: Nominal class
Integer Data: Ordinal class (discrete and ordered)
Real-number Data: Combine Interval and ratio scales
Some Tricks
Using graphic size to display category information is misleading
If we map measurements to color, we can perceive nominal or ordinal
values with a few discrete steps
Perceiving metric intervals using color is not effective
Many visualization techniques are capable of conveying only nominal
or ordinal data qualities

Information Visualization (perception for design) (2nd Edition), Colin Ware, Elsevier Press.
 Attribute Dimensions and Orders

Dimensions
1D: scalar
2D: two-dimensional vector
3D: three-dimensional vector
>3D: multi-dimensional vector
Orders
scalars
vectors
tensors (high-order) 1-st order 2-nd order
An attribute of an entity can have multiple dimensions.
1D--We can have a single scalar quantity, such as the weight of a
person.
2D/3D-- We can have a vector quantity, such as the direction in which
that person is traveling. vector matrix

Information Visualization (perception for design) (2nd Edition), Colin Ware, Elsevier Press.
 Earth's gravity field as captured by the GOCE satellite gives an unprecedented view of how the force acts on our planet. The
differences in gravitational force are represented using colours that show -100 metres up to 100 metres.

Tensors are higher-order quantities that describe both direction and shear forces.
The gravitational field of the Earth is a three-dimensional attribute of the Earth. In fact, it is a three-dimensional
vector field attribute. If we are interested only in the strength of gravity at the Earths surface, it is a two-
dimensional scalar field attribute.

Dimension: Attributes coordinates, 3D field, 2D field at the surface

Order: attributes value, vector field attribute (direction and strength)

Extraordinary map reveals Earths gravity field for the first time, By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Data Table

www.many-eyes.com
Courtesy of Prof. Hanspeter Pfister, Harvard University.
 Common Data Operations
Mathematical operations (multiplication, division, etc.)
Merging two lists to create a longer list
Inverting a value to create its opposite
Bringing an entity or relationship into existence (such as the
mean of a set of numbers)
Deleting an entity or relationship (a marriage breaks up)
Transforming an entity in some way (the chrysalis turns into a
butterfly)
Forming a new object out of other objects (a pie is baked from
apples and pastry)
Splitting a single entity into its component parts (a machine is
disassembled)
Information Visualization (perception for design) (2nd Edition), Colin Ware, Elsevier Press.
 Metadata
Metadata is "data about other data", of any sort in any media.
Describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection
of data with multiple content items and hierarchical levels.
About the context, quality and condition, or characteristics
Data elements or attributes, (name, size, data type, etc.)
Records or data structures (length, fields, columns, etc.)
About data (location, how it is associated, ownership, etc.)
Example: A digital audio file, such as an MP3 of a song, might
include the album name, song title, genre, year, composer,
contributing artist, track number and album art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata
 Quantities of Data
Intrinsically Continuous and Intrinsically Discrete
Continuous: pressure, temperature, position, speed, density,
force, color, light intensity, and electromagnetic radiation.
Discrete: hypermedia, e.g. text and image, contents of web
pages, software source code, plain text, database records.
Continuous data are often manipulated in finite approximated
form Sampled Data.
Sampled data are also discrete with finite set of elements.
Difference
Sampled data have corresponding continuous
approximation of the original intrinsically continuous data
Intrinsically discrete data has no counterpart in the
continuous world

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

 Continuous Data

Cauchy definition of continuity

A function f is continuous iff

C0 discontinuous (graph of function has holes)

C1 first-order continuous (graph of function has kinks)
Ck first k derivatives of the function are continuous

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

 Sampled Data
We do not always process data in its continuous, functional,
representation.
Operations, such as filtering, simplification, denoising,
analysis, and rendering, are not easy, nor efficient, to perform
on continuous data representation.
Two operations relate sampled data and continuous data
Sampling
Reconstruction
The reconstruction operation is operated by interpolation.

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

 Visualization data properties

Sampling
(data importing) Reconstruction

Sampling Reconstruction

Continuous data Measurements (samples) Continuous data, as close as possible to input

at discrete set of points

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

 Requirements for Sampled Data
Accurate: control the production of a sampled set so that the
continuous set can be reconstructed with arbitrarily small error.
Minimal: the sampled set contains the least number of sample
points needed to ensure a reconstruction with desired error.
Generic: can easily replace the data processing operations for
the continuous set with equivalent counterparts for the
sampled set.
Efficient: both reconstruction and data processing performed
on the sampled set can be done efficiently.
Simple: can design simple software implementation of
sampled set and the operations performed on it.

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

Color mapping

Basic idea
Map each scalar value f R at a point to a color via a function c : [0,1] [0,1]3

Color tables
precompute (sample) c and save results into a table {ci }i=1.. N
index table by normalized scalar values

input data scalar value f

determine input range scalar value range [fmin , fmax]

f - fmin
normalize input to [0,N] i=N
fmax - fmin

i
Color mapping ci = c c :[0,1] [0,1]3
N desired color
color table transfer function
f is color-mapped to ci

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

 Colormap design

What makes a good colormap?

map scalar values to colors intuitively

so we can visually invert the mapping to tell scalar values from colors

Recall example in Module 1

Data values mapped to RGB colors via a colormap

x,y Invert mapping:

1.look at some point (x,y) in the image color c
2.locate c in colormap at some position p
3.use the colormap legend to derive data value s from p

blue=0 red=100
p answer: s = 90

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

Rainbow colormap

probably the most (in)famous in data visualization

intuitive heat map meaning
cold colors = low values
warm colors = high values

Simple to implement
(see Sec. 5.2)

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

Gray-value colormap
brightness = value
natural in some domains (X-ray, angiography)
2D slice in 3D CT dataset
Scalar value: tissue density

Gray-value colormap Rainbow colormap

white = hard tissues (bone) red = hard tissues (bone)
gray = soft tissues (flesh) blue = air
black = air other colors = soft tissues
Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides
Colormap comparison

2D slice in 3D hydrogen atom potential field

Heat colormap Heat colormap Gray-value colormap

maxima highlighted well maxima not prominent maxima are highlighted well
lower values better lower values better lower values are unclear
separable than with separable
gray-value colormap

Which is the better colormap? Depends on the application context!

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides
Colormap comparison

2D slice in 3D pressure field in an engine

A. Gray-value colormap B. Purple-to-green colormap
maxima highlighted well maxima highlighted well
low-contrast good high-low separation

C. Red-to-green colormap D. Random

luminance not used equal-value zones visible
color-blind problems.. little use for the rest

Which is the better colormap? Depends on the application context!

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides
Colormap design techniques

We cannot give universal design rules

but some technical guidelines/tricks still exist

1. Fully use the perceptual spectrum

colormap entries should differ in more, rather than less, HSV components

scalar value ~ V; H,S not used

scalar value ~ H; S,V not used

scalar value ~ H,V; S not used

2. Colormap should be easily invertible

avoid colormap entries with
similar HSV entries
which are perceived as similar (see color blindness issues)
which are hard to perceive (e.g. dark or strongly desaturated colors)
Good design guidelines: www.colorbrewer.org
Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides
Colormap design techniques

3. Design based on what you need to emphasize

specific value ranges
specific values
value change rate (1st derivative of scalar data)
-10( x 4 +y 4 )
2D function f (x, y) = e

Gray-scale colormap Zebra colormap

highlights plateaus highlights value variations (1st derivative)
value transitions hard dense, thin bands: fast variation
to see thick bands: slow variation

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

Colormap implementation details

Where to apply the colormap?

per grid-cell vertex

2D periodic high-frequency function

64x64 points 32x32 points 16x16 points

As we decrease the sampling frequency, strong colormapping artifacts appear

Why is this so?

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

 Colormap implementation details

Where to apply the colormap?

per pixel drawn better results than per-vertex colormapping
done using 1D textures
2D periodic high-frequency function

64x64 points 32x32 points 16x16 points

Explanation
per-vertex: f c( f )interpolation(c( f )) color interpolation can fall outside colormap!
per-pixel: f interpolation( f ) c(interpolation( f )) colors always stay in colormap

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

Color banding
How many distinct colors N to use in a color table?
more colors: better sampled c thus smoother results
fewer colors: color banding appears

color banding

Question
can we see sharp color banding
with per-vertex colormapping?
Why (not)?

Alexandru C. Telea , http://www.cs.rug.nl/svcg/DataVisualizationBook/Slides

 Reconstruction Function
Definition

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

 Example

Gaussian function reconstruction with constant basis functions

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

 Characteristics of Visualization Data
Data has a topological dimension
Determines methods for visualization
Determines data representation
Examples
0D - points
1D - lines/Curves
2D - surfaces
3D volumes

Data is organized into datasets for visualization

Datasets consist of two pieces
Organizing structure
cells (topology)
points (geometry)
Data attributes associated with the structure
File format derived from organizing structure

Ray Gasser, Boston University, SCV Visualization Workshop Fall 2008

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
 Organizing Structure
Topology
The way in which constituent parts are interrelated or arranged
Specified by one or more cells
vertex - (0D) point
polyvertex - (0D) arbitrarily ordered list of points
line - (1D) defined by two points
polyline - (1D) ordered list of one or more connected lines
triangle - (2D) ordered list of three points
triangle strip - (2D) ordered list of n + 2 points (n is the number of triangles)
polygon - (2D) ordered list of three or more points lying in a plane
pixel - (2D) ordered list of four points with geometric constraints
quadrilateral - (2D) - ordered list of four points lying in a plane
tetrahedron - (3D) ordered list of four nonplanar points
voxel - (3D) ordered list of eight nonplanar points with geometric constraints
hexahedron - (3D) ordered list of eight nonplanar points

Ray Gasser, Boston University, SCV Visualization Workshop Fall 2008

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
 Reconstruction with Grids
Reconstruct continuous functions from sampled data provided
at the vertices of the cells of a given grid,
A grid in terms of a set of cells defined by a set of sample
points
Some sampled values at the cell centers or cell vertices
A set of basis functions
We can define a piecewise continuous reconstruction of the
sampled signal on this grid and work with it in similar ways to
what we do with the continuous signal.

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

Cell Types

Ray Gasser, Boston University, SCV Visualization Workshop Fall 2008

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
 Four Types of Grids
Uniform Grids
Cell edges are uniformly sampled and axis-aligned
Simple and efficient
But limited modeling power
Rectilinear Grids
Still axis-aligned, but relax the constraint of equal sampling distances for a given axis
The sample point density can be changed only one axis at a time
Visualization capability is still limited
Structured Grids
Allow explicit placement of every sample point
Preserve the matrix-like ordering of the sample points
Can be seen as the free deformation of a uniform or rectilinear grid
Can not model the shapes with different topologies
Unstructured Grids
The most general and flexible grid type
Allow us to define both sample points and cells explicitly
Define every cell separately and independently of the other cells
Cells of different type and even dimensionality can be freely mixed in the same grid

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.

Uniform Grids

Google.com, image search

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
Rectilinear Grids

Google.com, image search

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
Structured Grids

Google.com, image search

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
Unstructured Grids

Google.com, image search

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
 Data Attributes
Data attributes associated with the organizing structure
Scalars
single valued
examples: temperature, pressure, density, elevation
Vectors
magnitude and direction
examples: velocity, momentum
Normals
direction vectors (magnitude of 1) used for shading
Texture Coordinates
used to map a point in Cartesian space into 1, 2, or 3D texture space
used for texture mapping
Tensors (generalizations of scalars, vectors and matrices)
rank 0 ( scalar), rank 1 (vector), rank 2 (matrix), rank3 (3D rectangular array)
examples: stress, strain

Ray Gasser, Boston University, SCV Visualization Workshop Fall 2008

Data Visualization (principles and practice), Alexandru C. Telea., A K Peters, Ltd.
An Online Data Source: Many-Eyes

www.many-eyes.com