Data visualization using level of detail magnification

• US 10,089,372 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Werner, Horst
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): McGhee, Tracy
• Application Number:
  US14/274,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: 707722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour

Abstract

A visualization engine may provide, on a screen, a visual display of an object, the object being associated with object data having a data display size smaller than a visual threshold and therefore not displayed on the screen. The visualization engine may include a request handler configured to receive a magnification request to magnify the object at a magnification speed, a threshold manager configured to determine a data threshold at which fetching of the object data must be initiated to ensure receipt thereof prior to the visual threshold being reached, and an object comparator configured to initiate fetching of the object data, based on the visual threshold, the data threshold, and the magnification speed. The visualization engine may then display the object data within the object upon magnification of the object meeting the visual threshold.

Claims

1. A system including instructions recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:

a visualization engine configured to cause the at least one processor to provide, on a screen, a visual display of an object, the object being associated with object data stored in a database and having a data display size smaller than a visual threshold and therefore not displayed on the screen, the visualization engine including

a request handler configured to receive a magnification request to magnify the object at a magnification speed,

a threshold manager configured to determine, based on the magnification speed, a data threshold defined with respect to a screen size of the screen, at which fetching of the object data from the database must be initiated to ensure receipt thereof prior to the visual threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data, based on a round trip retrieval time of the object data from the database, and

an object size comparator configured to initiate fetching of the object data from the database, in response to the data threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data,

wherein the visualization engine is configured to display the object data, as fetched from the database, within the object upon magnification of the object data meeting the visual threshold, and

further wherein the system includes a template repository storing a plurality of layout templates, wherein the plurality of layout templates are stored in a hierarchical structure in which layout templates are embedded within one another at each level of the hierarchical structure.

2. The system of claim 1, comprising a template selector configured to cause the at least one processor to select a layout template, from the plurality of layout templates, wherein the visualization engine is further configured to cause the at least one processor to instantiate the layout template using the object data to provide the visual display of the object, including the object data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the object is associated with a first layout template at a first level of the hierarchical structure, and the object includes an embedded, second layout template at a second level of the hierarchical structure associated with a second object, which itself includes an embedded, third layout template at a third level of the hierarchical structure associated with a third object.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the threshold manager is further configured to determine that the third object has exceeded the data threshold, and the object comparator is configured to initiate fetching of third object data based on the visual threshold, the data threshold, and the magnification speed.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the visualization engine is configured to cause the at least one processor to display the third object data upon magnification of the third object meeting the visual threshold.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the threshold manager is further configured to determine that the second object has exceeded a structural threshold, and a template selector is configured to instantiate the second layout template at the second level using fetched second object data that was previously fetched in response to the exceeding of the second object of the data threshold.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the visual threshold and the data threshold are defined in terms of pixels of the screen, as obtained from a screen size monitor.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the request handler is further configured to receive a request for a visualization of plurality of data elements, the request including a common property, the visualization engine further including

a property filter configured to filter the plurality of data elements based on the common property, to obtain data subsets,

a template selector configured to access grouping criterion linking the common property with at least one layout template selected from the plurality of layout templates and providing a geometric representation of the common property, and

a layout engine configured to generate, based on the at least one layout template, a plurality of visual bundlers, one of the visual bundlers representing the object, and each visual bundler corresponding to a data subset of the data subsets,

wherein the visualization engine is further configured to cause the at least one processor to display the visual bundlers, each illustrating its corresponding data subset, to thereby provide the visualization in a manner that conveys the common property and a relationship of the data subsets to one another in the context of the common property.

9. A computer-implemented method for executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the method comprising:

providing, on a screen, a visual display of an object, the object being associated with object data stored in a database and having a data display size smaller than a visual threshold and therefore not displayed on the screen;

receiving a magnification request to magnify the object at a magnification speed;

determining, based on the magnification speed, a data threshold defined with respect to a screen size of the screen at which fetching of the object data from the database must be initiated to ensure receipt thereof prior to the visual threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data, based on a round trip retrieval time of the object data from the database;

initiating fetching of the object data from the database, in response to the data threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data; and

displaying the object data, as fetched from the database, within the object upon magnification of the object data meeting the visual threshold, including selecting a layout template from a plurality of layout templates stored using a template repository, and instantiating the layout template using the object data to provide the visual display of the object, including the object data,

wherein the plurality of layout templates are stored in a hierarchical structure in which layout templates are embedded within one another at each level of the hierarchical structure.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the visual threshold and the data threshold are defined in terms of pixels of the screen, as obtained from a screen size monitor.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one computing device, are configured to cause at least one computing device to:

provide, on a screen, a visual display of an object, the object being associated with object data stored in a database and having a data display size smaller than a visual threshold and therefore not displayed on the screen;

receive a magnification request to magnify the object at a magnification speed;

determine, based on the magnification speed, a data threshold defined with respect to a screen size of the screen at which fetching of the object data from the database must be initiated to ensure receipt thereof prior to the visual threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data, based on a round trip retrieval time of the object data from the database;

initiate fetching of the object data from the database in response to the data threshold being reached by the data display size of the object data;

determine that the object data has exceeded a structural threshold defined with respect to the screen size that is larger than the data threshold and smaller than the visual threshold;

instantiate a layout template using the fetched object data, based on the exceeding of the structural threshold; and

display the object data, as fetched from the database, within the instantiated layout template and within the object upon magnification of the object data meeting the visual threshold,

wherein the layout template is selected from a template repository storing a plurality of layout templates, wherein the plurality of layout templates are stored in a hierarchical structure in which layout templates are embedded within one another at each level of the hierarchical structure.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further configured to cause the at least one processor to select the layout template, from a plurality of layout templates.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the object is associated with a first layout template at a first level of the hierarchical structure, and the object includes an embedded, second layout template at a second level of the hierarchical structure associated with a second object, which itself includes an embedded, third layout template at a third level of the hierarchical structure associated with a third object.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further configured to cause the at least one processor to

determine that the third object has exceeded the data threshold;

and

initiate fetching of third object data based on the visual threshold, the data threshold, and the magnification speed.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further configured to cause the at least one processor to display the third object data upon magnification of the third object meeting the visual threshold.