Universal visualization platform

• US 20060218563A1
• Filed: 02/01/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University Of Massachusetts
• Original Assignee: University Of Massachusetts
• Inventors: Zhou, Jianping, Yu, Min, Gupta, Vivek, Grinstein, Georges, Goodell, Howard, Cvek, Urska, Smrtic, Mary Beth, Li, Hongli, Lawrence, Christine, Gee, Alexander, Chiang, Chih-Hung
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44552 Conflict resolution, i.e. enabling coexistence of conflicting executables

Abstract

The invention relates to a framework system and methods for connecting a plurality of tools. The system comprises a plug-in mechanism configured to dynamically load the plurality of tools, a data pool having storage space configured to store data sets associated with the plurality of tools, a linking mechanism configured to establish communications links between the loaded plurality of tools to enable coordinated operation of the loaded plurality of tools, a session component configured to record the process history of the operations of the loaded plurality of tool and the system states corresponding to the process history of the operations and an annotation module configured to associate user-provided data corresponding to one or more of the stored data sets.

Claims

1. A framework system for connecting a plurality of tools, the system comprising:

a plug-in mechanism configured to dynamically load the plurality of tools;

a data pool having storage space configured to store data sets associated with the plurality of tools;

a linking mechanism configured to establish communications links between the loaded plurality of tools to enable coordinated operation of the loaded plurality of tools;

a session component configured to record the process history of the operations of the loaded plurality of tool and the system states corresponding to the process history of the operations; and

an annotation module configured to associate user-provided data corresponding to one or more of the stored data sets.

2. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the plug-in mechanism is further configured to:

automatically identify available tools from the plurality of tools;

maintain a list of the connected plurality of tools; and

load at least one of the loaded plurality of tools into memory.

3. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the data pool further includes an interface configured to retrieve at least one of:

a data set, table, view, join, graph, dimension, record, count, value, dimension type, and a data type.

4. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the linking mechanism includes a memory structure for holding linked collections used to define coordination between loaded tools and data sets.

5. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the session mechanism maintains a memory structure with input/output functionality for maintaining the list of user events and system states supporting branching undo/redo history actions, replay history, event/state saving.

6. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the user data provided to the annotation module includes at least one of:

text data, audio data, graphical data, and video data.

7. The framework system of claim 1, further including an application program interface configured to facilitate development of applications operable on the framework system, and to interface with at least one of:

the plug-in mechanism, the linking mechanism, the session component, and the annotation module.

8. The framework system of claim 1, further including a tool program interface configured to facilitate development of dynamically plug-in tools that can be requested and used by the application, and to interface with at least on of:

the data sets, and linked collections.

9. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the data sets are formatted as a table having rows representative of records of the data sets and columns representative of dimensions of the records.

10. The framework system of claim 9, where at least some of the dimensions of the table are configured to store data objects that are at least one of:

non-orderable, orderable, orderable based on measurable characteristics of the data objects, and orderable based on measurable differences between the one or more of the data objects.

11. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the data sets further include metadata descriptors associated with one or more dimensions of data sets, the metadata records are configured to store descriptive information corresponding to the associated dimensions.

12. The framework system of claim 1, wherein the loaded tools include at least one of:

a data visualization tool configured to enable graphic interaction with data, a data analysis tool configured to manipulate and modify the data sets, an import and export tool configured to receive and transmit the data sets, and an external interface tool configure to enable the framework system to communicate with other third-party applications.

13. A data versioning method for restoring data to an earlier state, the method comprising:

recording an initial data set;

performing a plurality of operations on the initial data set to produce a plurality of resultant modified data sets, each of the plurality of the modified data sets representing a corresponding version of the modified data set;

recording in a log the plurality of operations performed on the initial data set; and

re-generating one of the plurality of modified data set corresponding to a particular version of the data set by performing on the initial data set the sequence of operations recorded in the log that produced the one of the plurality of modified data sets.

14. The data versioning method of claim 13, further comprising recording at least some of the produced plurality of resultant modified data sets.

15. The data versioning method of claim 14, wherein regenerating one of the plurality of modified data sets comprises:

identifying from the recorded initial data set and the at least some of the recorded plurality of resultant modified data sets the data set corresponding to the most recent version of the data set preceding the version corresponding to the data set to be re-generated; and

performing the sequence of operations following the identified data set to re-generate the one of the plurality of modified data sets.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising recording system states corresponding to each of the recorded plurality of operations.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the system states includes an associated platform state and an associated tool state.

18. A method for displaying data, the method comprising:

graphically representing, using a graphical object, characteristics of values of a data record;

receiving data from an interacting user to alter the graphical object;

performing operations on the graphical object based on the data from an interacting user; and

causing the data of the data record to be displayed based on the operations performed on the graphical object.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphical object includes an anchor.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the operations include at least one of:

overlapping interaction operator, avoidance interaction operator, switching interaction operator, bounded interaction operator, unbounded interaction operator, bounded group operator, and bound group and switching interaction operator.