Data visualization methods, data visualization devices, data visualization apparatuses, and articles of manufacture

• US 20070094592A1
• Filed: 10/21/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: Turner, Alan, Cook, Kristin, Payne, Deborah, Hetzler, Elizabeth, Crow, Vernon
• Granted Patent: US 9,069,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Data visualization methods, data visualization devices, data visualization apparatuses, and articles of manufacture are described according to some aspects. In one aspect, a data visualization method includes accessing a plurality of initial documents at a first moment in time, first processing the initial documents providing processed initial documents, first identifying a plurality of first associations of the initial documents using the processed initial documents, generating a first visualization depicting the first associations, accessing a plurality of additional documents at a second moment in time after the first moment in time, second processing the additional documents providing processed additional documents, second identifying a plurality of second associations of the additional documents and at least some of the initial documents, wherein the second identifying comprises identifying using the processed initial documents and the processed additional documents, and generating a second visualization depicting the second associations.

Claims

1. A data visualization method comprising:

accessing a plurality of initial documents at a first moment in time;

first processing the initial documents providing processed initial documents;

first identifying a plurality of first associations of the initial documents using the processed initial documents;

generating a first visualization depicting the first associations;

accessing a plurality of additional documents at a second moment in time after the first moment in time;

second processing the additional documents providing processed additional documents;

second identifying a plurality of second associations of the additional documents and at least some of the initial documents, wherein the second identifying comprises identifying using the processed initial documents and the processed additional documents; and

generating a second visualization depicting the second associations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first processing comprises identifying the presence of a plurality of initial features within the initial documents.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the second identifying comprises identifying without identifying the presence of the initial features within the initial documents after the first processing.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising providing the initial features in a vocabulary list comprising features present within the initial documents, associating the initial features with respective unique identifiers, and forming an index associating individual ones of the initial documents with the unique identifiers corresponding to the initial features present in respective ones of the initial documents.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the second processing comprises identifying the presence of a plurality of additional features within the additional documents, and further comprising:

associating the additional features with respective unique identifiers; and

providing an updated index by associating individual ones of the additional documents with a plurality of the unique identifiers corresponding to the initial and additional features present in the respective additional documents.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the forming the index and the providing the updated index individually comprise forming a forward index configured to identify, for an individual one of the documents, the features present in the respective document, and further comprising generating reverse indices of the index and the updated index individually configured to identify, for individual ones of the features of the vocabulary list, the documents in which the respective feature is present.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the first and the second identifyings of the first and the second associations individually comprise identifying using the forward and reverse initial indices and the forward and reverse additional indices, respectively.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising removing some of the initial documents before the second moment in time and wherein the second visualization does not include the removed ones of the initial documents.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a snapshot of one of the first associations and the second associations, and generating a respective one of the first visualization and second visualization using the snapshot at another moment in time after the generating the second visualization.

10. A data visualization method comprising:

operating in an active mode comprising;

displaying an image comprising a plurality of associations of a plurality of first documents at a first moment in time;

accessing a plurality of second documents at a second moment in time after the first moment in time;

associating at least some of the first and second documents with one another; and

displaying an updated image using the associations of the at least some of the first and second documents;

operating in a paused mode at a third moment in time after the operating in the active mode, the operating in the paused mode comprising;

accessing a plurality of third documents after the second moment in time; and

continuing to display the updated image using the associations of the at least some of the first and second documents at the second moment in time; and

operating in the active mode at a fourth moment in time after the operating in the paused mode.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising associating the third documents with at least some of the first and the second documents during the operating in the paused mode.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising, during the operating in the active mode at the fourth moment in time, displaying an additional updated image using the associations of the first, second and third documents at the fourth moment in time.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the accessing and the displaying of the active mode comprise continually accessing and displaying at a plurality of moments in time without user input during the operating in the active mode before the third moment in time.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising interacting with the updated image during the paused mode, and synchronizing the operating in the active mode at the fourth moment in time with the interacting.

15. A data visualization apparatus comprising:

a display configured to depict a plurality of visual images;

processing circuitry coupled with the display and configured to access a plurality of documents and to control the display to depict the images using information of the documents; and

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control depiction of the images comprising information regarding a plurality of quantities of documents received by the data visualization apparatus at a plurality of different moments in time, and to control the depiction of at least a portion of at least one of the quantities of the documents distinguished from another quantity of the documents.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the depiction of the images comprising information regarding publication of the quantities of documents at a plurality of different moments in time.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify the portion using time information of when the documents are received by the data visualization apparatus.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify the portion as corresponding to documents which were most recently received by the data visualization apparatus compared with reception of documents of the other quantities of the documents.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify the portion as corresponding to documents which have dates of reception greater than a threshold.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify the portion as corresponding to documents which have dates of reception less than a threshold.

21. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the different moments in time comprise moments in time over a fixed length of time relative to present time.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to remove quantities of documents from the images responsive to the respective documents of the removed quantities of documents having a date of reception greater than a threshold relative to the present time.

23. A data visualization apparatus comprising:

a display configured to depict visual images;

processing circuitry coupled with the display and configured to operate in an active mode at a first moment in time and a paused mode at a second moment in time after the first moment in time;

wherein the processing circuitry, during operations in the active mode, is configured to access a plurality of different documents at a plurality of moments in time after the first moment in time, to associate the documents with one another at a plurality of moments in time, and to control the display to depict a plurality of images illustrating associations of the documents at a plurality of moments in time; and

wherein the processing circuitry, during operations in the paused mode, is configured to control the display to depict the image of the associations of the documents at the second moment in time when the paused mode was initiated.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry, during operations in the paused mode, is configured to continue to access documents at a plurality of moments in time after the second moment in time, and to associate the documents with one another during the operations in the paused mode.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the display to depict only the same image of the associations during the operations in the paused mode.

26. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the display to depict only the same image of the associations during the operations in the paused mode.

27. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to resume operations in the active mode at a third moment in time after the operations in the paused mode, and to control the display to depict images illustrating associations of the documents at the third moment in time.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to receive user input during the operations in the paused mode to interact with the documents, and to synchronize the user input with an updating of the image which depicts the associations of the documents during the operations in the paused mode.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the processing circuitry, during the operations in the initial active mode, is configured to automatically update the images showing the associations of the documents at the plurality of moments in time without user input, to suspend updating of the images during the operations in the paused mode, and to resume automatic updating of the images after the operations in the paused mode and using the documents accessed after resumption of operations in the active mode.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 further comprising switching operations between the active and paused modes of operations responsive to user input.

31. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the display to depict an image showing the associations of the documents present in the data visualization apparatus when the operations of the active mode are resumed.

32. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access user input and to operate in the active mode and the paused mode responsive to the user input.

33. The apparatus of claim 23 further comprising a communications interface configured to receive the documents, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access the documents responsive to the reception of the documents by the communications interface.

34. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access information regarding times of reception of the documents by the data visualization apparatus, and to remove associations of at least some of the documents in the images responsive to the times of reception.

35. An article of manufacture comprising:

media comprising programming configured to control processing circuitry to implement processing comprising;

accessing a plurality of initial documents at a first moment in time;

first processing the initial documents providing processed initial documents;

first identifying a plurality of first associations of the initial documents using the processed initial documents;

controlling a display to depict a first visualization of the first associations;

accessing a plurality of additional documents at a second moment in time after the first moment in time;

second processing the additional documents providing processed additional documents;

second identifying a plurality of second associations of the additional documents and at least some of the initial documents, wherein the second identifying comprises identifying using the processed initial documents and the processed additional documents; and

controlling a display to depict a second visualization of the second associations.

36. The article of claim 35 wherein the first processing comprises identifying the presence of a plurality of initial features within the initial documents.

37. The article of claim 36 wherein the second identifying comprises identifying without identifying the presence of the initial features within the initial documents.

38. The article of claim 36 wherein the programming is configured to control the processing circuitry to implement processing comprising generating an index associating individual ones of the initial documents with a plurality of unique identifiers corresponding to the initial features present in respective ones of the initial documents.

39. The article of claim 38 wherein the programming is configured to control the processing circuitry to implement processing comprising generating an updated index after the first moment in time including associating individual ones of the additional documents with a plurality of additional unique identifiers corresponding to the initial features and a plurality of additional features present in respective ones of the additional documents, and adding the associations of the additional documents and additional unique identifiers to the index to generate the updated index.

40. The article of claim 39 wherein the programming is configured to control the processing circuitry to implement processing comprising generating a plurality of reverse indices using the index and the updated index.

41. The article of claim 40 wherein the first identifying comprises identifying using the index and the reverse index corresponding thereto and the second identifying comprises identifying using the updated index and the reverse index corresponding thereto.

42. The article of claim 35 wherein the programming is configured to control the processing circuitry to implement processing comprising removing some of the initial documents before the second processing and the second visualization does not include the removed ones of the initial documents.