GRAMMAR CHECKER FOR VISUALIZATION

• US 20090326921A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krishnan, Murali R., Robertson, George G., Ruble, Brian Scott, Boon, Sean Michael, Nielsen, Jakob Peter, McCoy, Nathan Paul, Ehrenberg, Michael, Chan, Stella Yick, Weber, Jason Joseph, Lee, Joshua Wyndham, Morein, William G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,229,735 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3604 Software analysis for verifying properties of programs byte-code verification G06F9/44589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules

Abstract

A visualization development system is provided. The system includes a visualization tool to develop one or more visualizations and a grammar engine that operates with the visualization tool to automatically detect visualization problems during the development of the visualizations.

Claims

1. A visualization development system, comprising:

a visualization tool to develop one or more visualizations; and

a grammar engine that operates with the visualization tool to automatically detect visualization problems during the development of the visualizations.

2. The system of claim 1, the development of the visualizations includes design, layout, creation, simulation, animation, views, and production of the visualizations.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a feedback component to generate grammar suggestions to a user or integrate feedback with the visualizations.

4. The system of claim 1, the visualization tool includes a mathematical component, a data mining component, a modeling component, a graphical component, a concept component, or an information component.

5. The system of claim 1, the grammar engine analyzes visual settings, data options, layout options, color options, line settings, shape configurations, text options, coordinates, trees, maps, charts, or tables.

6. The system of claim 1, the grammar engine employs rules or heuristics to analyze user commands, actions, or gestures when designing or manipulating visualizations.

7. The system of claim 6, the grammar engine is fed from a data mining component or a learning component to enhance the rules or heuristics.

8. The system of claim 1, the grammar engine generates errors or warnings when detecting problems with a visualization output or visualization input.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to generate automated suggestions on how to locate related data for a visualization.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a simulation component that can receive feedback from the grammar engine.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to store one or more visualization patterns.

12. The system of claim 11, the visualization patterns are associated with valid user actions.

13. The system of claim 11, the visualization patterns are associated with changing the values of data.

14. The system of claim 11, the visualizations patterns are associated with a work-flow process.

15. The system of claim 1, the grammar engine includes a control language for a generating a visualization.

16. A visualization development method, comprising:

monitoring a plurality of user commands during development of one or more visualizations;

applying rules or heuristics to the user commands;

determining if the user commands conform to the rules or heuristics;

generating feedback to a user if the user commands do not conform to the rules or heuristics; and

generating one or more visualization options after applying the rules or heuristics.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating one or more options for locating related data to the visualizations.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising simulating the visualizations in accordance with the feedback.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising integrating the feedback with the visualizations.

20. A visualization system, comprising:

means for generating a visualization;

means for checking input associated with generating the visualization; and

means for receiving feedback relating to errors or warnings associated with the visualization.