VISUAL DATA ANALYSIS FOR LARGE DATA SETS

• US 20140218383A1
• Filed: 02/07/2013
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Manish
• Granted Patent: US 9,495,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/163 Handling of whitespace
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A system and method for illustrating enterprise data. An example method includes accessing data from an enterprise application, wherein the data is organized into one or more objects; categorizing the one or more objects based on a grouping criterion, resulting in one or more groups of one or more categorized objects in response thereto; displaying representations of the one or more categorized objects as nodes of a visualization such that each node is positioned in a section of the visualization according to a group associated with the node, resulting in one or more sections of nodes corresponding to the one or more groups; and adjusting a luminance of each node based on a node-appearance criterion. The visualization may be automatically sectioned based on a select combination of user-specified data attributes or criteria, where the selected combination yields a visualization with the most dark nodes in a given section.

Claims

1. A method for illustrating enterprise data, the method comprising:

accessing data from an enterprise application, wherein the data is organized into one or more objects;

categorizing the one or more objects based on a first criterion, resulting in one or more groups of one or more categorized objects in response thereto;

displaying representations of the one or more categorized objects as nodes of a visualization such that each node is positioned in a section of the visualization according to a group associated with the node, resulting in one or more sections of nodes corresponding to the one or more groups; and

adjusting a luminance of each node based on a second criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein categorizing further includes providing a user option to specify plural criteria for affecting a visualization, and automatically grouping the one or more objects, in accordance with a combination of criteria chosen from among the plural criteria, to result in display of a set of visualization sections characterized by a section with a maximum number of least luminous nodes in a section.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein categorizing further includes providing a user option to specify plural criteria for affecting a visualization, and automatically grouping the one or more objects, in accordance with a combination of criteria chosen from among the plural criteria, to result in display of a set of visualization sections characterized by a section with a maximum density of least luminous nodes in a section.

4. The method of claim 1, further including providing a first user option to adjust the first criterion in accordance with a first data attribute.

5. The method of claim 4, further including visually encoding the first data attribute by re-categorizing the one or more categorized objects based on the first data attribute, and re-sectioning the visualization in response thereto, resulting in display of new sections with sizes and shapes based on nodes of each category based on the first attribute and specified via the first criterion.

6. The method of claim 1, further including providing a second user option to adjust the second criterion in accordance with a second data attribute, and visually encoding the second data attribute by adjusting a luminosity of each node based on the second data attribute.

7. The method of claim 1, further including sorting each node in each of the one or more sections according to a third criterion.

8. The method of claim 7, further including providing a user option to adjust the third criterion in accordance with a third data attribute, and visually encoding the third data attribute by a node sort order in response thereto.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the node sort order includes a sort order based on a performance evaluation metric associated with persons represented by nodes.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a luminance of each node includes adjusting a transparency of each node based on an attribute specified via the second criterion, thereby visually encoding the second attribute in accordance with variations in transparency of each node.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a luminance of each node includes adjusting a luminance of each node relative to a maximum and minimum luminance value of displayed nodes, thereby adjusting a contrast of each node based on the second criterion.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a luminance of each node includes generating an oscillation in luminance of each node, when a value of a node as specified via the second criterion surpasses a threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein each node conveys granular data not corresponding to a summarization of data from plural data objects.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each node is represented by a single displayed pixel.

15. The method of claim 1, further including:

sectioning nodes based on a second attribute specified via the second criterion, resulting in sectioned nodes grouped into different visualization sections in response thereto;

for each sectioned node, assigning a luminosity value thereto in accordance with a first attribute specified via the first criterion, thereby visually encoding the first attribute via luminosity values assigned to nodes;

arranging each sectioned node in each section according to a third criterion;

adjusting dimensions of each section, such that each section is rectangular; and

arranging different sections so that total white space between adjacent sections is minimized and so that the different sections fit within a fixed width assigned to the visualization.

16. The method of claim 15, further including providing a user option to change the first criterion, thereby triggering re-sectioning of nodes in accordance with one or more data attributes specified via the first criterion, and wherein the first criterion includes a specification of plural data attributes.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first criterion includes a specification of a combination of a job code attribute and compensation attribute for enterprise personnel represented by a node.

18. The method of claim 15, further including providing a user option to select one or more rectangular visualization sections of the visualization to facilitate triggering an action based on a selected visualization section.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a digital processor coupled to a display and to a processor-readable storage device, wherein the processor-readable storage device includes one or more instructions executable by the digital processor to perform the following acts;

accessing data from an enterprise application, wherein the data is organized into one or more objects;

categorizing the one or more objects based on a first criterion, resulting in one or more groups of one or more categorized objects in response thereto;

displaying representations of the one or more categorized objects as nodes of a visualization such that each node is positioned in a section of the visualization according to a group associated with the node, resulting in one or more sections of nodes corresponding to the one or more groups; and

adjusting a luminance of each node based on a second criterion.

20. A processor-readable storage device including instructions executable by a digital processor, the processor-readable storage device including one or more instructions for:

accessing data from an enterprise application, wherein the data is organized into one or more objects;

categorizing the one or more objects based on a first criterion, resulting in one or more groups of one or more categorized objects in response thereto;

displaying representations of the one or more categorized objects as nodes of a visualization such that each node is positioned in a section of the visualization according to a group associated with the node, resulting in one or more sections of nodes corresponding to the one or more groups; and

adjusting a luminance of each node based on a second criterion.