VISUALIZING LARGE GRAPHS
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented process for assigning zoom level values to vertices and rails of a graph, comprising:
- using a computer to perform the following process actions;
computing and assigning zoom level values to vertices of the graph, wherein at each zoom level, vertices deemed to be the most important are assigned, in hierarchical order, a zoom level value associated with the zoom level, until at least one region of the graph associated with the zoom level has a prescribed maximum number of vertices assigned the zoom level value associated with the zoom level; and
computing and assigning zoom level values to rails of the graph, said rails each being a curve segment in the graph that represents an edge or a set of edges passing through it.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Large graph visualization embodiments are presented which generally render and display the more important elements for a current view. To this end, a measure of importance referred to as a zoom level is assigned to the vertices and rails of a graph. Each rail is a curve segment in the graph that represents an edge or a set of edges passing through it. The rendering and displaying of a graph (or a part thereof) is done quickly, even as a user moves about the graph, and the visualization of the large graph is not so dense and so full of detail that the user becomes disoriented. In general, this is accomplished by specifying a current viewport, or a current zoom level, or both. Furthermore, the visualization is stable in that the layout of vertices and rails will be the same for the same zoom level and viewport.
28 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented process for assigning zoom level values to vertices and rails of a graph, comprising:
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using a computer to perform the following process actions; computing and assigning zoom level values to vertices of the graph, wherein at each zoom level, vertices deemed to be the most important are assigned, in hierarchical order, a zoom level value associated with the zoom level, until at least one region of the graph associated with the zoom level has a prescribed maximum number of vertices assigned the zoom level value associated with the zoom level; and computing and assigning zoom level values to rails of the graph, said rails each being a curve segment in the graph that represents an edge or a set of edges passing through it. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A computer-implemented process for rendering vertices and edges of a graph, comprising:
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using a computer to perform the following process actions; receiving a set of vertices of the graph, each of which comprises an assigned zoom level value; receiving a set of rails of the graph, said rails each representing either a graph edge or a combination of portions of different graph edges, and each rail comprising an assigned zoom level value; receiving a currently-specified viewport which specifies a portion of the graph that is to be rendered; receiving a currently-specified zoom level; and rendering those graph vertices and rails intersecting the currently-specified viewport whenever the assigned zoom level of the intersecting vertex or rail is less than or equal to the currently-specified zoom level. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for browsing a graph comprising of vertices and edges, comprising:
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a computing device comprising a display device and an user input device; and a computer program having program modules executable by the computing device, the computing device being directed by the program modules of the computer program to, provide a currently-specified viewport which is specified by a user via said user input device and which specifies a portion of the graph that is to be viewed, or a currently-specified zoom level, or both, receive rendering data representing those graph vertices and rails intersecting the currently-specified viewport whenever the assigned zoom level of the intersecting vertex or rail is less than or equal to the currently-specified zoom level, wherein said rails each represent either a graph edge or a combination of portions of different graph edges, and display the portion of the graph specified by the currently specified viewport on the display device using the received rendering data. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification