POPULATION AND/OR ANIMATION OF SPATIAL VISUALIZATION(S)

• US 20150205843A1
• Filed: 03/30/2015
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Bernhardt, Daniel, Kaisser, Michael, Gulli, Antonino
• Granted Patent: US 9,842,149 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for populating and/or animating a spatial visualization, such as a map, a timeline, and/or other 2D and/or 3D visual representations of locations. The spatial visualization may be populated with events extracted from a data source (e.g., real-time events, news events, social network events, etc.), and may include relationships between events (e.g., based upon time, location, contextual similarity (e.g., social network check-in events at a restaurant), events referencing one another (e.g., an article describing a first event may comprise a hyperlink to an article describing a second event) etc.). Filter criteria (e.g., date, event type, location, etc.) may be applied to events and/or relationships when populating the spatial visualization. A sequence of events and corresponding relationships may be animated within the spatial visualization (e.g., as the events unfold over a (user) designated period of time).

Claims

1. A method for populating a spatial visualization, comprising:

receiving filter criteria comprising at least one of a date filter, a location filter, an event type filter, a relationship type filter, or a user preference filter;

creating a filtered set of events and a filtered set of relationships based upon the filter criteria; and

populating a spatial visualization using at least one of the filtered set of events or the filtered set of relationships to create a populated spatial visualization, the method implemented via a processing unit.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising extracting a set of events from a data source, an event comprising a location, an event time, and an event type, and the creating comprising:

filtering the set of events based upon the filter criteria.

3. The method of claim 2, the extracting comprising:

assigning a first event type to a first event of the set of events based upon at least one of;

evaluating an event type field defined by the data source to identify the first event type;

or

executing a classification technique upon data from the data source associated with the first event to identify the first event type.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

extracting a set of events from a data source; and

creating a set of relationships associated with the set of events, a relationship comprising a first event of the set of events, a second event of the set of events, a relationship time, and a relationship type, the creating a filtered set of events and a filtered set of relationships based upon the set of events and the set of relationships.

5. The method of claim 4, the creating a set of relationships, comprising:

creating the relationship based upon at least one of;

a temporal relationship between the first event and the second event, the temporal relationship identified based upon a first event time of the first event corresponding to a second event time of the second event;

a spatial relationship between the first event and the second event, the spatial relationship identified based upon a first location of the first event corresponding to a second location of the second event;

a referential relationship between the first event and the second event, the referential relationship identified based upon data associated with the first event comprising a reference to data associated with the second event;

or

a contextual relationship between the first event and the second event, the contextual relationship identified based upon a first event type of the first event corresponding to a second event type of the second event.

6. The method of claim 4, the creating a set of relationships, comprising:

defining a first relationship type for the relationship between the first event and the second event based upon a first event type of the first event and a second event type of the second event.

7. The method of claim 4, the creating a set of relationships, comprising:

defining a first relationship time for the relationship between the first event and the second event based upon a first event time of the first event and a second event time of the second event.

8. The method of claim 1, the filtered set of relationships comprising at least one of:

a directed relationship comprising a first event of the filtered set of events having a directed relationship to a second event of the filtered set of events;

or

an undirected relationship comprising a third event of the filtered set of events and a fourth event of the filtered set of events that have an undirected relationship.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising, prior to the receiving, populating the spatial visualization using one or more events from a set of events and one or more relationships from a set of relationships.

10. The method of claim 9, the filtered set of events comprising a subset of the set of events and the filtered set of relationships comprising a subset of the set of relationships.

11. The method of claim 1, the populating comprising:

representing a first event of the filtered set of events and comprising a first event type within the spatial visualization using a first symbol; and

representing a second event of the filtered set of events and comprising a second event type within the spatial visualization using a second symbol different than the first symbol.

12. The method of claim 1, the populating comprising:

representing an event of the filtered set of events using a symbol within the spatial visualization, the symbol sized according to an importance ranking determined based upon evaluating data associated with the event from a data source.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising animating the populated spatial visualization.

14. A system for populating a spatial visualization, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processing units perform operations, comprising;

creating a set of relationships associated with a set of events based upon at least one of;

a temporal relationship between a first event of the set of events and a second event of the set of events, the temporal relationship identified based upon a first event time of the first event corresponding to a second event time of the second event;

a spatial relationship between the first event and the second event, the spatial relationship identified based upon a first location of the first event corresponding to a second location of the second event;

a referential relationship between the first event and the second event, the referential relationship identified based upon data associated with the first event comprising a reference to data associated with the second event;

or

a contextual relationship between the first event and the second event, the contextual relationship identified based upon a first event type of the first event corresponding to a second event type of the second event; and

populating a spatial visualization using one or more events from the set of events and one or more relationships from the set of relationships.

15. The system of claim 14, the operations comprising:

receiving filter criteria;

creating at least one of a filtered set of events or a filtered set of relationships based upon the filter criteria; and

repopulating the spatial visualization using the at least one of a filtered set of events or a filtered set of relationships to create a repopulated spatial visualization.

16. The system of claim 15, the filter criteria comprising at least one of a date filter, a location filter, an event type filter, or a user preference filter.

17. The system of claim 14, comprising:

extracting the set of events from a data source, an event comprising a location, an event time, and an event type.

18. A computer readable device comprising instructions that when executed perform a method for populating a spatial visualization, the method comprising:

populating a spatial visualization using one or more events from a sets of events and one or more relationships from a set of relationships, a relationship of the set of the set of relationships defined between a first event of the set of events and a second event of the set of events;

receiving filter criteria;

creating a filtered set of events and a filtered set of relationships based upon the filter criteria; and

repopulating the spatial visualization using at least one of the filtered set of events or the filtered set of relationships to create a repopulated spatial visualization.

19. The computer readable device of claim 18, the filter criteria comprising at least one of a date filter, a location filter, an event type filter, a relationship type filter, or a user preference filter.

20. The computer readable device of claim 18, comprising:

creating the relationship based upon at least one of;

a temporal relationship between the first event and the second event, the temporal relationship identified based upon a first event time of the first event corresponding to a second event time of the second event;

a spatial relationship between the first event and the second event, the spatial relationship identified based upon a first location of the first event corresponding to a second location of the second event;

a referential relationship between the first event and the second event, the referential relationship identified based upon data associated with the first event comprising a reference to data associated with the second event;

or

a contextual relationship between the first event and the second event, the contextual relationship identified based upon a first event type of the first event corresponding to a second event type of the second event.