SPIRAL VISUALIZATION GENERATOR

• US 20180033182A1
• Filed: 07/29/2016
• Published: 02/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Forman, George, Shain, Olga, Nachlieli, Hila
• Granted Patent: US 10,068,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting

Abstract

Examples herein involve generating a spiral visualization of items of a dataset. Dimensions of item indicators corresponding to items of a dataset are analyzed. Starting coordinates for a spiral path for a spiral visualization of the items are determined based on the dimensions of the item indicators and a display area of a display device. A spiral path may be calculated based on the starting coordinates and the dimensions of the item indicators. The spiral visualization may be generated by rendering the item indicators on the spiral path to present a first item indicator of the item indicators from a corresponding first item of the list at the starting coordinates and a last item indicator of the item indicators of a corresponding last item on the list on the spiral path toward the center of the spiral.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

analyzing dimensions of item indicators corresponding to items of a dataset, the item indicators generated for the items based on a characteristic of the items;

determining starting coordinates for a spiral path for a spiral visualization of the items based on the dimensions of the item indicators and a display area of a display device, the starting coordinates comprising coordinates of the display area;

calculating the spiral path based on the starting coordinates and the dimensions of the item indicators; and

generating the spiral visualization to render the item indicators on the spiral path to present a first item indicator of the item indicators from a corresponding first item of the dataset at the starting coordinates and a last item indicator of the item indicators of a corresponding last item on the dataset on the spiral path toward the center of the spiral visualization.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a convex hull for the spiral path by calculating an outside boundary and an inside boundary for the spiral path based on the dimensions and order of the item indicators along the spiral path, the spiral path to be located within the convex hull;

calculating the spiral path by spiraling the convex hull such that a threshold distance is maintained between the inside boundary and the outside boundary between turns of the spiral visualization.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that borders of the item indicators are within a threshold outside margin of a display area presenting the spiral visualization; and

scaling down the dimensions of the item indicators such that the item indicators are not within the threshold outside margin of the display area.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that an area of the item indicators is less than a threshold percentage of a display area presenting the spiral visualization; and

scaling up the dimensions of the item indicators such that the area of the item indicators is equal to or greater than the threshold percentage of the display area presenting the spiral visualization.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the plurality of items in the dataset based on the characteristic of the items in an increasing order or decreasing order.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the item indicators based on a value of the characteristic.

7. The method of claim 1, generating the item indicators to include spiral visualizations of a plurality of characteristics, such that each of the item indicators comprises a spiral visualization for each characteristic of the plurality of characteristics.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the item indicators based on a plurality of characteristics including the characteristic, the plurality of characteristics represented by lengths of edges of the item indicators.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a shape of the item indicators; and

generating the spiral path to have a shape based on the shape of the item indicators.

10. An apparatus comprising:

an item indicator generator to generate item indicators based on characteristics of items of a dataset;

a spiral path calculator to calculate a spiral path from starting coordinates of a display area toward a center point of a spiral visualization of the times based on the dimensions of the item indicators and threshold distances to be kept between turns of the spiral visualization;

a display analyzer to confirm that the item indicators presented in the spiral visualization do not overlap and are within threshold margins of the display area; and

a spiral visualization renderer to render the spiral visualization in the display area of a display device.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the spiral path calculator is to:

determine the starting coordinates based on user input and dimensions of the display area.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the spiral visualization renderer is to animate the spiral visualization by rendering frames of the spiral visualization to show a change in selection of the characteristic from an original characteristic to a new characteristic of the items, each frame transitioning the spiral visualization from an original frame of the spiral visualization indicating the dimensions of the item indicators for the original characteristic to a last frame of the spiral visualization that renders the item indicators with new dimensions corresponding to the new characteristic.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the spiral visualization render is to:

determine whether the new spiral visualization is to appear larger or smaller than the original spiral visualization; and

if the new spiral visualization is to appear smaller than the original spiral visualization, animating a layout change from the original spiral visualization to the new spiral visualization frame by frame and then zooming in toward the new spiral visualization frame by frame;

or

if the new spiral visualization is to appear larger than the original spiral visualization, zooming out from the original spiral visualization frame by frame, then animating the layout change from the original spiral visualization to the new spiral visualization frame by frame.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the item indicator generator is to generate the item indicators in a polygonal shape to show a plurality of characteristics, wherein each edge of the polygonal shape corresponds to one of the plurality of characteristics.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the spiral path calculator is to:

calculate a convex hull from inside and outside boundaries of the item indicators when lined up in a straight line,

spiral the convex hull to determine the spiral path such that the outside boundary is at least a threshold distance from the inside boundary between turns of the spiral path, the spiral path located between the inside and outside boundaries of the spiraled convex hull.

16. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

calculate a spiral path for a spiral visualization by;

determining a convex hull from an inside boundary and an outside boundary of item indicators to be presented in the spiral visualization based on dimensions of the item indicators, the item indicators representative of characteristics of items of a dataset,

determining a tightness of a spiral for the convex hull based on the slope of the inside boundary and the slope of the outside boundary,

generating the spiral path within the spiraled convex hull from starting coordinates of a display area based on the tightness of the spiral and a threshold distance to be kept between the outside boundary and the inside boundary between turns of the spiral,

determining whether the item indicators plotted on the spiral path overlap and whether the item indicators encroach margins of the display area; and

when the item indicators do not overlap and do not encroach the margins of the display area, render the spiral visualization by presenting the item indicators along the calculated spiral path to visually present the characteristics of the items of the dataset.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

when the item indicators do overlap or do encroach the margins of the display area, scale down the dimensions of the item indicators; and

calculate a second spiral path for the spiral visualization using the scaled down dimensions of the visualization.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

determine the inside boundary and the outside boundary by;

lining the item indicators in a straight line,

setting the outside boundary to a tangential line running along at least two of the item indicators on an inside side of the spiral path of the item indicators in the straight line, and

setting the inside boundary to a tangential line running along at least two of the item indicators on an inside side of the spiral path of the item indicators in the straight line.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

receive a dataset of items to be presented in the spiral visualization; and

sort the items of the dataset in a decreasing or increasing order based on a characteristic of the items.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

determine the slope of the inside boundary by determining a first slope of a first hull of the inside boundary and a second slope of a second hull of the inside boundary, the first hull of the inside boundary comprising a line that runs tangential to an outermost point of the item indicators toward a starting point of the spiral path and the second hull of the inside boundary comprising a line that runs tangential to the outermost point of the item indicators toward an ending point of the spiral path;

set the inside boundary to be a line having a slope that is between the slope of the first hull and the slope of the second hull;

determine the slope of the outside boundary by determining a first slope of a first hull of the outside boundary and a second slope of a second hull of the outside boundary, the first hull of the outside boundary comprising a line that runs tangential to an outermost point of the item indicators toward a starting point of the spiral path and the second hull of the outside boundary comprising a line that runs tangential to the outermost point of the item indicators toward an ending point of the spiral path;

set the outside boundary to be a line having a slope that is between the slope of the first hull and the slope of the second hull.