Communications of the ACM
Analytical Eye: Viewing Through the Data Jungle
Scientists at the Fraunhofer IGD are developing analytical techniques based on people's ability to identify complex relationships with the aid of pictorial images.
Credit: Fraunhofer IGD
Visualization techniques can help improve the understanding of the large volumes of data people accumulate, according to researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD). The researchers combined analytical methods and visualization techniques in a new system, Visual Analytics, which empowers users.
"The user and the computer interact closely, but the user is always in the forefront," says IGD's Jorn Kohlhammer. "He or she makes the decisions, not the system."
Today's business intelligence programs often use analytical methods that only display data in the form of lists or reports. However, Visual Analytics can display data in a mosaic of colored surfaces, which immediately catch the eye. Displaying information in different colors and in different patterns makes it easier to notice connections and relationships, and ultimately evaluate the data more accurately.
From Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
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