Effects of Animations in Zooming and Panning Operations on Web maps: A Web-based Experiment

Abstract

The presentation of graphics and maps on the Internet has led to the development of several new techniques. The use of dynamics and animations in maps has increased, and new types of applications are emerging frequently. Recently, several map providers on the web have introduced zooming in maps as an animated operation. In this paper, we look closer into how the animated zoom is perceived by participants in an experiment, and compare these observations with a corresponding test where the map scale is changed in more abrupt steps. The results indicate significant preference for the animated zoom. The experiment itself is carried out through the World Wide Web and all the participants made their contribution from their own computers.     

Animation and the Role of Map Design in Scientific Visualization

Scientists visualize data for a range of purposes, from exploring unfamiliar data sets to communicating insights revealed by visual analyses. As the supply of numerical environmental data has increased, so has the need for effective visual methods, especially for exploratory data analysis. Map animation is particularly attractive to earth system scientists who typically study large spatio-temporal data sets. In addition to the "visual variables" of static maps, animated maps are composed of three basic design elements or "dynamic variables"–scene duration, rate of change between scenes, and scene order. The dynamic variables can be used to emphasize the location of a phenomenon, emphasize its attributes, or visualize change in its spatial, temporal, and attribute dimensions. In combination with static maps, graphs, diagrams, images, and sound, animation enhances analysts' ability to express data in a variety of complementary forms.     

Complexity reduction in choropleth map animations by autocorrelation weighted generalization of time-series data

Choropleth map animation is widely used to show the development of spatial processes over time. Although animation congruently depicts change, the rapid succession of complex map scenes easily exceeds the human cognitive capacity, causing map users to miss important information. Hence, a reduction of the visual complexity of map animations is desirable. This article builds on research related to complexity reduction of static choropleth maps. It proposes value generalization of choropleth time-series data in space and time, by using a method that adapts to the degree of global spatiotemporal autocorrelation within the dataset. A combination with upstream algorithms for local outlier detection results in less complex map animations focusing on large-scale patterns while still preserving significant local deviations in space and time. An according software application allows for in-depth exploration of the spatial and temporal autocorrelation structures in time-series data and provides control over the whole process of generalization.     

A Cartographic Animation of Average Yearly Surface Temperatures for the 48 Contiguous United States: 1897–1986

Animation is an important method of communicating information that lends itself to cartographic display. Cartographers may be delinquent in their utilization of this technique. Meteorologists, medical researchers, and physical scientists, employing mini-, mainframe, and supercomputers, are creating today's most sophisticated animated maps and continue to develop high-quality systems for data display. Though today's cartographers are concerned with the geometric accuracy and computer automation of their map products, they may be overlooking current developments in spatiotemporal display within other disciplines. Creating a method to bridge the current animation gap between cartography and these disciplines has been the primary goal of this research. Since personal computers are the platforms most commonly available to cartographers, development of animated cartographic displays is feasible with this technology. As a result of this research, an interactive microcomputer-based animated map of U.S. surface temperatures was designed to help understand the rapid climatic change occurring during the 20th century.     

Unclassed Animated Choropleth Maps

Abstract

The potential of unclassed animated choropleth maps as a solution to false patterns of geographic change arising from data classification is investigated. Old concerns about unclassed choropleth maps may be mitigated through map interactivity that offers four advantages over traditional data legends, and previous insights from testing static choropleth maps do not necessarily translate to animated cartography. Data from user testing revealed unclassed animated choropleth maps neither help nor hurt the ability of map readers to understand patterns of geographic change. However, the unclassed map (1) appeared 'less jumpy' to participants and was perceived to run at a slower pace (despite running at the same number of frames per second), and (2) subtle geographic shifts (e.g., seasonal unemployment cycles) were more readily noticed on the unclassed maps. Preliminary results also suggest classed data emphasise stability over time – while their unclassed counterparts improve our ability to see changes. This paper also outlines animated simultaneous contrast as a new perceptual issue in the creation of animated choropleth maps.     

时空地图与视觉变量

时空地图是显示随时间变化所历过程的地图，既可能是静态的也可能是动态的。本文分析了时空地图的表现形式，对其视觉变量作了初步探讨，认为视觉变量应当由６个静态变量和３个动态变量构成。     

Effectiveness of Dynamic Point Symbols in Quantitative Mapping

The main focus of this paper is the effectiveness of dynamic point symbols in the presentation of quantitative data. Such symbols are of particular use in the design of animated maps and computer games. The authors examine three existing techniques of using dynamic point symbols to present quantitative data: blinking, pulsation, and rotation. The aim of the study is to compare their effectiveness with that of classical cartographic animation techniques. The results of the study show that in animated map design, dynamic point symbols might be used to present not only qualitative but also quantitative data with comparable effectiveness. The results may serve as the basis for designing dynamic point symbols to be as effective as the classical techniques used in animated cartography.     

虚拟人在国庆阅兵推演系统中的应用研究

本文简要介绍了虚拟人动画的控制实现方法;重点讨论了基于骨骼动画技术的虚拟军人动画在国庆阅兵推演系统中的应用和实现关键技术;初步探索三维场景中大数据量多目标绘制时提高虚拟军人动画渲染速度的方法.     

Change Blindness in Animated Choropleth Maps: An Empirical Study

Animated choropleth maps enable cartographers to visualize time-series data in a way that congruently depicts change over time. However, users have difficulty apprehending information encoded within these displays, and often fail to detect important changes between adjacent scenes. Failures of visual experience, such as change blindness, threaten the effectiveness of dynamic geovisual displays, in which several important changes can occur simultaneously throughout the display. Animated choropleth maps require viewers not only to notice changes but also understand symbolic meanings encoded in rapid transitions between scenes. Graphic interpolation between key frames, also known as “in-betweening” or “tweening”, smoothes transitions and lengthens the duration of the transition between scenes in a dynamic sequence. Previous cartographic literature suggests tweening could be a potential solution for change blindness in the cartographic context. This article examines this issue of change blindness in the cartographic context and reports on a human subjects investigation designed to evaluate the influence of cartographic design variables on map readers' change detection abilities. Our results indicate that 1) map readers have difficulty detecting changes in animated choropleth maps, 2) map readers over-estimate their own change detection abilities, and 3) tweening influences the legibility of change in animated choropleth maps.     

The First Ordnance Survey District Maps of England,Wales and Scotland 1857–1898

Abstract

The main goal of this research is to set a group of typographic criteria to suit a wide array of map users. A group of Bertin’s visual variables were applied individually and associatively for the same set of labels. Two kinds of maps (with point and areal objects) were presented to expert and non-expert map users and analysed accordingly. Additionally, the effect of gender variation was taken into account. The data were aggregated and studied for each graphical variable. For some combinations of Bertin’s variables, statistically significant differences were detected in the preferences of the different map users (e.g. male versus female and expert versus non-expert). Consequently, we identified which graphical variables (individually or combined) were more preferred by specific user groups in relation to their application on text objects.     

Animated Maps of Aggregate Data: Conceptual and Practical Problems

Predictions of the 1960s about the computer's potential to change cartography are finally being fulfilled. Dynamic maps for vehicle navigation, interactive cartographic/statistical tools, and map animation are being investigated actively. As these new environments for mapping become available, we must reevaluate past questions about transformations from reality to data and data to map. In this paper, we consider these transformation questions in the context of statistical map animation. The issues discussed were raised in producing a “map movie” depicting the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) over time. Jenks' data model concept is used as the basis for a typology of data models representing phenomena typically depicted by enumeration unit data. The typology is then used to evaluate symbolization decisions for AIDS incidence maps. Implications for symbol selection imposed by dynamic rather than static maps are considered, as are technical issues involved in producing the animation on a microcomputer platform. A hybrid symbolization method that we have termed the “chorodot” is suggested as a way to meet the constraints on symbolization imposed by animation and to represent the appropriate data model for AIDS incidence.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Dynamic Symbols in Cartographic Communication

Abstract

The age of the Internet poses new challenges to cartography. While cartographic animation has become a practical alternative, it is mostly used to depict both spatio-temporal and non-temporal changes. The paper concentrates on the use of dynamic symbols on a static base map. A visual test was carried out to obtain some perspectives about the cartographic communication of blinking point and line symbols. The results confirmed that dynamic symbols tended to attract the attention of the users in general and even in situations when the foreground–background contrasts were poor. Their effectiveness was more pronounced with symbols of a larger size but tended to diminish with an increasing number of blinking symbols. It was also observed that users were able to perceive differences in the frequency of flickering, particularly when the variation was large. The line animation method (marquee and grow-out) did not yield a substantial difference in visual responses in the case of blinking line symbols.     

BinSq: visualizing geographic dot density patterns with gridded maps

ABSTRACT

Dot maps have become a popular way to visualize discrete geographic data. Yet, beyond showing how the data are spatially distributed, dot maps are often visually cluttered in terms of consistency, overlap, and representativeness. Existing clutter reduction techniques like jittering, refinement, distortion, and aggregation also address this issue, but do so by arbitrarily displacing dots from their exact location, removing dots from the map, changing the spatial reference of the map, or reducing its level of detail, respectively. We present BinSq, a novel visualization technique to compare variations in dot density patterns without visual clutter. Based on a careful synthesis of existing clutter reduction techniques, BinSq reduces the wide variety of dot density variations on the map to a representative subset of density intervals that are more distinguishable. The subset is derived from a nested binning operation that introduces order and regularity to the map. Thereafter, a dot prioritization operation improves the representativeness of the map by equalizing visible data values to correspond with the actual data. In this paper, we describe the algorithmic implementation of BinSq, explore its parametric design space, and discuss its capabilities in comparison to six existing clutter reduction techniques for dot maps.     

What path and how fast? The effect of flight time and path on user spatial understanding in map tour animations

GIScience scholars have identified map tours as an important visualization type for communicating spatial information: map tours are animations where the virtual camera moves through space and are common on the web, mobile devices, and television. Understanding how to enhance their effectiveness is timely because of recent, growing interest in virtual reality and animated map presentation tools such as Esri Story Maps? and Google Earth? tours. Despite this popularity, little empirical evidence exists about how people learn from map tours and how they should best be designed to improve effectiveness. This research is aimed at answering that need. An empirical study is described, which was designed to understand how virtual camera speed, path, and dynamic tilting within a map tour influence subjects’ ability to develop survey knowledge. The results of the experiment show that paths encompassing overviews of the landscape improve the viewer’s ability to build up survey knowledge; that tilting appears to have a much weaker effect; and that combining fast speed and a difficult path within a map tour increases the viewer’s cognitive load.     

The effects of visual realism,spatial abilities,and competition on performance in map-based route learning in men

We report on how visual realism might influence map-based route learning performance in a controlled laboratory experiment with 104 male participants in a competitive context. Using animations of a dot moving through routes of interest, we find that participants recall the routes more accurately with abstract road maps than with more realistic satellite maps. We also find that, irrespective of visual realism, participants with higher spatial abilities (high-spatial participants) are more accurate in memorizing map-based routes than participants with lower spatial abilities (low-spatial participants). On the other hand, added visual realism limits high-spatial participants in their route recall speed, while it seems not to influence the recall speed of low-spatial participants. Competition affects participants’ overall confidence positively, but does not affect their route recall performance neither in terms of accuracy nor speed. With this study, we provide further empirical evidence demonstrating that it is important to choose the appropriate map type considering task characteristics and spatial abilities. While satellite maps might be perceived as more fun to use, or visually more attractive than road maps, they also require more cognitive resources for many map-based tasks, which is true even for high-spatial users.     

A SEMI-GRAPHIC CONSTRUCTION FOR THE CONICAL ORTHOMORPHIC PROJECTION WITH ONE STANDARD PARALLELt

Abstract

The advantages of orthomorphic projections for topographical maps, whether for civil or military uses, have been increasingly realised in recent years. This has led to their gradual adoption as bases for map series by the leading countries, the conical type having been adopted in France for the new 1 : 50,000 maps, in Canada for the National Defence maps and in Britain by the Directorate of Military Survey for some useful European series. Appreciation of the nature and properties of graticules can best be achieved through an understanding of the theory of the projection system, whether the exposition be mathematically or partly graphically developed. Whereas the cylindrical and zenithal types of the orthomorphic projections have some explanation in graphical form there has been no comparable alternative to the difficult mathematical treatment of the conical type. The semi-graphic method presented here has been developed to contribute towards such a graphical exposition and in its method demands only a modest mathematical ability.     

Graphically supported evaluation of mapping techniques used in presenting spatial accessibility

ABSTRACT

Given the rising availability of alternative ways of spatial data mapping, there is a growing need to study their usability. An important aspect here is the diversity of the cartographic visualizations that are used to draw conclusions about the usability of various mapping techniques. In our study we evaluated the usability of six various mapping techniques used in presenting spatial accessibility, taking into consideration four components: effectiveness and efficiency (objective criteria) and graphical attractiveness and user-perceived effectiveness (subjective criteria). Using Internet questionnaires, we conducted a graphical perception experiment with respondents performing tasks on a hypothetical monocentric road network model displayed using mapping techniques of spatial accessibility, differing in the applied parameters of graphical and non-graphical factors influencing effectiveness and efficiency. The results showed that non-graphical factors had a greater influence than the graphical factors. In total usability comparison the three-dimensional (3D) point technique was ranked the highest, while the worst result was achieved by the 3D area technique. The proposed graphical form of study results made it possible to compare the influence of various effectiveness factors, to analyze mapping techniques in terms of considered criteria and finally to present their total usability using a chart inspired by Uhorczak’s typogram.     

Influential Visual Design Parameters on TV Weather Maps

Abstract

Information transformation on television weather maps (TVWMs) is influenced by visual elements for a broad range of viewers. This research emphasizes the cartographic aspects of TVWMs through evaluating their visual variables. Currently defined visual variables including basic, dynamic and motion variables are investigated and some suggestions are made to improve their application on TVWMs. The rates of the represented visual information within different frames and the related standard deviation are proposed as measures to improve the performance of the ‘duration’ dynamic variable. The concept of ‘visual expressions’ is introduced, and their applications at the organisational level of map design are discussed. Such expressions (including background, boundary, spatial order, zoom and overview maps) are examined as tools for ‘user orientation’ in particular, and their role as dominant parameters in TVWMs’ cartographic communication is considered. Their incorporation in TVWMs of a number of global news channels is evaluated. Firstly, the concepts of visual design parameters are utilized as a foundation for an analytical evaluation, then an empirical evaluation is carried out based on a statistical investigation of a sample of TV viewers. The resulting ranking order and correlation coefficients for each of the elements shows a firm agreement, corroborating views on the importance and proficiency of the visual elements in communicating weather information. As a result, TVWMs of well-known global TV channels (BBC, Euronews, France24, PressTV) are ranked with respect to the effectiveness of their designs.     

煤层顶底板DEM二维光照渲染制图方法

煤层顶底板等高线图是煤矿企业用于生产决策的一种常用图纸,这种图的直观性较差,难以阅读。参照Tanaka明暗等值线图的方法提出一种基于二维显示的煤层底板DEM的光照渲染制图方法。该方法通过假定光源所处的位置,并计算DEM的三角面片的法向,进而求得三角面片的亮度,然后以填充绘制的方式将所有三角形以二维的方式绘制出来。这种方法具有显示效率高、编程简单、易于图层叠加、效果较Tanaka法逼真等优势。     

The preparation of the town maps for Lysons' Magna Britannia

Abstract

Although methods of map preparation and production in the nineteenth century are generally understood, in truth little is known in detail. A rare opportunity to further understanding of the methods of the day is offered by the analysis of the surviving working documents and correspondence related to the production of town maps for Lysons' Magna Britannia. As methods of compilation and preparation become clearer, some of the resultant town maps appear more original and carefully created than previously thought, forcing a reassessment of their value as historical evidence.