Exhibiting the Exhibitors: Spatial Visualization for Heterogeneous Cinema Venue Data

Abstract

Cinema data is characteristically complex, heterogeneous and interlinked. Rather than relying on simple information retrieval techniques, researchers are increasingly turning to the creative exploration and reapplication of data in order to more fully explore the meaning of newly available and diverse data sets. In this context, the cinema historian becomes the creator of visual texts which can be assessed for both their interpretive insight and their aesthetic qualities. This paper presents four research projects that use different spatio-temporal visualization techniques to understand the industrial dynamics of post-war film exhibition and distribution in Australia. The research integrates work by a group of inter-disciplinary investigators into the effectiveness of techniques such as dendritic mapping, Circos circular visualizations, animation, cartogram mapping, and multivariate visualization for the study of cinema circuits and operations at a number of scales.     

MapStats for Kids: Making Geographic and Statistical Facts Available to Children

Abstract

Concern about the health of American democracy mounts as a result of the large body of literature documenting chronically low levels of voter turnout among young people in particular. A volunteer, nonprofit organization called “Kids Voting, USA” was formed in the late 1980s to try to tackle the specific problem of encouraging young adults to vote. In cooperation with school districts, the program includes some grade-specific curricula and culminates on Election Day with kids voting in polling booths set up alongside official ones. Existing assessments of the program's impact have been very positive. Particularly hopeful is one study that concludes that the program's strongest effects are found in mobilizing those least advantaged in terms of the customary correlates of political participation. Our ecological analysis, based on the actual turnout rates in the Kids Voting elections for participating schools in Erie County, NY (N = 222), suggests that such conclusions are perhaps overly optimistic. Patterns in the geography and social ecology of participation in Kids Voting elections unfortunately look quite similar to those related to variations in the official electoral process. Although Kids Voting programs may have a salutary effect stimulating political involvement among the young, further reforms seem necessary if they are to reach their full potential.     

A computerised decision support system for rural policy formulation

Abstract

A primary goal of the NERC/ESRC Land Use Programme (NELUP) was to design and build a decision support system (DSS) to model rural land use and its change due to environmental and agricultural policy. The effects of policies are measured in terms of economic, ecological and hydrological parameters, with land use and land cover being the uniting factors. The DSS incorporates access to a large database and a suite of complex models. The DSS is user-friendly, produces meaningful graphics, and is almost entirely mouse-driven. This paper describes the NELUP view of policy making and DSS, the NELUP database and the DSS models and interface philosophy and design. The results of workshops, conducted with potential users of the DSS, are discussed and summarised.     

The Impact of Global/Local Bias on Task-Solving in Map-Related Tasks Employing Extrinsic and Intrinsic Visualization of Risk Uncertainty Maps

The form of visual representation affects both the way in which the visual representation is processed and the effectiveness of this processing. Different forms of visual representation may require the employment of different cognitive strategies in order to solve a particular task; at the same time, the different representations vary as to the extent to which they correspond with an individual’s preferred cognitive style. The present study employed a Navon-type task to learn about the occurrence of global/local bias. The research was based on close interdisciplinary cooperation between the domains of both psychology and cartography. Several different types of tasks were made involving avalanche hazard maps with intrinsic/extrinsic visual representations, each of them employing different types of graphic variables representing the level of avalanche hazard and avalanche hazard uncertainty. The research sample consisted of two groups of participants, each of which was provided with a different form of visual representation of identical geographical data, such that the representations could be regarded as ‘informationally equivalent’. The first phase of the research consisted of two correlation studies, the first involving subjects with a high degree of map literacy (students of cartography) (intrinsic method: N?=?35; extrinsic method: N?=?37). The second study was performed after the results of the first study were analyzed. The second group of participants consisted of subjects with a low expected degree of map literacy (students of psychology; intrinsic method: N?=?35; extrinsic method: N?=?27).The first study revealed a statistically significant moderate correlation between the students’ response times in extrinsic visualization tasks and their response times in a global subtest (r?=?0.384, p?<?0.05); likewise, a statistically significant moderate correlation was found between the students’ response times in intrinsic visualization tasks and their response times in the local subtest (r?=?0.387, p?<?0.05). At the same time, no correlation was found between the students’ performance in the local subtest and their performance in extrinsic visualization tasks, or between their scores in the global subtest and their performance in intrinsic visualization tasks. The second correlation study did not confirm the results of the first correlation study (intrinsic visualization/‘small figures test’: r?=?0.221; extrinsic visualization/‘large figures test’: r?=?0.135). The first phase of the research, where the data was subjected to statistical analysis, was followed by a comparative eye-tracking study, whose aim was to provide more detailed insight into the cognitive strategies employed when solving map-related tasks. More specifically, the eye-tracking study was expected to be able to detect possible differences between the cognitive patterns employed when solving extrinsic- as opposed to intrinsic visualization tasks. The results of an exploratory eye-tracking data analysis support the hypothesis of different strategies of visual information processing being used in reaction to different types of visualization.     

Research related to geographical information systems at the Natural Environment Research Council's Unit for Thematic Information Systems

Abstract

The wide variety of research into aspects of geographical information systems (GIS) undertaken at the Natural Environment Research Council's Unit for Thematic Information Systems is described. This includes work on spatial data models, on the application of artificial intelligence to improve the quality of input of remotely-sensed data, on automation of map cataloguing, on improving display and on GIS modelling.     

MapMosaic: dynamic layer compositing for interactive geovisualization

GIS software applications and other mapping tools enable users to correlate data from multiple layers and gain insight from the resulting visualizations. However, most of these applications only feature basic, monolithic layer compositing techniques. These techniques do not always support users effectively in their tasks, as we observed during interviews with GIS experts. We introduce MapMosaic, a novel approach based on dynamic visual compositing that enables users to interactively create and manipulate local composites of multiple vector and raster map layers, taking into account the semantics and attribute values of objects and fields in the compositing process. We evaluate MapMosaic ’s interaction model against that of QGIS (a widely used desktop GIS) and MAPublisher (a professional cartography tool) using the ‘Cognitive Dimensions’ framework and through an analytical comparison, showing that MapMosaic ’s model is more flexible and can support users more effectively in their tasks. We also report on feedback obtained from experts, which further confirms the potential of this highly dynamic approach to map layer compositing.     

The global climate monitor system: from climate data-handling to knowledge dissemination

This paper summarizes our work on building a data model and a geovisualization tool that provides access to global climate data: the Global Climate Monitor Web Viewer. Linked to this viewer, a complete set of climate-environmental indicators capable of displaying climate patterns on a global scale that is accessible to any potential user (scientists and laypeople) will be built and published using the same online application. The data currently available correspond to the CRU TS3.21 version of the Climate Research Unit (University of East Anglia) database – a product that provides data at a spatial resolution of half of a degree in latitude and longitude, spanning January 1901 to December 2012, on a monthly basis. Since January 2013, the datasets feeding the system have been the GHCN-CAMS temperature dataset and the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) First Guess precipitation dataset. Climatologists, hydrologists, planners and non-experts users such as media workers, policymakers, non-profit organizations, teachers or students, can access useful climatological information through the Global Climate Monitor system.     

Geovisualization of Human Hybrid Activity-Travel Patterns

While GIS‐based geovisualization techniques have been fruitfully employed in a wide range of fields, they have not been applied to explore human hybrid activity‐travel patterns (i.e. the patterns of people's activities and/or travel in both the physical and virtual worlds). This study develops two geovisualization approaches using 3D and 2D GIS techniques to address the difficulties faced by past studies. First, the notions of information cube and hybrid 3D space‐time paths are developed to accommodate cyberspatial activities in exploratory data analysis. Second, a new representation of 2D space‐time paths that incorporates parallel coordinate plots is developed for exploring the multiple attributes of people's Internet and physical activities. These two methods were implemented using ArcObjects and the Visual Basic for Applications environment in ArcGIS. They were used to visualize a complex Internet‐activity diary dataset collected in Columbus (Ohio, USA). The study shows that the 3D and 2D geovisualization methods developed allow us to uncover important patterns in hybrid human activity‐travel behavior.