GEMS is a cooperation between the Interactive Media Lab Dresden at the Technische Universität Dresden and the Chair of Computer Graphics (VC²G) at the University of Rostock. More information is also available on the GEMS project website.

Graph visualizations play an important role in very diverse application cases, such as software engineering (e.g., class diagramms), biology (e.g., visualization of reactions and processes) or in the analysis of social networks and group dynamics. Because of the large amount of information that is common in these application areas, the exploration of the underlying data is a complicated task. Further steps, such as analysis and manipulation of data, need even more and very specific support.

Past related research concentrated on mouse-based exploration or was concerned only with creation of nodes and edges of graphs. In this project we will examine possibilities for support of visual exploration and manipulation of graphs through means of new natural user interaction modalities and multiple interactive surfaces.

We focus mainly on new concepts for visualization and interaction supporting workflows on large graphs and networks. Goals of this project are

  • blending of exploration and manipulation tasks when working with graphs,
  • the effective integration of interaction with and visualization of structured information, as well as
  • the meaningful use of different interaction techniques and modalities to support users when investigating and manipulating graphs.

 

For EuroVis 2014 in Swansea, Wales, we presented a State-of-the-Art report together with our project partners from the University of Rostock. The STAR was a Survey on Interactive Lenses in Visualization. In this survey, we analyzed existing work about lenses from very different application cases in visualization and categorized them into groups. We specifically looked at lenses for various data types and interaction tasks. Ulrike Kister presented possible interaction modalities and display setups when handling and adjusting lenses, e.g. mouse-based lenses, touch and tangible lenses as well as gaze-based lens interaction.

Associated Publications

The following publications from the Interactive Media Lab Dresden are associated with the GEMS project:

  • Interactive Lenses for Visualization: An Extended Survey

    Interactive Lenses for Visualization: An Extended Survey

    Tominski, C.; Gladisch, S.; Kister, U.; Dachselt, R.; Schumann, H.

    In Computer Graphics Forum (Volume 36).page 173-200,2017.10.1111/cgf.12871

    @article{Tominski2017_CGF,
       author = {Christian Tominski and Stefan Gladisch and Ulrike Kister and Raimund Dachselt and Heidrun Schumann},
       title = {Interactive Lenses for Visualization: An Extended Survey},
       journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
       volume = {36},
       year = {2017},
       month = {9},
       isbn = {1467-8659},
       pages = {173--200},
       numpages = {28},
       doi = {10.1111/cgf.12871},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cgf.12871},
       keywords = {Visualization, interaction, magic lenses}
    }

    List of additional material

    Wiley Online

  • @inproceedings{Kister2016_MultiLens,
       author = {Ulrike Kister and Patrick Reipschl\"{a}ger and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {MultiLens: Fluent Interaction with Multi-Functional Multi-Touch Lenses for Information Visualization},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces},
       year = {2016},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-4248-3},
       location = {Niagara Falls, ON, Canada},
       pages = {139--148},
       numpages = {10},
       doi = {10.1145/2992154.2992168},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2992154.2992168},
       acmid = {2992168},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {Multi-touch interaction, information visualization, magic lenses, focus+context, graph exploration, graph lenses}
    }

    List of additional material

    Video

  • BodyLenses - Embodied Magic Lenses and Personal Territories for Wall Displays

    BodyLenses - Embodied Magic Lenses and Personal Territories for Wall Displays

    Kister, U.; Reipschläger, P.; Matulic, F.; Dachselt, R.

    In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces.ITS '15, Funchal/Madeira, Portugal.ACM,page 117-126,2015.10.1145/2817721.2817726

    @inproceedings{Kister2015_BodyLenses,
       author = {Ulrike Kister and Patrick Reipschl\"{a}ger and Fabrice Matulic and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {BodyLenses - Embodied Magic Lenses and Personal Territories for Wall Displays},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
       year = {2015},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-3899-8},
       location = {Funchal/Madeira, Portugal},
       pages = {117--126},
       numpages = {10},
       doi = {10.1145/2817721.2817726},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2817721.2817726},
       acmid = {2817726},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {Body-centric interaction, embodied interaction, territoriality, magic lenses, proxemics}
    }

    List of additional material

    Video

  • Towards a Fluid Interaction Concept Bringing Star Plots to Interactive Displays

    Towards a Fluid Interaction Concept Bringing Star Plots to Interactive Displays

    Langner, R.; Kister, U.; Engel, C.; Horak, T.; Dachselt, R.

    In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces.ITS '15, Funchal/Madeira, Portugal.ACM,page 349-354,2015.10.1145/2817721.2823505

    @inproceedings{fixme,
       author = {Ricardo Langner and Ulrike Kister and Christin Engel and Tom Horak and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {Towards a Fluid Interaction Concept Bringing Star Plots to Interactive Displays},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
       year = {2015},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-3899-8},
       location = {Funchal/Madeira, Portugal},
       pages = {349--354},
       numpages = {6},
       doi = {10.1145/2817721.2823505},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2817721.2823505},
       acmid = {2823505},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {Information visualization; Star plots; Multi-touch; Fluid interaction}
    }

    List of additional material

    Video

  • Supporting Interactive Graph Analysis Using Adjustable Magic Lenses

    Supporting Interactive Graph Analysis Using Adjustable Magic Lenses

    Kister, U.

    In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces.ITS '15, Funchal/Madeira, Portugal.ACM,page 469-474,2015.10.1145/2817721.2820989

    @inproceedings{Kister2015_DoctSymp,
       author = {Ulrike Kister},
       title = {Supporting Interactive Graph Analysis Using Adjustable Magic Lenses},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
       year = {2015},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-3899-8},
       location = {Funchal/Madeira, Portugal},
       pages = {469--474},
       numpages = {6},
       doi = {10.1145/2817721.2820989},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2817721.2820989},
       acmid = {2820989},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {magic lenses, information visualization, multi-touch, embodied interaction, graphs, territoriality}
    }

    List of additional material

  • Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Editing

    Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Editing

    Gladisch, S.; Kister, U.; Tominski, C.; Dachselt, R.; Schumann, H.

    In IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis).InfoVis'15, Chicago, USA.IEEE,2015.

    @inproceedings{Gladisch2015_vis,
       author = {Stefan Gladisch and Ulrike Kister and Christian Tominski and Raimund Dachselt and Heidrun Schumann},
       title = {Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Editing},
       booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis)},
       year = {2015},
       month = {10},
       location = {Chicago, USA},
       numpages = {2},
       publisher = {IEEE}
    }

    List of additional material

  • @misc{Gladisch2015_TechnReport,
       author = {Stefan Gladisch and Ulrike Kister and Christian Tominski and Raimund Dachselt and Heidrun Schumann},
       title = {Mapping Tasks to Interactions for Graph Exploration and Graph Editing on Interactive Surfaces},
       booktitle = {arXiv:1504.07844},
       year = {2015},
       month = {4},
       numpages = {21},
       url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.07844},
       keywords = {graph manipulation, graph exploration, graph tasks, interaction mapping}
    }

    List of additional material

  • Multi-Touch Manipulation of Magic Lenses for Information Visualization

    Multi-Touch Manipulation of Magic Lenses for Information Visualization

    Kister, U.; Reipschläger, P.; Dachselt, R.

    In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces.ITS '14, Dresden, Germany.ACM,page 431-434,2014.10.1145/2669485.2669528

    @inproceedings{kister-14-its,
       author = {Ulrike Kister and Patrick Reipschl\"{a}ger and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {Multi-Touch Manipulation of Magic Lenses for Information Visualization},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
       year = {2014},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-2587-5},
       location = {Dresden, Germany},
       pages = {431--434},
       numpages = {4},
       doi = {10.1145/2669485.2669528},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2669485.2669528},
       acmid = {2669528},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {magic lenses, graph lenses, multi-touch interaction, information visulization}
    }

    List of additional material

  • Combining Timeline and Graph Visualization

    Combining Timeline and Graph Visualization

    Morawa, R.; Horak, T.; Kister, U.; Mitschick, A.; Dachselt, R.

    In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces.ITS'14, Dresden, Germany.ACM,page 345-350 ,2014.10.1145/2669485.2669544

    @inproceedings{morawa-14-ITS,
       author = {Robert Morawa and Tom Horak and Ulrike Kister and Annett Mitschick and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {Combining Timeline and Graph Visualization},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces},
       year = {2014},
       month = {11},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-2587-5},
       location = {Dresden, Germany},
       pages = {345--350 },
       numpages = {4},
       doi = {10.1145/2669485.2669544},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2669485.2669544},
       acmid = {2669544},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {time-visualization, information visualization, semantic data}
    }

    List of additional material

    Poster

  • A Survey on Interactive Lenses in Visualization

    A Survey on Interactive Lenses in Visualization

    Tominski, C.; Gladisch, S.; Kister, U.; Dachselt, R.; Schumann, H.

    In EuroVis State-of-the-Art Reports.Eurographics Association, Swansea, Wales, UK.The Eurographics Association,2014.10.2312/eurovisstar.20141172

    @conference{Tominski14,
       author = {Christian Tominski and Stefan Gladisch and Ulrike Kister and Raimund Dachselt and Heidrun Schumann},
       title = {A Survey on Interactive Lenses in Visualization},
       booktitle = {EuroVis State-of-the-Art Reports},
       year = {2014},
       month = {6},
       location = {Swansea, Wales, UK},
       numpages = {20},
       doi = {10.2312/eurovisstar.20141172},
       url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/eurovisstar.20141172},
       publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
       keywords = {information visualization, magic lenses}
    }

    List of additional material

  • T4 - Transparent and Translucent Tangibles on Tabletops

    T4 - Transparent and Translucent Tangibles on Tabletops

    Büschel, W.; Kister, U.; Frisch, M.; Dachselt, R.

    In Proceedings of the 12th International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces 2014.AVI '14, Como, Italy.ACM,page 81-88,2014.10.1145/2598153.2598179

    @inproceedings{TransparentTangibles-2014-AVI,
       author = {Wolfgang B\"{u}schel and Ulrike Kister and Mathias Frisch and Raimund Dachselt},
       title = {T4 - Transparent and Translucent Tangibles on Tabletops},
       booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces 2014},
       year = {2014},
       month = {5},
       isbn = {978-1-4503-2775-6},
       location = {Como, Italy},
       pages = {81--88},
       numpages = {8},
       doi = {10.1145/2598153.2598179},
       url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2598153.2598179},
       acmid = {2598179},
       publisher = {ACM},
       address = {New York, NY, USA},
       keywords = {Tangible User Interfaces, Transparent Tangibles, Interactive Surfaces}
    }

    List of additional material

    Video

Associated Student Theses

The following student theses from the Interactive Media Lab Dresden are associated with the GEMS project: