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:
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
@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
Associated Student Theses
The following student theses from the Interactive Media Lab Dresden are associated with the GEMS project:
Using mobile devices as lenses for graph exploration and manipulation
Konstantin Klamka April 7th, 2015 until January 5th, 2016
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Ulrike Kister
Annotation and Manipulation of Graphs at Powerwalls Through Interaction with Tablets
Matthias Voigt March 17th, 2014 until September 23rd, 2014
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Ulrich von Zadow, Ulrike Kister
Interaction with Tangible Graph Lenses on Interactive Tabletops
Martin Wegner October 14th, 2013 until April 13th, 2014
Supervision: Ulrike Kister, Raimund Dachselt
Interactive Pattern Matching for Graph Databases
Martin Zenker December 15th, 2014 until May 25th, 2015
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Ulrike Kister
Combining Magic Lenses for Graph Exploration
Patrick Reipschläger October 28th, 2013 until May 12th, 2014
Supervision: Ulrike Kister, Raimund Dachselt
Christoph Plagge June 15th, 2015 until September 7th, 2015
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Patrick Reipschläger, Ulrike Kister
Examination of various interactive approaches for analyzing graphs with lenses
Marcin Szalomski December 15th, 2014 until March 9th, 2015
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Ulrike Kister, Patrick Reipschläger
Exploration of hierarchical graphs using semantic zooming
Benjamin Bruch September 15th, 2014 until December 8th, 2014
Supervision: Raimund Dachselt, Ulrike Kister
Visualisierung zeitbezogener semantischer Daten durch interaktive Graphen
Robert Morawa June 3rd, 2013 until August 26th, 2013
Supervision: Ulrike Kister, Annett Mitschick, Raimund Dachselt
Kollaboratives Arbeiten und Multi-User Interaktion an Graphen
Alexandra Weiß June 20th, 2013 until January 30th, 2014
Supervision: Ulrike Kister, Raimund Dachselt