Topological fisheye views for visualizing large graphs.
Graph drawing is a basic visualization tool that works well for graphs having up to hundreds of nodes and edges. At greater scale, data density and occlusion problems often negate its effectiveness. Conventional pan-and-zoom, multiscale, and geometric fisheye views are not fully satisfactory solutions to this problem. As an alternative, we propose a topological zooming method. It precomputes a hierarchy of coarsened graphs that are combined on-the-fly into renderings, with the level of detail dependent on distance from one or more foci. A related geometric distortion method yields constant information density displays from these renderings.
Gansner
Emden R
ER
AT&T Research, AT&T Shannon Labs, 180 Park Ave., Florham Park, NJ 07932, USA. erg@research.att.com
Koren
Yehuda
Y
North
Stephen C
SC
D000465:Algorithms; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003628:Database Management Systems; D016208:Databases, Factual; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D009862:Online Systems; D014584:User-Computer Interface