3D Edge Bundling for Geographical Data Visualization

Visualization of graphs containing many nodes and edges efficiently is quite challenging since representations generally suffer from visual clutter induced by the large amount of edge crossings and node-edge overlaps. That problem becomes even more important when nodes positions are fixed, such as in geography were nodes positions are set according to geographical coordinates. Edge bundling techniques can help to solve this issue by visually merging edges along common routes but it can also help to reveal high-level edge patterns in the network and therefore to understand its overall organization. In this paper, we present a generalization of [18] to reduce the clutter in a 3D representation by routing edges into bundles as well as a GPU-based rendering method to emphasize bundles densities while preserving edge color. To visualize geographical networks in the context of the globe, we also provide a new technique allowing to bundle edges around and not across it.

[1]  James Abello,et al.  ASK-GraphView: A Large Scale Graph Visualization System , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[2]  Yehuda Koren,et al.  Improved Circular Layouts , 2006, GD.

[3]  Hong Zhou,et al.  Energy-Based Hierarchical Edge Clustering of Graphs , 2008, 2008 IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium.

[4]  Michael Balzer,et al.  Level-of-detail visualization of clustered graph layouts , 2007, 2007 6th International Asia-Pacific Symposium on Visualization.

[5]  Tim Dwyer,et al.  Fast Edge-Routing for Large Graphs , 2009, Graph Drawing.

[6]  Franz Aurenhammer,et al.  Voronoi diagrams—a survey of a fundamental geometric data structure , 1991, CSUR.

[7]  Danny Holten,et al.  Hierarchical Edge Bundles: Visualization of Adjacency Relations in Hierarchical Data , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[8]  David P. Dobkin,et al.  Implementing a General-Purpose Edge Router , 1997, Graph Drawing.

[9]  Peter J. Stuckey,et al.  Incremental Connector Routing , 2005, GD.

[10]  M. Sheelagh T. Carpendale,et al.  Edgelens: an interactive method for managing edge congestion in graphs , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[11]  P. Hanrahan,et al.  Flow map layout , 2005, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization, 2005. INFOVIS 2005..

[12]  Jarke J. van Wijk,et al.  Interactive Visualization of Small World Graphs , 2004, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization.

[13]  D. Hochbaum.  Approximating covering and packing problems: set cover, vertex cover, independent set, and related problems , 1996 .

[14]  Jarke J. van Wijk,et al.  Force‐Directed Edge Bundling for Graph Visualization , 2009, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[15]  James F. Blinn,et al.  Models of light reflection for computer synthesized pictures , 1977, SIGGRAPH.

[16]  Chris L. Jackins,et al.  Oct-trees and their use in representing three-dimensional objects , 1980 .

[17]  Edsger Wybe Dijkstra,et al.  Ewd 316: a short introduction to the art of programming , 1971 .

[18]  Romain Bourqui,et al.  Winding Roads: Routing edges into bundles , 2010, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[19]  James F. Blinn,et al.  Simulation of wrinkled surfaces , 1978, SIGGRAPH.

[20]  Robert van Liere,et al.  GraphSplatting: Visualizing Graphs as Continuous Fields , 2003, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..

[21]  Alan J. Dix,et al.  A Taxonomy of Clutter Reduction for Information Visualisation , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[22]  Sheelagh Carpendale,et al.  Interactive Poster: Using Edge Plucking for Interactive Graph Exploration , 2005 .

[23]  Hong Zhou,et al.  Geometry-Based Edge Clustering for Graph Visualization , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[24]  Tamara Munzner,et al.  Grouse: Feature-Based, Steerable Graph Hierarchy Exploration , 2007, EuroVis.