Expanding Selection for Information Visualization Systems on Tablet Devices

Selection is a fundamental operation in interactive visualization applications. Although techniques such as clicking and lassoing items of interest are sufficient for basic selections, a more sophisticated interaction mechanism is required for expressing complex queries to modify or generalize existing selections. The ability to perform these advanced selections is critical for effective analysis within visualization systems. On touch-based devices such as tablets, however, expressing advanced selections is difficult due to the absence of a cursor and modifier keys. In this work, we address this limitation by presenting new interaction techniques that leverage a person's non-dominant hand. We use these techniques for advanced selection operations such as expanding, modifying, and replicating existing selections. Further, we introduce a method for performing generalized selection on tablet devices that provides a fluid mechanism to control the attributes and parameters of selection.