Timebox Trees

Taxonomic characterization of microbial dynamics

Timeboxes let the user sketch a visual query incrementally, in a way that facilitates focus + context data visualization. The Timebox Trees idea extends this idea to aid identification associated corresponding taxonomic groups on a tree. That is, this visualization is the obvious blend of the ideas described in the following papers,

Hochheiser, Harry, and Ben Shneiderman. "Visual queries for finding patterns in time series data." University of Maryland, Computer Science Dept. Tech Report, CS-TR-4365 (2002). Becker, Richard A., and William S. Cleveland. "Brushing scatterplots." Technometrics 29.2 (1987): 127-142.

Guide

Click "New Brush" and click and drag over the time series in the lower half of the display to create a new timebox. Clicking this button again creates a new brush; keyboard presses toggle between the timeboxes present on the screen. The highlighted series are those that pass through each timebox. Their corresponding taxonomic group is also highlighted in the tree in the top half of the screen. Hovering over nodes in the tree supplies their taxonomic identity. Note that a series is only highlighted if a measured sample (a kink in the line) passes through the timebox. It is not enough for a straight part of the line to pass through the box.