Faculty Publications (FSCI)

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This collection contains copies of articles or some cases citations to articles previously published elsewhere. These may or may not be the final published articles, depending on agreements with the specific publishers. Users are not required to pay a fee to access these articles but copyright is always reserved, except where Creative Commons license is specified.

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Abbreviating Text Labels on Demand
(IEEE, 2017-10) Shimabukuro, Mariana; Collins, Christopher
Long text labels is a known challenge in information visualizations.There are some techniques used in order to solve this problem like setting a very small font size. On the other hand, sometimes the font size is so small that the text can be difficult to read. Wrapping sentences, dropping letters and text truncation are some techniques do deal with this problem. In order to investigate a solution for labeling long words we ran a study on how people create and interpret word abbreviations. Based on the study data we designed a new algorithm to automatically make words as short as they need to fit the text. Examples applications of this algorithm are presented in this paper.
Approaching Humanities Questions Using Slow Visual Search Interfaces
(2021-06-01) Bradley, Adam James; Sawal, Victor; Collins, Christopher
In this paper we discuss a visual search system that was designed and implemented for humanities scholars to ask questions of large document corpora. The system allows searches to be specified through traditional search, as well as through providing reference documents or visually exploring a semantic ontology for terms of interest. We offer a discussion of using visualization to try to answer humanities questions and take an honest look at the difficulties of using a methodology of one discipline to solve the problems of another.
A "Communication Skills for Computer Scientists" Course
(ACM, 2009-07) Blume, Lil; Baecker, Ronald; Collins, Christopher; Donohue, Aran
This paper describes "Communication Skills for Computer Scientists," a novel undergraduate course at the University of Toronto. We describe in detail the three major instructional streams of the course: writing, speaking, and interpersonal communications. We present a novel approach to teaching writing, interactive multimedia web technology to teach public speaking, and specific interpersonal skills training as the integral parts of the course. We contribute a detailed description of the curriculum and report measures of success, both quantitative data and reactions from students in their own words.
Critical InfoVis: Exploring the Politics of Visualization
(ACM, 2013-04-27) Dörk, Marian; Feng, Patrick; Collins, Christopher; Carpendale, Sheelagh
As information visualization is increasingly used to raise awareness about social issues, difficult questions arise about the power of visualization. So far the research community has not given sufficient thought to how values and assumptions pervade information visualization. Taking engaging visualizations as a starting point, we outline a critical approach that promotes disclosure, plurality, contingency, and empowerment. Based on this approach, we pose some challenges and opportunities for visualization researchers and practitioners.
Design by Immersion: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Problem-Driven Visualizations
(IEEE, 2019-08-26) Hall, Kyle Wm.; Bradley, Adam J.; Hinrichs, Uta; Huron, Samuel; Wood, Jo; Collins, Christopher; Carpendale, Sheelagh
While previous work exists on how to conduct and disseminate insights from problem-driven visualization projects and design studies, the literature does not address how to accomplish these goals in transdisciplinary teams in ways that advance all disciplines involved. In this paper we introduce and define a new methodological paradigm we call design by immersion, which provides an alternative perspective on problem-driven visualization work. Design by immersion embeds transdisciplinary experiences at the center of the visualization process by having visualization researchers participate in the work of the target domain (or domain experts participate in visualization research). Based on our own combined experiences of working on cross-disciplinary, problem-driven visualization projects, we present six case studies that expose the opportunities that design by immersion enables, including (1) exploring new domain-inspired visualization design spaces, (2) enriching domain understanding through personal experiences, and (3) building strong transdisciplinary relationships. Furthermore, we illustrate how the process of design by immersion opens up a diverse set of design activities that can be combined in different ways depending on the type of collaboration, project, and goals. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential pitfalls of design by immersion.
Exploring Entities in Text with Descriptive Non-photorealistic Rendering
(IEEE, 2013-03) Chang, Meng-Wei; Collins, Christopher
We present a novel approach to text visualization called descriptive non-photorealistic rendering which exploits the inherent spatial and abstract dimensions in text documents to integrate 3D non-photorealistic rendering with information visualization. The visualization encodes text data onto 3D models, emphasizing the relative significance of words in the text and the physical, real-world relationships between those words. Analytic exploration is supported through a collection of interactive widgets and direct multitouch interaction with the 3D models. We applied our method to analyze a collection of vehicle complaint reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and through a qualitative study, we demonstrate how our system can support tasks such as comparing the reliability of different models, finding interesting facts, and revealing possible causal relations between car parts.
A Framework for Interactive Conference Posters
(2021-05-25) Ahmed, Mohammed
In this paper, we present a complete framework for extending conference posters with interactive content. Poster content will become interactive, allowing viewers to manipulate visualizations, and save them for later. We used a web-based backend to allow authors to upload academic posters, and mask areas with interactive content. An image recognition model was trained on submitted posters using the Tensorflow framework [1], and deployed using a mobile application for use at poster sessions
Lexichrome: Text Construction and Lexical Discovery with Word-Color Associations Using Interactive Visualization
(ACM, 2020-07-03) Kim, Chris K; Collins, Christopher; Hinrichs, Uta; Mohammad, Saif M
Based on word-color associations from a comprehensive, crowdsourced lexicon, we present Lexichrome: a web application that explores the popular perception of relationships between English words and eleven basic color terms using interactive visualization. Lexichrome provides three complementary visualizations: "Palette" presents the diversity of word-color associations across the color palette; "Words" reveals the color associations of individual words using a dictionary-like interface; "Roget's Thesaurus" uncovers color association patterns in different semantic categories found in the thesaurus. Finally, our text editor allows users to compose their own texts and examine the resultant chromatic fingerprints throughout the process. We studied the utility of Lexichrome in a two-part qualitative user study with nine participants from various writing-intensive professions. We find that the presence of word-color associations promotes awareness surrounding word choice, editorial decision, and audience reception, and introduce a variety of use cases, features, and opportunities applicable to creative writing, corporate communication, and journalism.
Multi-readout logic gate for selective metal ions detection in parts per billion levels
(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2016-07-18) Zenkina, O. V.; Laschuk, N. O.; Ebralidze, I. I.; Spasyuk, D.
Optical sensors utilizing visual responses for the identification of metal ions require reliable molecular systems able to operate selectively in multicomponent solutions. Herein, we report a water-soluble terpyridyl-based ligand that demonstrates effective quantification of parts per billion to parts per million levels of Fe2+, Fe3+, Zn2+, and Ru3+. Whereas the Fe3+ and Ru3+ ions were found to bind to the ligand to form a monometallic complex, a 2:1 ligand/metal binding stoichiometry was found for the Zn2+ and Fe2+ complexes. The corresponding metal-binding events were directly translated into distinct colorimetric and spectroscopic logic outputs. Applying molecular logic (Boolean logic operations) to describe these binding events, selective discrimination between the ions was demonstrated
An Online System for Visualizing UOIT Class Schedules
(2021-06-02) Chicoine, Bradley
The objective of this thesis is to design a system that will enable users to visualize aspects of a schedule so that the information can be interpreted in a meaningful way. The concept of visualizing data has allowed many possible forms such as graphs, time tables, maps, etc. In order to make the results of this thesis more accessible it was decided early on to switch to a web-based implementation. This way a wide audience of faculty or students of the school could have access this information and allow for the project to have a larger scope. Implementations for displaying data include tables, a week calendar view, a week time table view with classes sized to represent time, and coloured bar graphics to represent capacity and time based on spatial location. In addition to the method of displaying schedule information the data to display has been focused on a few different areas of: courses, rooms, and capacity. Displaying lists of courses as well as being able to connect courses to professors resulted in the calendar view. The need for room schedules resulted in the time table to better display the information and help with the availability visualization at the same time. However the availability of several rooms or several professors was not capable with the calendar or time table view, so this resulted in more abstract methods of attempting to display availability data. Availability is displayed using generated graphics of coloured bars representing classes with their colour representing capacity. Another requirement besides the visualization part of each piece of the thesis was the accessibility. Being a web-based program the project to be flexible such as allowing different parameters to customize results, as well as being easy for the average user to navigate. Methods such as connecting different colours for each visualization, breadcrumbs, tooltips, clickable areas to display more information and easy menu selections were included in the thesis webpage. This project has iterated over several different designs through web pages and visualization to attempt to find the most flexible method of presenting the collected information.
Perceptual Biases in Font Size as a Data Encoding
(IEEE, 2017-07-04) Alexander, Eric; Chang, Chih-Ching; Shimabukuro, Mariana; Franconeri, Steven; Collins, Christopher; Gleicher, Michael
Many visualizations, including word clouds, cartographic labels, and word trees, encode data within the sizes of fonts. While font size can be an intuitive dimension for the viewer, using it as an encoding can introduce factors that may bias the perception of the underlying values. Viewers might conﬂate the size of a word’s font with a word’s length, the number of letters it contains, or with the larger or smaller heights of particular characters (‘o’ vs. ‘p’ vs. ‘b’). We present a collection of empirical studies showing that such factors—which are irrelevant to the encoded values—can indeed inﬂuence comparative judgements of font size, though less than conventional wisdom might suggest. We highlight the largest potential biases, and describe a strategy to mitigate them.
Personalized Views for Immersive Analytics
(ACM, 2016-11) Bonada, Santiago; Veras, Rafael; Collins, Christopher
In this paper we present work-in-progress toward a vision of personalized views of visual analytics interfaces in the context of collaborative analytics in immersive spaces. In particular, we are interested in the sense of immersion, responsiveness, and personalization afforded by gaze-based input. Through combining large screen visual analytics tools with eye-tracking, a collaborative visual analytics system can become egocentric while not disrupting the collaborative nature of the experience. We present a prototype system and several ideas for real-time personalization of views in visual analytics.
Progressive Learning of Topic Modeling Parameters: A Visual Analytics Framework
(IEEE, 2017-08-29) El-Assady, Mennatallah; Sevastjanova, Rita; Sperrle, Fabian; Keim, Daniel; Collins, Christopher
Topic modeling algorithms are widely used to analyze the thematic composition of text corpora but remain difficult to interpret and adjust. Addressing these limitations, we present a modular visual analytics framework, tackling the understandability and adaptability of topic models through a user-driven reinforcement learning process which does not require a deep understanding of the underlying topic modeling algorithms. Given a document corpus, our approach initializes two algorithm configurations based on a parameter space analysis that enhances document separability. We abstract the model complexity in an interactive visual workspace for exploring the automatic matching results of two models, investigating topic summaries, analyzing parameter distributions, and reviewing documents. The main contribution of our work is an iterative decision-making technique in which users provide a document-based relevance feedback that allows the framework to converge to a user-endorsed topic distribution. We also report feedback from a two-stage study which shows that our technique results in topic model quality improvements on two independent measures.
Rational design of a material for rapid colorimetric Fe2+ detection
(Elsevier, 2016-10-05) Zenkina, O.V; Laschuk, N. O.; Ebralidze, I. I.; Quaranta, S.; Kerr, S.; Egan, J. G.; Gillis, S.; Gaspari, F.; Latini, A.
We report on the rational design of a novel TiO2 based screen-printed material suitable for sensitive and selective detection of iron ions in water. This includes the synthesis and characterization of large mesoporous TiO2 nanostructures, screen-printing of thick titania films on glass surfaces and their functionalization with 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridin-4′-ylphosphonic acid (terpy). The ultra-high affinity between iron ions and the TiO2-anchored terpy receptor makes this system potentially applicable to the analysis of iron in environmental, food, biological, and biomedical systems by a readily quantifiable colour change. Rapid (< 30 s) colour change of the material from white to magenta permits easy detection of as low as 0.3 ppm of Fe2 + by the naked eye. The intensity of the colour change depends on the nature of the nanoparticles, the overall TiO2 film thickness, and the Fe2 + concentration. The material was characterized using profilometry, diffuse reflectance UV–vis spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after treatment with aqueous solutions of Fe2 +. The designed material shows colour reversibility upon treatment with EDTA solutions, which allows for multiple reuses of the same film with no effect on sensitivity.
The Role of Interactive Visualization in Fostering Trust in AI
(IEEE, 2021-12-10) Beauxis-Aussalet, Emma; Behrisch, Michael; Borgo, Rita; Chau, Duen Horng; Collins, Christopher; Ebert, David; El-Assady, Mennatallah; Endert, Alex; Keim, Daniel A.; Kohlhammer, Jörn; Oelke, Daniela; Peltonen, Jaakko; Riveiro, Maria; Schreck, Tobias; Strobelt, Hendrik; van Wijk, Jarke J.
The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across application domains has prompted our society to pay closer attention to AI's trustworthiness, fairness, interpretability, and accountability. In order to foster trust in AI, it is important to consider the potential of interactive visualization, and how such visualizations help build trust in AI systems. This manifesto discusses the relevance of interactive visualizations and makes the following four claims: i) trust is not a technical problem, ii) trust is dynamic, iii) visualization cannot address all aspects of trust, and iv) visualization is crucial for human agency in AI.
Saliency Deficit and Motion Outlier Detection in Animated Scatterplots
(Association for Computing Machinery, 2019-05-04) Veras, Rafael; Collins, Christopher
We report the results of a crowdsourced experiment that measured the accuracy of motion outlier detection in multivariate, animated scatterplots. The targets were outliers either in speed or direction of motion, and were presented with varying levels of saliency in dimensions that are irrelevant to the task of motion outlier detection (e.g., color, size, position). We found that participants had trouble finding the outlier when it lacked irrelevant salient features and that visual channels contribute unevenly to the odds of an outlier being correctly detected. Direction of motion contributes the most to accurate detection of speed outliers, and position contributes the most to accurate detection of direction out-liers. We introduce the concept of saliency deficit in which item importance in the data space is not reflected in the visualization due to a lack of saliency. We conclude that motion outlier detection is not well supported in multivariate animated scatterplots.
TandemTable: Supporting Conversations and Language Learning Using a Multi-Touch Digital Table
(Association for Computing Machinery, 2015-06-03) Paluka, Erik; Collins, Christopher
We present TandemTable, a multi-touch tabletop system designed to break down communication barriers between partners, with a special focus on supporting those who are learning languages. The design was guided by a grounding study of a real-world tandem language learning (TLL) environment and refined with an exploratory study of an early prototype. TandemTable facilitates and supports conversations by suggesting topics of discussion and presenting partners with a variety of conversation-focused collaborative activities, which consist of shared digital topical content that is dynamically downloaded from the web. Through a formal study comparing TandemTable to the baseline TLL condition of no support, our system was shown to increase communication between learning partners, reduce social discomfort, and was the preferred way of engaging in TLL.
Textension: Digitally Augmenting Document Spaces in Analog Texts
(DHQ, 2019) Bradley, Adam James; Sawal, Victor; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Collins, Christopher
In this paper, we present a system that automatically adds visualizations and natural language processing applications to analog texts, using any web-based device with a camera. After taking a picture of a particular page or set of pages from a book or uploading an existing image, our system builds an interactive digital object that automatically inserts modular elements in a digital space. Leveraging the findings of previous studies, our framework augments the reading of analog texts with digital tools, making it possible to work with texts in both a digital and analog environment.
Tied In Knots: A Case Study on Anthropographic Data Visualization About Sexual Harassment in the Academy
(IEEE, 2020-10-30) Elli, Tommaso; Bradley, Adam; Collins, Christopher; Hinrichs, Uta; Hills, Zachary; Kelsky, Karen
With this pictorial we present the design process of “The Academia is Tied in Knots”, an interactive visualization based on sensitive and qualitative data, namely personal stories reported by people who have experienced sexual harassment in academia. We discuss how we approached the task of visualizing sensitive, uncomfortable, yet important topics in terms of data-mapping and visual representation, including the appropriateness of computational vs. manual approaches to help foreground relevant themes. We also describe the design process behind the visualization and we discuss it from a feminist data visualization perspective.
Using Visual Analytics of Heart Rate Variation to Aid in Diagnostics
(CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2016-06-07) McIntyre, Stephen; Eklund, J. Mikael; Collins, Christopher
We present an interactive visualization tool for exploring RR interval data (the time between consecutive heart beats) to support diagnostics. An RR interval sequence diagram allows us to reduce hours of data into a general overview opposed to using short term ECG strips. A simple moving average is applied to the sequence diagram to smooth out short-term variance and highlight long-term trends. The moving average is surrounded by standard deviation bands which allow us to see the fluctuations in variance. After a brief training period using these tools coupled with RR interval and RR interval difference histograms, non- expert participants (undergraduate students) were able to differentiate between normal, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure.

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