Dynamic Visualization of Information: From Database to Dataspace

Abstract

This paper explores a generalization of the Teleweb project [1] through an XML protocol. The research aims to provide friendly online access to large multimedia databases where the "content or topic" of the media units of texts, sounds or video, is indexed with an arbitrary set of descriptors. Among others, the deliverables of Teleweb consist of a mapping algorithm for a dynamic broadcast and a visualization interface. To go beyond the cognitive limitations of listings as results of database requests, we design an original solution: a topological representation into a 3D image of the relationship among the respective units. Instead of browsing through lists of thousands of units, ten at a time, the user is engaged in a dynamically created immersive environment, where he can control his own navigation over the information. To model the relationship of proximity between units, we use the soft computing capability of the fuzzy logic. Converted into topological data, the degree of the relationship of one unit with another is used to generate a space by soliciting the user's cognitive skills of visual perception instead of by memorization. The database then becomes a data-space.