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Adding a fourth dimension boosts business data visualization techniques.
by Janet Kreiling
Watching a movie is much different from looking at a photograph. The photo shows height, width and depth, but the movie adds movement—a crucial fourth dimension. For modern data visualization techniques such as interactive graphs, dashboards and maps, that fourth dimension can take many forms. But no matter what fourth data source is added to the more common 3D renderings, the result is the same: 4D data visualization opens a world of opportunities to analyze data in a visually dynamic way.
Being able to easily see the data powers business intelligence (BI) efforts, as companies can plan better supply chains, make more accurate predictions of population and income growth when plotting new stores, and see trends in customer reactions more quickly, for example. And BI is poised to take advantage of 4D visualization technologies, as that fourth dimension can be drawn from a multitude of data sources organizations already collect. A retailer, for example, might compile information on customers’ postal codes, total value of the sale on a given trip and the store location—three search parameters—and also on a fourth, such as items commonly purchased together. Or the payment method used. Or customer gender. Or the busiest time of day, number of visits, or purchases over months or years.
The 4D difference
Common mapping programs on the Web do a great job of presenting three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional monitor. But even though the user can virtually fly over and around them, the images are mostly static. Adding motion or color to represent an extra data source brings data visualization into the 4D realm. This allows new information to be integrated for a fuller visual analysis that can often be more quickly and easily understood than reports of just text and numbers or limited visualizations of only three data parameters.
One example of this comes from the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., which uses geographic information systems in visualizing government, business and other types of data for a variety of research and development projects. Dr. Anthony Stefanidis, director of the center, cites one example close to home: the ongoing modeling of the university campus to make the information available to the public.
Geographical data parameters—the height, width and depth of the campus and its buildings—are combined with a fourth dimension in the form of time to visualize the growth of the campus and buildings during the past few decades. Using different combinations of four data parameters yields countless other and, perhaps, more complex visualizations of campus information. For example, adding data on the heating and cooling infrastructure of the buildings over time makes it possible to identify problems with those systems, Stefanidis says.
It’s also possible to add class schedules in a given building and watch usage throughout the building over the week, he says. Or click on a specific point in the space—one classroom in a specific building—and drill down into linked databases to find out who is registered to be in that room at a given time. In an emergency, Stefanidis points out, first responders could be enabled to link to students’ medical records to discover who exiting that building might have breathing problems—and have the necessary equipment available to help.
The center is also working on modeling complex events involving space and time, such as the path of a hurricane or the propagation of contaminants in an urban environment. Representing the outline of a hurricane or pollutant cloud on a monitor takes two dimensions—height and width. Modeling its movement over time adds a third, and the use of color to represent wind speed or intensity of pollutants makes a fourth dimension. Modeling the movement of the epicenter and the deformation of the outline over time allows both efficient visualization and comparison of current to historical data to better assess emerging hazardous conditions, Stefanidis says.
Varied industry uses
Combining multiple data parameters to visualize data is a boon for various industries. Some of these 4D visualizations involve spatial and temporal data. “Using both in an analysis yields a much more thorough understanding of the specific mechanisms that drive events—perhaps the effect of closing one road rather than another on a specific business,” Stefanidis says.
Some 4D visualizations using combinations of time and space data parameters include:
- Overlaying historical real estate values on a topographical map of a city to show how prices rise or fall based on the elevation
- Adding traffic patterns to a city map that shows average income levels in different areas to analyze possible correlations
- Displaying the geographical propagation over time of pollution or a specific pollutant along with its density
Other possibilities exist for real-life applications of 4D data visualization techniques:
- An oil producer can monitor the height, width and depth of a reservoir over time to observe how the shape or volume of oil changes with ongoing extraction or with activity in the surrounding geology.
- A construction project manager could correlate the multiple schedules involved in major projects and reduce errors such as electricians showing up before walls are in place.
- A financial institution might visualize trading on stock exchanges worldwide to see what particular stocks or sectors are experiencing high trading volumes and at what times.
That’s a wrap
With more and more organizations tapping into the virtually limitless sources of data available to them, it’s becoming increasingly imperative to make sense of and take advantage of this gathered information. Data visualization provides a connection between disparate data sources and the user’s need to see results. And 4D data visualization takes analysis into the next realm by allowing more data parameters to be combined, analyzed and displayed in a format users will enjoy watching.
Janet Kreiling, based in Tucson, Ariz. has written extensively about technology and business.
Photography by Veer