Customizable Coordination of Independent Visual Analytics Tools

Abstract

While it is common to use multiple independent analysis tools in combination, it is still cumbersome to carry out a cross-tool visual analysis. Some dedicated frameworks addressing this issue exist, yet in order to use them, a Visual Analytics tool must support their API or architecture. In this paper, we do not rely on a single predetermined exchange mechanism for the whole ensemble of VA tools. Instead, we propose using any available channel for exchanging data between two subsequently used VA tools. This effectively allows to mix and match different data exchange strategies within one cross-tool analysis, which considerably reduces the overhead of adding a new VA tool to a given tool ensemble. We demonstrate our approach with a first implementation called AnyProc and its application to a use case of three VA tools in a Health IT data analysis scenario.