CMU@CHI: Kinetica Converts Tabular Data Into Touch-Friendly Format
News
Spreadsheets may have been the original killer app for personal computers, but data tables don’t play to the strengths of multi-touch devices like tablets. So HCII researchers developed a visualization approach that allows people to explore complex data with their fingers.
Called Kinetica, this proof-of-concept system for the Apple iPad converts tabular data, like Excel spreadsheets, into data points that appear as colored spheres on the touchscreen. People can directly manipulate the data, using natural gestures to sort, filter, stack, flick and pull data points as needed to help them answer questions or explore hidden relationships.
“The interactions are intuitive, so people quickly figure out how to explore the data with minimal training,” said Jeffrey Rzeszotarski, an HCII Ph.D. student who developed Kinetica with Assistant Professor of HCII Aniket Kittur. They will present their findings April 29 at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto.
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