Supporting the Visual Analysisof the Behaviour of Gulls

Aidan Slingsby (City University London)(hosted by Emiel van Loon, University of Amsterdam)

Short Term Scientific Mission COST-STSM-IC0903-7590

User-centred process

Current practice

Already extensive use of interactive visualisationMatlab/RCustom Google Earth based tool

Shortcomings (Google Earth based tool)Cumbersome filteringTime and space doesn’t link together wellCannot produce density estimatesDifficult to explore by over time and by day/weekCannot load many data

Visualisation awareness

Initial Requirements

High-resolution maps/aerial imageryDensity estimatesExplore over time, day/week and sunrise/sunsetLoad many data pointsBe able to query individual data valuesLoad any data in agreed data format

Initial tasks

Infer behaviour along its trackIdentify revisited locations, where and whenRecognise temporal cyclesExtrapolate trajectories (based on heading/wind)Identify home ranges.Identify key places/timesFind out long birds stay somewhereAnalyse resource use and time expenditure

Prototype

Live demoSimilar to https://vimeo.com/71347204)

Functionality, ranked by utility

1. Zoomable timeline2. Hour/day/year lines on

the timeline3. GPS points coloured by

individual4. Persistent highlighting5. Satellite imagery6. Save view with comments

7. Time relative to sunrise/sunsets

8. Speed, temperature and distance from nest on timeline

9. Attribute selection10. Helpscreen

Tasks, ranked by (perceived) success

1. Identify revisited locations, where and when2. Find out long birds stay somewhere3. Recognise temporal cycles4. Identify home ranges5. Identify key places/times6. Infer behaviour along its track

3 months later…

Task evaluation scores

Outcomes

Helped validate and improve our user-centred processResulted in a tool that the group still use for exploring new dataResulted in a code-base that has been extensively used on other projectsHas already resulted in further funded work between the two groups and we have plans to carry on working together

Acknowledgements

Thanks to:staff at IBED, particularly Emiel van Loon, Judy Shamoun-Baranes, Adriaan Dokter and Willem BoutenMOVE-COST for funding this Short Term Scientific Mission (COST-STSM-IC0903-7590).