Visualizing sequential data

Abstract

Relationships between images are often of a sequential nature. Temporal sequences may include keyframes in an animation or frequently recorded satellite pictures. An example for spatial sequences is Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) as they show successive slices of a volume. When interacting with these images, the user may wish to see detailed information without losing the context. Detail-in-context techniques provide methods to display parts of the data in full detail without sacrificing contextual information. Studies have shown that it is important to match the user's mental model as well as the underlying structure of the data when designing a detailin-context algorithm. This paper describes a new algorithm to visualize sequential data and an application of this technique to the display of MR images.