• Import data from a wide variety of data sources, with native support for Excel, CVS and SQL and access to XML, JSON and other through ETL tools such as Kettle
• Import data from web services such as RSS, Twitter and other feeds and real-time data
• Visualise up to 65,000 entities at a time
• Dynamically map and re-map data parameters onto plot features – with up to 10 features being available per plot point
• Plot multiple datasets in the same subjective space
• Filter, group, and highlight data
• Use force-graph algorithms to plot network graphs
• Plot geospatial and temporal data with time-on-a-stick
• Save spaces for later analysis, or share them with other users, with over a dozen users being able to collaborate in the same space, each visible to each other
• Animate data in time or space
• “Scrub” data through a dynamic filter window

There is a free version available (limited to 2000 data points) linked to Dadens’ recently announced data visualisation competition. The competition is open to individuals, academics and commercial users with the winning entries being featured on Daden’s website and in a supporting press release. All submissions must be received by 17:00 GMT on 12 November 2012, via the Daden Website . Winners will be announced on 1 Dec 2012. Competition rules and entry details can be found on the website.

• Read more about Datascape over at the Daden site

The post Datascape – New 3D Dataviz tool from Daden appeared first on Digital Urban.

It moves GIS visualisation a step forward while at the same time bringing procedural city modelling into the mainstream game engine world. Over the coming weeks we will be putting the software through its paces and exporting into Max/Lumion and Unity as part of introducing CityEngines onto our MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation. The clip below details out first output direct from CityEngine into Lumion, adding in a general landscape, sample trees and transport objects:

Linking in our previous post on ArcGIS Twitter Visualisation in Lumion it seems that the worlds of GIS and architectural visualisation/game engines are finally starting to become accessible.

The post CityEngine: ESRI and Lumion a first look. appeared first on Digital Urban.

The post London’s Twitter Island – From ArcGIS to Max to Lumion appeared first on Digital Urban.

The name of the dataset and name of the column being visualised are shown in the top left of the map, while the colour scale is a Jenks 5 class range between the min and max of the data. This sort of works, but raises more questions than it answers about the data. To start with, one interesting thing that jumps out of the data is that there was a step change in London population around 1939, from the “London Borough Historic Population” dataset.

The first problem with this is that there is no structure to how the thumbnail maps are placed on the image. The idea is to use a data classifier and group maps according to how similar they are, so distance would be proportional to similarity. This work is still in progress.

The next problem is with the colour scales, as it commits the cardinal sin of not showing one. The maps are supposed to be representative, so all use the green Jenks 5 classes, but it’s obvious that this has gone wrong on most of the maps. The reason for this is that the London Datastore include data in the CSV files at different geographic scales. Most of the maps show London at Borough level, but also contain data for England, Scotland and Wales which mess up the automatic colour scale. The top range ends up being the larger geographic areas which you can’t see, so the maps end up with just four classes on them. On some of the maps you can see the Government Office Regions (Midlands, Wales, South East etc), along with Borough level data for London.

A map showing data at different geographic scales. London has data at Borough level while the rest of the country is at GOR level.

The final problem, which also relates to different geographic scales, is to do with almost all the maps visualising either a count of people or events. Most maps are a population of some kind, so displaying population density rather than count would make a lot more sense.

As a proof of concept, this demonstrates that we can handle the maps automatically from an Internet data store. One thing that’s obvious from looking at the zoomable map view is that you need the ability to click on one of the thumbnails and go straight through to the full size map with all the information about what is it. There is also no search facility so you can’t find anything, but the next proof of concept is where things will start to get interesting….

 

We will be following progress and the forthcoming TALISMAN project blog with more results in the new year.

The post All the London Datastore Maps appeared first on Digital Urban.