2D and 3D representations for feature recognition in time geographical diary data

摘要

Time geographical representations are becoming a common approach to analysing spatio-temporal data. Such representations appear intuitive in the process of identifying patterns and features as paths of popu-lations form tracks through the 3D space, which can be seen converging and diverging over time. In this article, we compare 2D and 3D representa-tions within a time geographical visual analysis tool for activity diary data. We identify a representative task and evaluate task performance between the two representations. The results show that the 3D representation has bene-fits over the 2D representation for feature identification but also indicate that these benefits can be lost if the 3D representation is not carefully constructed to help the user to see them.