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Visualisation of Animal Tracking Data. James Walker. BCUR - 19.04.11 . Introduction to Data Visualisation. What is Data Visualisation?. A tool that allows the user to gain insight into data. e.g. a graph Visualisation used on a day to day basis – Weather, maps... Etc.
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Visualisation of Animal Tracking Data James Walker BCUR - 19.04.11
What is Data Visualisation? • A tool that allows the user to gain insight into data. e.g. a graph • Visualisation used on a day to day basis – Weather, maps... Etc. • Data set sizes are ever-increasing making a graphical approach necessary. Data explosion!
Information Visualisation • Abstract Data • Any data from a database! • Doesn’t exist in a spatial domain – Our job to place it in space.
Motivation • Biologists at Swansea University use animal tracking devices • Record real animal movement • Some animals are not observable especially underwater (even with GPS!) Device attached to a penguin
How does it work? • Contain tri-axel accelerometers • Accelerometer data can be used to extract • Orientation • Movement vector Its hard to extract these!! • Contain a tri-axel compass – Used for determining an animals heading A Daily Diary device
Devices contd... • Contain sensors to determine the locale environment. Such as: • Temperature • Pressure • Light intensity • and More! Up to 13 sensors... • Small – About the size of a match box. • Can record data for up to 4 days.
Benefits • Indirectly observe animals • Discover new animal behaviours (example) • Gain more insight into animals – Energy expenditure Whale Shark – Previously couldn’t be observed
Data from a Bird displayed on time intensity plots: Data Analysis • Wave patterns represent animal activity • Typically 5 plots combined to determine a behaviour • Showing approx 1,000 data items – Data set consists of 800,000 items. 800 Slides to analyse
The Problem... • Hard to combine several data attributes and translate into an animal movement • Relies on the skill on biologist to extract data from plots – Need years of experience • Error prone! Data sets can contain over a million entries. This is a massive challenge to biologists! Large 2D time plots take a long time to analyse. Potentially days!
Project Aims • Make data analysis less reliant on skill of biologists. • Intuitive visual metaphors for perceiving the data. • Combine multiple attributes together into one visualisation. • More knowledge based experience. • Enable pattern finding capabilities. • Gain more knowledge from the data – Common animal orientations. • Quicker data analysis. • Assisting biologists in identifying areas of interest.
Project Aims - Recap • Make data analysis less reliant on skill of biologists. • Visual metaphors for perceiving the data. • Combine multiple attributes together into one visualisation. • More knowledge based experience. • Enable pattern finding capabilities. • Gain more knowledge from the data – Common animal orientations. • Quicker data analysis. • Assisting biologists in identifying areas of interest.
Future Work Biologists are currently working on a virtual reality software. Animal is mapped into Google Earth Environment – Location can be inferred from compass data, conditions can be set using environment sensors.
Conclusion • This new technology is pushing the frontiers of research into animal behaviour. New discoveries have already been made (e.g. Whale Shark). • Aims have been achieved to enabled a better and more knowledgeable experience in data analysis. • Important research area as indirectly observing animals is a key problem in many animal research areas. • Firm belief that as Daily Diary devices get smaller and more advanced they will becoming more prevalent.
Acknowledgements • Images: • 1. Rolex Awards/Jürgen Freund • URL: http://rolexawards.com/en/the-laureates/rorywilson-home.jsp • Conservation Magazine - Vol. 8, No. 1 • URL: http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2008/07/wildlife-flight-recorder/ • Research Papers: • Visualisation of Sensor Data from Animal Movement • Edward Grundy • Identification of animal movement patterns using tri-axial accelerometry • Emily Shepard • Supervisor: • Bob Laramee