Data visualization system

1. A method of generating a display representing a number of interactions occurring over a period of time, the method comprising:

receiving data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value;

determining an initial ordering for the interacting elements identified by the received data;

iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a measurement of visual overlap; and

generating a display where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions in the determined ordering of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction and the time value associated with the interaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the received data comprises an ordering determined based upon the number of times an interacting element is identified in the received data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the received data comprises an ordering determined based upon the time values associated with interactions.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the received data comprises an ordering determined based on the time value corresponding to an earliest time associated with an interacting element.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the received data comprises an ordering determined based on the time value corresponding to an average time associated with references to particular interaction elements.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a measurement of visual overlap comprises: iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions; and

further modifying the determined ordering to reduce an extent of visual overlap between blocks of interactions.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein modifying the determined ordering to reduce an extent of visual overlap between blocks of interactions comprises:

determining a measurement of the extent of visual overlap between blocks of interactions for a determined ordering; and

iteratively modifying said determined ordering to reduce measurement of the extent of visual overlap without increasing the standard deviation by more than a threshold amount.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein modifying the determined ordering to reduce an extent of visual overlap between blocks of interactions comprises determining an ordering to minimize a cost function measuring an extent of overlap where the cost function includes a configurable padding parameter.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the received data comprises an ordering determined based upon the minimization of a cost function measuring an extent of visual overlap; and iteratively modifying the initial ordering comprises iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function corresponding to the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function corresponding to the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions comprises:

iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function corresponding to the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions without increasing a measurement of visual overlap by more than a threshold amount.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the display where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions in the determined ordering of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction and the time value associated with the interaction comprising generating a display where representations of interactions involving the same interacting elements are represented using the same color.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: responding to user selection of a representation of an interaction in the generated display by causing the representations of interactions identifying the same interaction elements as the selected element to be displayed in the same color.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: responding to user identification of an ordering by generating a display where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction in the ordering and the time value associated with the interaction.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial orderings of interacting elements comprises orderings based on any of:

the number of times an interacting element is indicated as interacting;

the earliest or average timing associated with interactions involving an interacting element;

orderings which minimize the distances between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions;

orderings which minimize the standard deviation of distances between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions; and

orderings which minimize the standard deviation of distances between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and the extent of visual overlap between groups of interactions.

15. A method of generating a display representing a number of interactions occurring over a period of time, the method comprising:

receiving data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value;

determining an initial ordering for the interacting elements identified by the received data;

iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function wherein the cost function comprises a weighted sum of a first cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a second cost function indicative of a measurement of visual overlap wherein the relative weightings assigned to the first and second cost functions are set in response to user input; and

generating a display where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions in the determined ordering of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction and the time value associated with the interaction.

16. A data visualization system comprising:

a data store storing data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value;

a processing unit operable to process data stored in the data store to determine an ordering for the interacting elements identified by the stored data based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions stored in the data store; and

a display generation unit operable to generate display data where individual interactions from a set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction in an ordering of interacting elements determined by the processing unit and the time value associated with the interaction wherein the processing unit determines the ordering for the interacting elements by:

determining an initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the stored data; and iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions, the operation of iteratively modifying the initial ordering includes iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a measurement of visual overlap.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer interpretable instructions which when interpreted by a computer cause the computer to:

process data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value to determine an ordering for the interacting elements identified by the data based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions; and

generate display data where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions in the determined ordering of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction and the time value associated with the interaction wherein the determining of the ordering for the interacting elements includes: determining an initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the data; and iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions, the cost function including a weighted sum of a first cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a second cost function indicative of a measurement of visual overlap, such that the relative weightings assigned to the first and second cost functions are set in response to user input.

18. A data visualization system comprising:

a data store storing data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value;

a processing unit operable to process data stored in the data store to determine an ordering for the interacting elements identified by the stored data based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions stored in the data store; and

a display generation unit operable to generate display data where individual interactions from a set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction in an ordering of interacting elements determined by the processing unit and the time value associated with the interactions, wherein the processing unit determines the ordering for the interacting elements by: determining an initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the stored data; and iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions, the cost function including a weighted sum of a first cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a second cost function indicative of a measurement of visual overlap, such that the relative weightings assigned to the first and second cost functions are set in response to user input.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer interpretable instructions which when interpreted by a computer cause the computer to:

process data defining a set of interactions, each of the interactions identifying a first and a second interacting element and a time value to determine an ordering for the interacting elements identified by the data based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions; and

generate display data where individual interactions from the set of interactions are displayed as lines connecting co-ordinates corresponding to the positions in the determined ordering of the first and second interacting elements defining an interaction and the time value associated with the interaction, wherein the determining of the ordering for the interacting elements includes: determining an initial ordering of the interacting elements identified by the data; and iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function based on calculated distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions, the operation of iteratively modifying the initial ordering includes iteratively modifying the initial ordering to minimize a cost function indicative of the standard deviation of distance values for the distances in the ordering between the relative positions of pairs of interacting elements corresponding to interactions in the set of interactions and a measurement of visual overlap.