Interactive information visualization for exploratory intelligence data analysis

This paper describes an experimental exploratory information visualization system under development at PNNL for integrating multimedia data and visualizing the contents of large multimedia databases. Our system prototype, named Starlight, represents multimedia corpora graphically as collections of icons in 3-space. Each icon in the information display represents an individual element of a multimedia database. The proximity of any two icons in the display is an indication of their general similarity, providing fast access to thematically related information. We extend the effectiveness of this approach by coupling it with a linkage display system to enable the simultaneous visualization of database structure and contents at multiple levels of abstraction. The utility of the system is further extended by enabling a variety of graphical and text-based interactions with the information display. The system enables the interactive generation of multiple simultaneous "views" into multimedia databases, providing intelligence analysts with the potential to process large multimedia data volumes quickly and effectively.