Description of interactive graphic display technique

Computer-aided Visualization of Psycho-social Structures (Part #9)

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The suggestion has been made above that structuring the relationship between entities could best be accomplished using graph theory methods. There are four disadvantages to this approach:

• in matrix form, such structures cannot be visualized.
• graphic relationships are tiresome and time-consuming to draw (and are costly if budgeted as "art work").
• once drawn, there is a strong resistance to updating them (because of the previous point) and therefore they quickly become useless.
• when the graph is complex, multidimensional, and carries much information, it is difficult to draw satisfactorily in two dimensions. The mass of information cannot be filtered to highlight particular features -- unless yet another diagram is prepared.

These four difficulties can be overcome by making use of what is known as "interactive graphics". [19] This is basically a TV screen attached to a computer. The user sits at a keyboard in front of the screen and has at his disposal a light-pen (or some equivalent device) which allows him to point to elements of a network of entities displayed on the screen and instruct the computer to manipulate the structure in useful ways. In other words the user can interact with a representation of the network using the full power of the computer to take care of the drudgery of:

• drawing in neat lines
• making amendments
• displaying only part of the network so that one is not overloaded with "relevant" information
• storing labels and notes on particular features.

In effect the graphics device provides the user with a window or viewport onto the network of psycho-system entities. Ho can instruct the computer, via the keyboard, to

1. move the window to give him, effectively, a view onto a different part of the network -- another conceptual domain.

2. introduce a magnification so that he can examine (or "zoom in" on) some detailed sections of the network.

3. introduce diminuation so that he can gain an overall view of the structure of the entity domain in which he is interested.

4. introduce filters so that only certain types of relationships and entities are displayed -- either he can switch between models or he can impose restrictions on the relationships displayed within a model, i.e. he has a hierarchy of filters at his disposal.

5. modify parts of the network displayed to him by inserting or deleting entities and relationships. Security codes can be arranged so that (a) he can modify the display for his own immediate use without permanently affecting the basic store of data, (b) he can permanently modify features of the model for which he is a member of the responsible body, (c) and so on.

6. supply him with text on features of the network with which he is unfamiliar. If necessary he can split his viewpoint into two (or more) parts and have the parts of the network displayed in one (or more) part(s). He can then use the light-pen to point to each entity or relationship on which he wants a longer text description (e.g. the justifying argument for an entity or the mathematical function, if applicable, governing a relationship) and have it displayed in an adjoining viewport.

7. track along the relationships between one entity and the next by moving the viewport to focus on each new entity. In this way the user moves through a representation of "psycho-social space" with each move, changing the constellation of entities displayed and bringing new entities and relationships into view.

8. move up or down levels or "ladders of abstraction". The user can demand that the computer track the display (see point 7) between levels of abstraction, moving from sub-system to system at each move bringing into view the psycho-social context of the system displayed.

9. distinguish between entities and relationships on the basis of user-selected characteristics. The user can have the "relevant" (to him) entitiesdisplayedwith more prominent symbols and the relevant relationships with heavier lines.

10. select an alternative form of presentation. Some users may prefer block diagram flom charts to illustrate the relationship between entities, other may prefer a matrix display, others may prefer Venn diagrams, or "Venn spheres" in 3 dimensions, etc. These are all interconvertible (e.g. the Venn circles are computed taking each network node as a centre and giving a radius to include all the sub-branches of the network from that node.)

11. copy a particular display currently on the screen. A user may want to keep a personal record of parts of the network which are of interest to him. (He can either arrange for a dump onto a tape which can drive a graph plotter, a microfilm plotter, or copy onto a video-cassette, or obtain a direct photocopy.)

12. arrange for a simultaneous search through a coded microfilm to provide appropriate slide images or lengthy text which can in its turn be photocopied.

13. select significance of coordinate axes to order structure to highlight features of interest in terms of the chosen dimensions.

14. simulate a three-dimendional presentation of the network by introducing an extra coordinate axis.

15. rotate a three-dimensional structure (about the X or Y axis) in order to heighten the 3-D effect and obtain a better overall view "around" the structure.

16. simulate a four-dimensional presentation of the network by using various techniques for distinguishing entities and relationships (e.g. "flashing" relationships at frequencies corresponding to theirimportance in terms of the fourth dimension.)

17. change the speed at which the magnification from the viewport is modified as a particular structure is rotated.

18. simulate the consequences of various changes introduced by the user in terms of his conditions. This is particularly useful for cybernetic displays.

19. perform various graph or network analyses on particular parts of the network and display the results in a secondary viewport (e.g. the user might point a light-pen at an entity and request its centrality or request an indication of the inter-connectedness of a particular domain delimited with the light-pen.)

This is not the place to do more than outline some of the other present and future possibilities in this area. Video-cassette copies of syste-structures can be widely distributed and used for university or public TV documentaries on complex eco-systems. Microfilm and other plotters can beused to map largo and complex systems. Colour graphics unitssome up to 150 x 150 cm) are in use with the possibility of 512 colours (which allows even more information to be conveyed in one image). [20] Helmets fitted with display screens give the wearer the illusion of being able to move physically through computer projected spaces. Linked graphics terminals allow many users to work simultaneously on the same area of (semantic) space, thus augmenting the possibilities of face-to-face discussion. [21]

The current uses of such devices in chemical laboratories to visualize- atoms and their relationships are particularly suggestive of radical approaches to psycho-social system entities and their relationships which merit further study. For example, all the possible mays of constructing a specified chemical structure, are visualized given a set of specified passible starting sub-units and restrictions on ways they can be combined. [22] This could lead to ways of designing new institutions from a pool of organizational sub-units and personal skills, particularly organizations characterized by complex matrices of relationships rather than simple lines of authority. In another application, the potential field surrounding different types of atoms is mapped under different conditions and stored. [23] This could lead to mays of handling and visualizing psycho-social system entities in termsof field theories.

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