Keeping things in perspective
This note examines visualization as a special case of "application of
virtual reality to data exploration or review." The theses to be developed
are:
Surprisingly...
- virtual reality need not be visual reality. People really can sustain a
strong grasp on a continuing spatial context given some rather meager
clues[1].
However...
- sustaining grok lock is the key[2]. Users' ability to mentally retain
and manipulate spatial models varies widely. Blind people appear to vary
more than the general population in this regard[3]. The combined
information transfer capacity of the visual display and user's vision is
not enough to determine the appropriate presentation of the information
-- personalization of the presentation must adapt not only to device and
sensory measures but to the user's spatial relations skills as well.
And...
- spatial input trades for spatial output. In addition to the user's
cognitive skills, the spatial aspect of user input is also more important
with less-spatial display. If the view-control part of a
model/view/controller architecture is intuitively compelling, a more
successful virtual spatialization results[4].
References
[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=jaime+sanchez+AUDIODOOM
[2] http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ud4grid/#_Toc495220368
[3] http://www.truncheon.net/newyorker/20030728_sacks.html
[4] http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ud4grid/#_Toc495220364