Co-Bridges: Pair-wise Visual Connection and Comparison for Multi-item Data Streams

In various domains, there are abundant streams or sequences of multi-item data kinds, e.g. news and social media texts, genes sports events, etc. Comparison is an important general task in analysis. For comparing involving multiple items (e.g., words actors action types sequences, visited places itineraries, etc.), we propose Co-Bridges, a visual design connection comparison techniques that reveal similarities differences between two streams. Co-Bridges use river bridge metaphors, where sides represent streams, bridges connect temporally sequentially aligned segments Commonalities these terms involvement shown on the bridges. Interactive query tools support selection particular stream subsets for focused exploration. The visualization supports both qualitative (common distinct items) quantitative (stream volume, amount item involvement) comparisons. We further Comparison-of-Comparisons, which more corresponding to different selections juxtaposed. test applicability including text event sequences. perform evaluation users' capability understand Co-Bridges. results confirm effective supporting pair-wise comparisons wide range applications.