FPX-G: First Person Exploration for Graph

Abstract

Data exploration is a fundamental user task in the information seeking process. In data exploration, users have ambiguous information needs, and they traverse across the data for gathering information. In this paper, a novel data exploration system, called FPX-G, is proposed that uses virtual reality (VR) technology. VR-based data exploration (or immersive analytics) is a recent trend in data analytics, and the existing work approaches involve aggregated information in an interactive and 3D manner. However, exploration for individual pieces of data scarcely has been approached. Traditional data exploration is done on 2D displays, therefore space is limited, and there is no depth. FPX-G fully utilizes 3D space to make individual piece of data visible in the user’s line of sight. In this paper, the data structure in FPX-G is designed as a graph, and the data exploration process is modeled as graph traversal. To utilize the capability of VR, FPX-G provides a first person view-based interface from which users can look at individual pieces of data and can walk through the data (like walking in a library). In addition to the walking mechanism, to deal with limited physical space in a room, FPX-G introduces eye-tracking technology for traversing data through a graph. A simulation-based evaluation reveals that FPX-G provides a significantly efficient interface for exploring data compared with the traditional 2D interface.