Photos: Data visualisation – the case for graphic clarity
Penguin vs cormorant - Data visualisation
The body orientation plots (left) of penguins and cormorants are similar - but adding the data from depth sensors reveals their behaviour to be very different.
The penguin ascends the water column gradually, spending a lot of time at intermediate depths (green colours).
By contrast, the cormorant ascends almost vertically, levelling off only occasionally, which may equalise pressure and help birds avoid the bends.
(Image: Swansea University)
As new ways of analysing the world around us are developed, new ways to visualise that information are needed.
The recent Eurovis Symposium, held in Berlin, brought together international researchers with new ideas about how to make data easier to interpret and act on.