SI2-SSE: Collaborative Research: TrajAnalytics: A Cloud-Based Visual Analytics Software System to Advance Transportation Studies Using Emerging Urban Trajectory Data

传感和计算的先进技术已经创建了城市网络上的人和车辆的城市轨迹数据集。理解和分析反映城市动态的大规模、复杂数据对改善人类生活和城市环境具有重要意义。领域从业者、研究人员和决策者需要管理、查询和可视化这些大而动态的数据，以进行探索和分析任务。为了支持这些任务，该项目开发了一个名为TrajAnalytics的开源软件工具，它集成了可扩展轨迹数据库、直观和交互式可视化以及高端计算机的计算技术，以明确地促进新兴轨迹数据的交互式数据分析。该软件为交通评估和规划研究人员提供了一个新的平台，可以直接研究城市空间中的流动人口。社会、经济和行为科学的研究人员可以使用该软件来了解城市安全、经济活动、行为趋势等复杂机制。具体来说，该软件推动了交通研究领域的研究活动。该软件还可以作为一个外联平台，使政府机构能够更有效地与公众就城市交通、车辆和网络的真实动态进行沟通。研究和教育的整合为下一代劳动力做好了准备，跨学科的学生可以通过参与软件的开发和使用而受益。为了为有效分析城市轨迹数据集奠定基础，该软件(1)通过基于云的存储和计算基础设施，为研究人员和分析人员提供了便捷的访问和前所未有的能力；(2)开发了一种基于并行图的数据模型，称为TrajGraph，其中大量轨迹在城市网络创建的大规模图上进行管理，这自然适合于研究城市动态；(3)提供名为TrajVis的可视化界面，通过一套可视化工具和交互功能支持交互式可视化分析任务。来自地理、土木工程、计算机科学的各种交通相关研究人员参与了该软件的设计、评估和使用。这个健壮且易于使用的软件使用户能够进行迭代，不断发展的信息采集和意义构建。

Advanced technologies in sensing and computing have created urban trajectory datasets of humans and vehicles travelling over urban networks. Understanding and analyzing the large-scale, complex data reflecting city dynamics is of great importance to enhance both human lives and urban environments. Domain practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers need to manage, query and visualize such big and dynamics data to conduct both exploratory and analytical tasks. To support these tasks, this project develops a open source software tool, named TrajAnalytics, which integrates computational techniques of scalable trajectory database, intuitive and interactive visualization, and high-end computers, to explicitly facilitate interactive data analytics of the emerging trajectory data.The software provides a new platform for researchers in transportation assessment and planning to directly study moving populations in urban spaces. Researchers in social, economic and behavior sciences can use the software to understand the complicated mechanisms of urban security, economic activities, behavior trends, and so on. Specifically, this software advances the research activities in the community of transportation studies. The software also acts as an outreach platform allowing government agencies to communicate more effectively with the public with the real-world dynamics of city traffic, vehicles, and networks. The integration of research and education prepares the next generation workforce, where students across multi-disciplines can benefit through their participation in the development and use of the software.In order to lay the foundations for effective analysis of urban trajectory datasets, this software (1) facilitates easy access and unprecedented capability for researchers and analysts with a cloud-based storage and computing infrastructure; (2) develops a parallel graph based data model, named TrajGraph, where massive trajectories are managed on a large-scale graph created from urban networks which is naturally amenable for studying urban dynamics; and (3) provides a visualization interface, named TrajVis, which supports interactive visual analytics tasks with a set of visualization tools and interaction functions. A variety of transportation-related researchers from geography, civil engineering, computer science participate in the design, evaluation, and use of the software. This robust and easy-to-use software enables the users to conduct iterative, evolving information foraging and sense making.