UniVA: A Unified Interface for Visual Analytics

开发可以应用于所有可能用例的通用可视化分析（VA）解决方案是很困难的，因为需要集成可视化、交互和计算分析的广泛功能。因此，这个项目的想法是结合和协调现有的工具，而不是开发一个新的“超级应用程序”。为此，我们将提供一个统一的用户界面，允许访问给定工作流中使用的所有工具的数据和功能。我们将从虚拟数据处理的两个层面来实现这一目标：在数据层面，促进不同工具之间的数据交换；在视图层面，安排不同工具产生的视觉输出。这一领域的现有研究表明，许多与我们项目相关的研究问题尚未得到回答，而且主要是孤立地看待它们。然而，对我们来说，互联的视角对下一代人工智能至关重要。在其他领域，如制造业，集成解决方案已经开始出现。例如，我们开发了Plant@Hand，这是一个框架，可以在CAD绘图之上链接各种应用程序和数据源，以实现无缝访问。我们为VA应用程序设想了一个类似的解决方案。为此，我们将开发实现这样一个统一用户界面（UI）的通用机制，创建一个原型，并用不同的用例对其进行测试。原型将通过集成VA工作流来增强Plant@Hand。在同一个界面中耦合制造和复杂的可视化数据分析是一个突破性的新特性。

It is difficult to develop general Visual Analytics (VA) solutions that can be applied in every possible use case, since a broad functionality for visualization, interaction, and computational analysis needs to be integrated. Hence, the idea of this project is to combine and coordinate existing tools, rather than developing a new "super-application". For this purpose, we will provide a unified user interface that allows access to data and functions of all tools to be used within a given workflow. We will address this objective on the two levels on which VA operates: on the data level to facilitate the exchange of data between different tools, and in the view level to arrange the visual output generated by different tools.The existing research in this area shows that many of the research questions relevant for our project have not yet been answered and that they have mainly been looked at in isolation. Yet, for us, the interlinked perspective is paramount for next-generation VA. In other fields, such as manufacturing, integrated solutions are already starting to appear. For example, we have developed Plant@Hand, a framework that links various applications and data sources on top of a CAD drawing for seamless access. We envision a similar solution for VA applications. For this purpose, we will develop general mechanisms for realizing such a unified user interface (UI), create a prototype, and test it with different use cases. The prototype will enhance Plant@Hand by integrating VA workflows. Coupling manufacturing and sophisticated visual data analysis within one and the same interface is a groundbreaking novel feature.