Bristlelines: a visualization for discovery relationships between sorted web documents and their usage data

摘要

A method and computer readable medium for generating a graph which displays amounts of access to computer files, such as URL's on the world wide web, over a period of time. Time is mapped along a central axis, and a plurality of file identifiers is mapped radially about the radial axis as lines having varying distances from the radial axis. The lines may be arranged at angles of rotation about the radial axis and are colored to represent the lexicographical similarity of the nodes. Alpha bending is utilized to reveal lines having an angle of rotations near 0 degrees that would otherwise be concealed by neighboring lines. In an alternative embodiment, a two dimensional graph displays instantaneous access information for a plurality of file identifiers, where angular rotation and color may also be used to represent the grouping of the nodes, and distances of radial lines from an origin represent access values to respective files. The present invention may be used to represent traffic patterns across nodes in a network, database queries, or any other application where visualization of numerical values associated with discrete entities is desired.