Mosaic Drawings and Cartograms

Author(s)

Cano, R. G. ^[1] ; Buchin, K. ^[2] ; Castermans, T. ^[2] ; Pieterse, A. ^[2] ; Sonke, W. ^[2] ; Speckmann, B. ^[2]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Comp, Campinas - Brazil

^[2] TU Eindhoven, Eindhoven - Netherlands

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: COMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM; v. 34, n. 3, p. 361-370, JUN 2015.
• Web of Science Citations: 9

Abstract

Cartograms visualize quantitative data about a set of regions such as countries or states. There are several different types of cartograms and - for some - algorithms to automatically construct them exist. We focus on mosaic cartograms: cartograms that use multiples of simple tiles - usually squares or hexagons - to represent regions. Mosaic cartograms communicate well data that consist of, or can be cast into, small integer units (for example, electorial college votes). In addition, they allow users to accurately compare regions and can often maintain a (schematized) version of the input regions' shapes. We propose the first fully automated method to construct mosaic cartograms. To do so, we first introduce mosaic drawings of triangulated planar graphs. We then show how to modify mosaic drawings into mosaic cartograms with low cartographic error while maintaining correct adjacencies between regions. We validate our approach experimentally and compare to other cartogram methods. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/00673-2 - A study of combinatorial optimization problems related to data visualization
• Grantee: Rafael Ghussn Cano
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• FAPESP's process: 13/23571-3 - Optimization algorithms for GeoVisualization
• Grantee: Rafael Ghussn Cano
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)