Intelligent Icons: Integrating Lite-Weight Data Mining and Visualization into GUI Operating Systems

The vast majority of visualization tools introduced so far are specialized pieces of software that are explicitly run on a particular dataset at a particular time for a particular purpose. In this work we introduce a novel framework for allowing visualization to take place in the background of normal day to day operation of any GUI based operation system such as MS Windows, OS X or Linux. By allowing visualization to occur in the background of quotidian computer activity (i.e. finding, moving, deleting, copying files etc) we allow a greater possibility of unexpected and serendipitous discoveries. Our system works by replacing the standard file icons with automatically created icons that reflect the contents of the files in a principled way. We call such icons INTELLIGENT ICONS. While there is little utility in examining an individual icon, examining groups of them allows us to take advantage of small multiples paradigm advocated by Tufte. We can further enhance the utility of Intellig...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ICDM
• Authors: Eamonn J. Keogh, Li Wei, Xiaopeng Xi, Stefano Lonardi, Jin Shieh, Scott Sirowy
• Keywords: Data Mining, GUI Based Operation, ICDM 2006, Intelligent Icons, Standard File Icons