SVG and X3D: New XML Technologies for 2D and 3D visualization

Abstract

On the SemanticWeb, everything tends to be written in XML-based plain text format. Web graphics are not an exception. Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics will be presented in XML-based formats, called SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and X3D (Extensible 3D Graphics) respectively. A pioneering research monograph, "Visualizing Information Using SVG and X3D: XML-Based Technologies for theXML-basedWeb," was published in 2004 by Springer (Geroimenko and Chen, 2004) as a conceptual sequel to the first edition of the book Visualizing the Semantic Web:XML-Based Internet and InformationVisualization (Geroimenko and Chen, 2002). It explores the use of SVG and X3D in generic Web applications and the applications of these novel technologies to specific problems. All these areas are considered in the broader context of the XML family of technologies and the emerging SemanticWeb. The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with a basic introduction to new technologies and their role in the Semantic Web. Formuch more detailed analysis, see Geroimenko and Chen (2004). SVG and X3D are leading-edge technologies primarily because they are native to the XML-based Web. That means that they can be easily and seamlessly integrated with practically any other XML technologies, including ones dealing with semantics, ontologies, and metadata. Moreover, XML desperately needs these native technologies for representing Web data in a visually rich form since one of the fundamental principles behind XML is the separation of data from presentation rules. Basically, XML documents contain nothing but pure data, and therefore the use of additional technologies is required to go beyond graphically primitive representations of XML data.