Graph Drawing with Morphing Partial Edges

Abstract

A partial edge drawing (PED) of a graph is a variation of a node-link diagram. PED draws a link, which is a partial visual representation of an edge, and reduces visual clutter of the node-link diagram. However, more time is required to read a PED to infer undrawn parts. The authors propose a morphing edge drawing (MED), which is a PED that changes with time. In MED, links morph between partial and complete drawings; thus, a reduced load for estimation of undrawn parts in a PED is expected. Herein, a formalization of MED is shown based on a formalization of PED. Then, requirements for the scheduling of morphing are specified. The requirements inhibit morphing from crossing and shorten the overall time for morphing the edges. Moreover, an algorithm for a scheduling method implemented by the authors is illustrated and the effectiveness of PED from a reading time viewpoint is shown through an experimental evaluation.