Further applications of a particle visualization framework

Abstract

Previous work introduced a 3D particle visualization framework that viewed each data point as a particle affected by gravitational forces. We showed the use of this tool for visualizing cluster results and anomaly detection. This paper generalizes the particle visualization framework and demonstrates further applications such as determining the number of clusters and identifies clustering algorithm biases. We don’t claim visualization itself is sufficient in answering these questions. The methods here are best used when combined with other visual and analytic techniques. We have made our visualization software that produces standard VRML available to allow its use for these and other applications.