Selective Dynamic Manipulation

We have developed a paradigm for interacting with visualizations that is based on the notion of physicalization, which uses the metaphor of creating “physical” objects to represent abstract data objects. This paradigm, SDM (Selective Dynamic Manipulation), is a set of novel interactive techniques for 2D and 3D visualizations. Selective reflects our goal for providing a high degree of user control in selecting an object set, in selecting interactive techniques and the properties they affect, and in the degree to which a user action affects the visualization. Dynamic indicates that the interactions all occur in real-time and that interactive animation is used to provide better contextual information to users in response to an action or operation. Manipulation indicates the types of interactions we provide, where users can directly move objects and transform their appearance to perform different tasks.