The Hyperbolic Browser : A Focus 1 Context Technique for Visualizing Large Hierarchies
J Onh L Amping, Ran Ao · 1996
We present a new focus 1 context technique based on hyperbolic geometry for visualizing and manipulating large hierarchies . Our technique assigns more display space to a portion of the hierarchy while still embedding it in the context of the entire hierarchy . We lay out the hierarchy in a uniform way on a hyperbolic plane and map this plane onto a display region . The chosen mapping provides a fisheye distortion that supports a smooth blending of focus and context . We have deveoped ef fective procedures for manipulating the focus using pointer clicks as well as interactive dragging and for smoothly animating transitions across such manipulation . Enhancements to the core mechanisms provide support for multiple foci , control of the tradeof f between node density and node display space , and for visualizing graphs by transforming them into trees .