Hyperglyphs

What is a hyperglyph? In order to understand what a hyperglyph is, it is necessary to first understand what a glyph is. A glyph is a visual representation of a single concept. A hyperglyph is a higher dimensional visual representation of multiple concepts expressed simultaneously. Traditionally glyphs are read either left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. The most common modern day example of a glyph is a letter from a Latin-rooted language. Latin based languages compose meaning through the composition of vocal sounds. The sounds themselves appearing to have no inherent meaning (though some evidence suggests otherwise), only the use of the sounds in relation to other sounds create the meaning. In a book, the text is read linearly from one word to the next. In a hypergraph, the scene is read non-linearly, in an order determined by the neurological framework of the perceiver. The construction of an insightful hypergraph requires the builder/vizer to align their perception with their audience. ANTz is where biology, neuroscience, and art, merge to provide greater, and relevant, insight.

• Hyperglyph's are akin to a kinematic topological Hypertree - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertree
• For more info about [glyphs] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph

How do you know that Hyperglyphs provide greater insight? Evidence based approach. ANTz has been used by a wide range of government, educational and commercial groups. Everything from sports medicine to the conflict in Syria and a lot inbetween. What it is good for is when conventional graphs (pie, bar, line plots, etc...) simply do not provide enough depth to gain insight. So where the scatter plot fails (or piles of traditional graphs overwhelm), that is when hyperglyphs pick up the slack and allow one to gain greater insight.

ANTz Hyperglyphs are best described as spreadsheet meets cyberspace!

Here are some links about concepts and application:

• VT Group - short marketing video (use case).
• ANTz Tutorial - older, but useful core concepts.
• XSEDE Symposium - Hyperglyphs history and today!

Watching a video does NOT demonstrate the effect of interactivity!!!! Use of ANTz may trigger greater insights into your data, please consult with your better judgement before using ANTz.

The core concept is based on how your brain interacts with the real-world. The only way to comprehend the power of this approach is to directly interact yourself:

DOWNLOAD - ANTz for Windows, OSX or Linux

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Page UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

Insert links to PEARC/XSEDE presentation as well as pics and description

We represent data as individual objects, each with it's own geometry and topology, which we call a 'glyph', when we form a tree of glyphs (using assigned topo's to each glyph) we call it a Hyperglyph. I believe Jeff Sale coined the term (need to verify).

Terms:

• Hyperglyph - An nD topological hierarchy of objects....
• Tree - Refers specifically to one Hyperglyph (tree) with topology based (kinematic/bone) constraints. Note that our trees can have 'Links' which effectively break the rules of a traditional (graph theory) 'Tree'.
• Link - Breaks the tree hierarchy and connects any two glyphs in the scene.
• Node - An item in the scene graph (can be a glyph, grid, camera, light, IO device, etc.)
• Forest - A collection of hyperglyphs (all the glyphs attached to a specific grid are a forest).
• Branch - Any glyph in the hyperglyph (tree) that has child glyphs attached.
• Root - A glyph that is attached directly to a grid (has branch level=1).
• Leaf - A glyph that has a parent and no children (a tree leaf).
• Sibling - Glyphs that share a common parent.
• Solo - Glyph that is not part of a hyperglyph (tree) nor linked to any other glyphs (also, by default is a root glyph).
• Prune - Cut a branch off a Hyperglyph tree.
• Graft - Paste a branch onto a Hyperglyph tree.
• Clone - Copy a Hyperglyph branch or tree.
• Instance - A copy of a branch or tree that shares the same base attributes. That is if you change the original (master) or any of its instances, all of the instances (including original) change too.