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WordVis: JavaScript and Animation to Visualize the WordNet Relational Dictionary

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Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI 2011), Prague, Czech Republic, August, 2011

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 179))

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Abstract

Today’s data needs flexible visualization, and the advent of new tech-nologies defined under HTML5 has opened up new possibilities for rich web-applications. We used JavaScript and the new HTML5 ‘canvas’ element, to create a software module GraphVis for online visualization and exploration of large relationship networks. As a first test-case we applied the module to Princeton’s WordNet English thesaurus, and made the result available as the web-application WordVis. WordVis is an exceptionally agile, online synonym-dictionary explorer. It shows a customizable graph of interlinked words and meanings, which are arranged by real-time animation, and behave like repelling magnets that are also rearrangeable by the user. WordVis shows the merits of using JavaScript: the visualizer can be fully integrated inside a web page, and that enables communication with other HTML elements in the page. It demonstrates the latest developments in web technology, and its agility may serve as an inspiration for other web-applications. As an intuitive, online synonym-dictionary explorer, it helps to ‘find the right word’ while writing English texts. It offers an online, free and more powerful browsing experience than any existing word-network visualizer.

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References

  1. WHATWG: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-canvas-element.html

  2. Excanvas: http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/

  3. Miller, G.A., Beckwith, R., Fellbaum, C., Gross, D., Miller, K.: WordNet: An on-line lexical database. Int. J. Lexicography 3(4), 235–312 (1990)

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  4. Miller, G.A.: WordNet: A lexical database for english. Comm. ACM 38(11), 39–41 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. WordNetSQLbuilder: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wnsqlbuilder/files/wnsqldatabase/

  6. TouchGraph: http://sourceforge.net/projects/touchgraph/

  7. ThinkMap: http://www.thinkmap.com

  8. Visual Thesaurus: http://www.visualthesaurus.com

  9. VisuWords: http://www.visuwords.com

  10. Visual Browser: http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/projekty/vizualni_lexikon/

  11. Javascript obfuscator: http://javascript-source.com

  12. Jasob 4: http://www.jasob.com

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Systems Biology group Høgskoleringen 5, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Steven Vercruysse & Martin Kuiper

Authors
  1. Steven Vercruysse
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  2. Martin Kuiper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven Vercruysse .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Faculty of Electrical Engineering and, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 15, Ostrava-Poruba, 708 33, Czech Republic

    Miloš Kudělka

  2. , Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Malostranske nam. 25, Praha, 118 00, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Pokorný

  3. , Faculty of Electrical Engineering and, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 15, Ostrava-Poruba, 708 33, Czech Republic

    Václav Snášel

  4. Auburn, 98071, USA

    Ajith Abraham

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Vercruysse, S., Kuiper, M. (2013). WordVis: JavaScript and Animation to Visualize the WordNet Relational Dictionary. In: Kudělka, M., Pokorný, J., Snášel, V., Abraham, A. (eds) Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI 2011), Prague, Czech Republic, August, 2011. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 179. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31603-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31603-6_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31602-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31603-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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