The goal of Visual Analytics is to derive insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous, and often conflicting data; detect the expected and discover the unexpected; provide timely, defensible, and understandable assessments; communicate the assessment effectively for action.

The power of today’s computers combined with efficient pattern recognition abilities and domain knowledge of human analysts is a challenging and very promising road in dealing with large amounts of complex data. It is a major driving force for solutions for information overload in many areas.The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners in visual analytics; provide a forum for presentation and discussion of the both mature and new hot ideas, promote research and developments in visual analytics and supporting disciplines[...]

The VisMaster project was selected to be one of a few projects in the “Future and Emerging Technology” EU funding program to be shown in the exhibition “Science beyond Fiction” at the EU parliament in Strasbourg on 20.-21. April 2010.

Goal of the “Science beyond Fiction” exhibition at the EU parliament was to show how Information and Communication Technologies will change our life in the future and to discuss related issues with EU politician. The exhibition gave an exciting glimpse of how European researchers are pushing the boundaries of science & technologies to enable radically new opportunities.

On a typical day, the international courier Fedex handles some 100 million individual transactions. Worldwide, VISA records 150 million purchases. Every 24 hours, more than 300 million long distance calls stream over ATT’s telephone network. Every one of these shipments, purchases or calls generates a file of data, and this staggering amount of data increasingly drives our information-dominated age.It is routinely archived away as a valuable storehouse of insights and value. Yet the sheer volume of data, and the increasing rate at which this is produced, also pose a problem — how to avoid drowning in it, and how to find useful ways to get meaningful insight out of it.

Volume graphics deals with the analysis, synthesis and presentation of volumetric phenomena, both static and time-varying. Specifically, it includes topics, both volumetric and point-based, related to the acquisition, reconstruction and transformation of volume data as well as feature analysis, information extraction and rendering. Research papers are solicited that present original, unpublished results concerning all aspects of volume graphics and point-based graphics. We especially invite research contributions that report computational techniques.

The 10th International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI2010) will be held in Rome, Italy, May 25-29, 2010. Started in 1992 in Rome, and held every two years in different Italian towns, the Conference brings together experts in different areas of computer science who have a common interest in the conception, design, and implementation of visual and, more generally, perceptual interfaces.

This is the twentieth in a series of Annual Conferences supported by the European Commission, which regularly attracts over 650 delegates from leading commercial, government and research organisations around the world to share knowledge and experience, lessons learnt and good practice.

Graphics become Smart Graphics when their design and implementation are grounded in an understanding of human abilities, activities, and motivations from design experience and the broad spectrum of cognitive and social sciences.

Workshop at AGILE, 11 May 2010, and special issue of IJGIS – Int J GIScience