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Xiaoyu Wang UNC CharlotteErin Miller START Center, U. MarylandKathleen Smarick START Center, U MarylandWilliam Ribarsky UNC Charlotte
Remco Chang UNC Charlotte
Investigative Visual Analysis of Global Terrorism
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Disclaimer
Definition of Terrorism “The threatened or actual use of illegal
force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation[1,2].”
Definition of Terrorists Any non-state actor engaging in terrorism
is defined to be a terrorist in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).
1. LAFREE G., DUGAN L.: Introducing the global terrorism database. Terrorism and Political Violence 19, 2 (2007), 181–204.2. NATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR THE STUDY OF TERRORISM AND RESPONSES TO TERRORISM: Global terrorism database.
http://www.start.umd.edu/data/gtd/, 2007
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Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
Terrorism activities throughout the world between 1970-1997
Contains over 60,000 incidents
119 dimensions for recording the events (weapons used, number of injuries, etc)
Approximately 2,000 unique entities
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Visual Analysis of Terrorism
Understanding terrorism is a grand challenge for the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Visual Analytics Consortium (NVAC).
Other agencies such as DoD, STRATCOM, and JIPOE are also interested in the area.
1. GUO D., LIAO K., MORGAN M.: Visualizing patterns in a global terrorism incident database. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 34, 1 (2007), 767–784.
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Existing Work
Visual Analysis of Terrorism != Social Networks
Social network on terrorism OntoVis by Shen, Ma, and Eliassi-Rad Social Action by Adam Perer and Schneiderman
Geospatial approach Guo, Liao, and Morgan from Penn State GeoVista by Penn State Improvise by Chris Weaver
Other Tools Sandbox and GeoTime by Occulus
Why aren’t there more?
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Our System Design
Big Picture:
Event-based investigative analysis Visually analyze the activities of entities
Trend comparison using dimensions Identify trends and patterns of events
Search-by-example of temporal patterns Look for similar behaviors
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Visual GTD Flow Chart
Entity Relationships(Investigative Vis)
Dimensional Relationships(ParallelSets)
Entity Analysis(Search By Example)
C. Ziemkiewicz, X. Wang, A. Godwin, W. Dou, R. Chang, R. Kosara, and W. Ribarsky. Global Terrorism Visualization. Poster Presented at DHS University Network Summit, 2008
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Visual GTD Flow Chart
Entity Relationships(Investigative Vis)
Dimensional Relationships(ParallelSets)
Entity Analysis(Search By Example)
C. Ziemkiewicz, X. Wang, A. Godwin, W. Dou, R. Chang, R. Kosara, and W. Ribarsky. Global Terrorism Visualization. Poster Presented at DHS University Network Summit, 2008
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Fundamental investigative concept: Where : a certain geo-location or region on map. When : a spot or continues span along time line. Who : individual entity or a group of entities What : any physical tool or method. Why : motivations or reasons.
Highly interactive exploratory tool Flexible entrance points. Swift updates in coordinated views. Details on demand
The 5 W’s
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WHERE
WHOWHO
WHEN
Comparison and Shoebox Comparison
and Shoebox
WHAT
System Overview
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Designed to be easy and intuitive.
Illustrates the activity patterns of entities.
Multi-group selection helps in comparing activities of different entities.
Where
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Use of ThemeRiver to display categorical information.
Understand groups’ temporal patterns and trends over time.
When
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Dual Roles: Selection of entities (“terrorist names”
tab) Displays selected entities (“intermediate
results” tab)
Who
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Organizes categorical dimensions
Allows for filtering of activities
What
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Shoebox provides a container for collecting entities that are under investigation
Comparison view supports temporal comparisons between entities.
Shoebox and Comparison
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Scenario One : Linking Incidents to Reveal Global
Strategy▪ Who -> Where -> When -> What - >
Scenario Two : Discovering Unexpected Temporal
Patterns▪ What -> Who -> Why
Scenarios
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WHY?
WHY?
This group’s attacks are not bounded by geo-locations but instead, religious beliefs.
Its attack patterns changed with its developments.
Scenarios 1:Revealing Global Strategy
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Domestic Group
A geographically-bounded entity in the Philippines.
The ThemeRiver shows its rise and fall as an entity and its modus operandi.
Scenario 2: Discovering Unexpected Temporal Patterns
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Conclusion
Contribution
Created a comprehensive set of tools for visually analyzing global terrorism activities.
Our tool models after one of the principles of investigation, the 5 W’s.
Using coordinated views and high interaction to allow an investigator to explore the data and discover trends and patterns.
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Backup
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Visualizing Analytical Process
Can operational or investigative processes and methods be modeled into an exploratory visualization?
Example:▪ Occulus Sandbox models after the use of “post-it”
notes▪ Investigative GTD models the 5 W’s
How can we integrate visual exploration with process modeling? ▪ Bank of America▪ Department of Transportation
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Support reasoning systems.Support reasoning systems.
Provide online version for mass Provide online version for mass audience. audience.
Combine knowledge from Social Combine knowledge from Social Science perspectives. Science perspectives.
