Visual comparison and exploration of natural history collections

  • Authors:
  • Martin Graham;Jessie Kennedy;Laura Downey

  • Affiliations:
  • Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom;Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom;University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, United States

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Natural history museum collections contain a wealth of specimen level data that is now opening up for digital access. However, current interfaces to access and manipulate this data are standard text-based query mechanisms, giving no leeway for exploratory investigation of the collections. By adapting previous work on multiple taxonomies we allow visual comparison of related museum collections to discover areas of overlap, naming errors, and unique sections of a collection, indicating areas of specialisation for individual collections and the complementarities of the set formed by the collections as a whole.