Wanting to explore a variety of topics, such as 3D Space, particle systems, OpenGL, Java, alpha blending, bill boarding, user interactivity, self-organizing algorithms, and electromagnetic attractions & repulsion, Syed Reza Ali produced another experimental visualization on Library record data. Syed used one year's (2008) transaction data (books, DVDs, etc) from the Seattle Public Library to drive this visualization. Each particle/sphere is given properties, pertaining to each category/subcategory of the Dewey system it represents and the amount of checked out items in that category. This allows users to quickly view all the categories in a 3D space and differentiate which category had more traffic for the specific month and what sub-category was most popular. The visualization could also accommodate automatic updating to show popularity throughout the day at the library. A physics system is used to separate the nodes evenly on the surface of the sphere (via electromagnetic repulsion), while a specific algorithm clusters the category-related nodes together.
