An

AugmentedVisualQueryMechanism forFinding
Patternsin
TimeSeries
Data

1 2 2
EamonnKeogh, Harry
Hochheiser, Ben
Shneiderman*
1
ComputerScience& EngineeringDepartment
University
oCalifornia
f Riverside
-
Riverside, CA92521
eamonn@cs.ucr.edu
2
DepartmentofComputerScience
Human-ComputerInteractionLab
*Institutefor
AdvancedComputerStudies,andInsti tutefor
Systems
Research
UniversityoMaryland
f
CollegePark,
MD20742USA
{hsh,ben@cs.umd.edu}

Abstract.Relativelyfewquerytoolsexistfordataexplorat ionandpatternidentifi-
cationintimeseriesdatasets.Inpreviousworkw eintroduced Timeboxes.Time-
boxesarerectangular,direct-manipulationqueries forstudyingtime-seriesdatasets.
WedemonstratedhowTimeboxes canbuesedtosuppor interactive
t explorationvia
dynamicqueries,alongwithoverviewsoquery f resu ltsanddrag-and-dropsupport
forquery-by-example.Inthispaper,weextendour workbyintroducingVariable
TimeTimeboxes(VTT).VTTsareanaturalgeneraliza tionofTimeboxes,which
permitthespecificationofqueriesthatallowade greeouf ncertaintyinthetime
axis.Wecarefullymotivatetheneedforthesemore expressivequeries,anddemon-
stratetheutility
oour
f approachonseveraldata sets.

Introduction
1

Timeseriesdatasetsareubiquitous,appearingin manydomainsincludingfinance,meteorol-
ogy,physiologyandgenetics.Todate,mostinforma tionvisualizationworkonthesedatasets
hasfocusedondisplayandinteractiveexploration, oftenemphasizingtheperiodicnatureof
somecalendar-baseddatasets [6].Workindatami ninghasaddressedtheneedforadditional
toolstoidentifypatternsotfrendsoifnterestin thesedatasets.Algorithmicandstatistical
methodsforidentifyingpatterns [1,2,3,5,8,11]ha veprovidedsubstantialfunctionalityina
widevariety osituations.
f Indomainssuchastoc kpriceanalysis,familiarpatternshavebeen
namedandidentifiedashorthandapproachestoide ntifyingtrendsointerest
f [12].Toolsfor
specifyingdynamic queriesoverthesedatasetshaverecentlybeendev eloped:QuerySketch
supportsquery-by-examplebasedonasketchoade f siredprofile
[20],andSpotfire'sArray
Explorer 3supportsgraphical queriesfor
temporal patterns[18].
Inpreviousworkweintroducedtimeboxes:anintera ctivemechanismforspecifyingque-
riesontemporaldatasets.Timeboxesarerectangul arregionsthatareplacedanddirectly
manipulatedonatimeline,withtheboundariesoft heregionprovidingtherelevantquery
parameters.In thispaperweintroduceanextensiontotimeboxes, whichallowqueriesthat
 havesomeflexibilityinthetimeaxis.Researchers
longknowntheutilityofsuch“timewarped”querie
TimeTimeboxes(VTT).Wecarefully motivatethenee
utility
oour
f approachonseveral datasets.
Therestofthispaperisorganizedafsollows,in
ofTimeboxes,andintroduceTimeSearcher,anapplic
interactiveenvironmentforvisualizingandqueryin
introduceandtestournewVTTapproach.Section4
tion5 weoffer someconclusionsanddirectionsfor future
inspeechprocessingandotherfieldshave
s.WecallournewapproachVariable
dfor
suchqueries,anddemonstratethe
Section2weprovideanextensivereview
ationthatusestimeboxestoprovidean
gtimeseries.InSection3wemotivate,
considersrelatedwork.Finally,inSec-
work.

Timeboxes:
2 Interactive
TemporalQueries
Timeboxesarerectangularqueryregionsdrawndirec tlyonatwo-dimensionaldisplayof
temporaldata.TheextentotfheTimeboxonthetim e( x)axisspecifiesthetimeperiodof
interest,whiletheextentonthevalue( y)axisspecifiesconstraint
a ontherangeovalue
f os f
interest
inthe
giventimeperiod.Moreconcretely, wedefinetimebox
a afollows.
s
Definition1: A timebox,definedbtywopoints ( x1, y1and
)( x2, y2),isconstraint
a on
atimeseriesindicatingthatforthetimerange x1 ≤ x ≤ x2the
, dynamicvariablemust
havevalue
a intherange y1 ≤ y ≤ y2(assuming
, y 2 ≥
y 1).
Multipletimeboxescanbedrawntospecifyconjunct ivequeries.Datasetsmustmatchall
ofthe
constraintsimpliedbtyhetimeboxesinorde to
rbiencludedintheresult
set.
Creationoftimeboxesis traightforward:theuser simplyclicksonthedesiredstarting
pointofthetimeboxanddragsthepointertothed esired locationotfheoppositecorner.As
thisisidenticaltothemechanismusedforcreatin grectanglesinwidelyuseddrawingpro-
grams,thisoperationshouldbfeamiliartomostus ers.Oncethetimeboxicsreated,itmay
be
draggedtonew
a locationoresized
r viaappropriat reesizehandlesonthecorners,usingsimi-
larlyfamiliarinteractions.
Queryprocessingoccursonmouse-up.Whentheuser releasesthemouse,thecurrentposi-
tionothe
f timebox istored,
s thequery
iupdated
s and
, thenewresultset
isdisplayed.
Constructionotfimeboxesias idedbydrawingallo tfheitemsinthedatasetdirectlyon
thequeryarea.This“graphenvelope”displayprovi desadditionalinsightintothedensity,
distributions,andpatternsocf hangefoundamongi temsinthedataset,inadisplaythatis
reminiscent to
parallel
a coordinatesvisualization [10](Figure1).

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Fig1: A“graphenvelope”overview,formedbysuperimposi ngthetimeseriesforalloftheitems
inthedataset
 TheexampledatasetshowninFigure1containswee
willbeusedinabriefscenariotoillustratethe
findingstocksthatroseandthenfellwithinafou
timeboxspecifyingstocksthattradedbetween$28a
thisqueryies xecuted,thegraphenvelopeius pdat
theseconstraints.Wecanquicklyseethatthisque
underconsideration,but many still
remain(Figure
204.2
153.1
klystockpricesfor1430stocksand
useotfimeboxes.Ananalystinterestedin
r-monthperiodmightstartbydrawinga
nd$64duringthefirstfewweeks.When
edtoshowonlythoserecordsthatmatch
rysubstantiallylimitsthenumberofitems
2.A).
(A) 204.2 (B)
153.1

102.1 102.1

Fig.2: (A) Asingletimeboxquery,foritemsbetween$28and$ 64duringweeks1-5.( B)A

refinement
of
thequery
in( A)
reduces thenumberof
matching
timeseries
Tofindstocksinthissetthatroseinsubsequent weeks,theuserdrawsasecondbox,
specifyingitemsthat tradedbetween$73and$147i nweeks10-12(Figure 2.B).
Astimeboxesareaddedtothequery,thegraphenve lopeprovidesanongoingdisplayof
theeffectsoefachactionandanoverviewofther esultset.Oncecreated,thetimeboxescan
bescaledomoved
r singly otogether
r tomodify
the query constraints.
Theuseosimple,
f familiaridiomsforcreationand modificationotimeboxes
f supportsin-
teractiveusewithminimalcognitiveoverhead.Rapi dautomaticqueryprocessing (<100ms)
onmouse-upeventsprovidesthefastresponseneces saryfordynamicqueries[16],thussup-
portinginteractivedataexploration.Userscaneas ilyandquicklytryawiderangeoqueries,
f
andmodifythemtoquicklyseetheeffectsocf hang esinqueryparameters.Thisabilityto
easilyexplorethedataihs elpfulinidentifyings pecificpatternsointerest,
f aswellasingain-
ingunderstanding othe
f dataset
asw
a hole.
Timeboxesalsodifferfromtraditionaldynamicquer ywidgets[16]intheirconstruction
andmanipulationdirectly onthedata space.
Astim eboxesaredrawndirectly ograph
na space
suitableforplotting
time
a series,thequeriesar easily
interpretedagatlance.

TimeSearcher
2.1

TimeSearcher[9]usestimeboxestoposequeriesove saretofentitieswithoneomore
r time-
varyingattributes.Entitieshaveoneom r orestati cattributes,andoneom r oretime-varying
attributes,withthenumber oftimepointsandthe definitionothose f pointsbeing the
samefor
everyentityinagivendataset.Iftherearemult ipletime-varyingattributes,anyoneothem f
canbeselectedforquerying,throughadrop-downm enuthatspecifiesthedynamicattribute
beingqueried. All
activequeriesrefer tothesameattribute.
Whenadatasetisloaded,entitiesinthedataset aredisplayedinawindowintheupper
left-handcorneroftheapplication.Eachentityis labeledwithitsname,andthevaluesothe f
activedynamicattributeareplottedinlinea grap h.Completedetailsabouttheentity (details-
on-demand)canberetrievedbysimplyclickingont hegraphforthedesiredentity:thiswill
causetherelevant
informationtobdeisplayedint helower
right-handwindow (Figure 3).

Fig.3. TheTimeSearcherapplicationwindow.Clockwisefrom upper-left:

query
space,details-on-
demand,item
list,
rangesliders
for
query
adjustme nt,anddataitems

Theupper-leftcorneroftheTimeSearcherwindowis
tiallycontainsanemptygrid.Tospecifyaquery,
location.Queryprocessingbeginsasoonaus sers
tionotfhebox.Thus,usersdonotneedtopressa
queryprocessingcompletes,thedisplayinthetop
toshowthoseentitiesthatmatchthequery constra
thatcorrespondtothequeriesarehighlighted,in
play.
Oncetheinitialqueryics reated,thetimeboxesca
boxiconsonthelowertoolbarareusedtoswitchb
thequeryinputspace.Thisspaceini-
userssimplydrawatimeboxinthedesired
releasethemouse,signifyingthecomple-
buttontoexplicitlystartasearch.When
halfotfheapplicationwindowisupdated
ints.For
all
oftheseentities,thetime
points
ordertosimplifyinterpretationofthedis-
nbemovedandresized.Thehandand
etweencreatingtimeboxesandmov-
 ing/resizingthem.Asitshecasewith initialtimeboxcreation,query
diately uponcompletionothef movement/resizingof
Whenmultipletimeboxesarepresent,theycanbm
eo
ingroupsotfwoormore.Thisfunctionalityis
patterns(Figure3).Inthesecases,userscansele
dardlassoandshift-clickinteractions)andsimult
scalealongeitherobr othaxestoallselectedtim
stancesoapattern
f thatvaryslightlyinscaleor
onexample items.
TimeSearcheruses“GraphEnvelope”displays topro
[9],andasimpledrag-and-drop“query-by-example”
riesoftendiscussedinresearchintheminingotf
TimeSearcherisimplementedinJava,usingtheSwin
nents.Drawingandscenegraphcontrolinthedataa
zoomingtoolkit writteninJava[4].
processingbeginsi mme-
the
timebox.
difiedindividuallyosimultaneously
r
particularlyusefulforsearchesforcomplex
ctsomeoall
r ofthetimeboxes(usingstan-
aneouslyapplythesametranslationand/or
eboxes.Thisius sefulforsearchingforin-
magnitudes,orformodifyingqueriesbased
videoverviewsothe f entiredataset
mechanismsupportsthesimilarityque-
imeseriesdata[1,3,5,8,11].
gtoolkitforuser-interfacecompo-
ndquerydisplaysips rovidedbyJazz,a

AnA3ugmentedQuery
Mechanism
Timeboxesofferaveryflexiblequerylanguage,but itisnotcomplete.Toseewhy,consider
thefollowingmotivatingexample.Oneotfheclassi csymptomsoHf odgkin’sdiseaseitshe
appearanceotwo
f dramaticelevationsothe
f patien t’stemperaturei24-hour
na period.Figure
4showstwoexamples.
101.5
A) B)
101
100.5
100 0 5 10 15 20 25

99.5
99 C)
98.5
98
97.5 0 5 10 15 20 25
0 5 10 15 20 25

Fig.4 Two
. peaks in
patients
a temperature over
saingle dayiclassic
as symptom of
Hodgkin’s
disease,howeverthepeaksmaybeanarbitrarydist anceapartashownin(A).Ourcurrent
definitionofTimeBoxescannotdetectpeaksaarbi t trarylocations.Althoughwecouldcreate
queriestofindcertainexamplesodouble
f peakpat terns(i.eB orC),wecannotuse
TimeBoxes
tocreate
single
a query towhichwilldiscoverall double
peakpatterns
Onenotablefeatureosuch
f patternsitshatthetw opeaksmaybcelosetogether(almostto
thepointofmerging)orasfarapartas18hours. Thisuncertainlyinthetimeaxisiismpossi-
bletorepresentwithTimeboxes.IfweplacetwoTi meboxessixhoursapart(themeanvalue
reportedintheliterature),weruntheriskomis
f sing
positiveexampleswhichwherethepeaks
arefurtherapartor
closer
together.
Twoovercomethislimitationwecanexpandthedefi nitionofTimebox,toallowcon-
straintsothe
f followingform.Thetimeseriesof interestmustbewithinspecified
a rangefor
somespecifiedduration anytimewithinaspecifiedtimewindow.Wecallsuchconst raints,a
VariableTimeTimeboxes(VTT). WecandefineVTTsm oreconcretely afollows.
s
 Definition2: A VariableTime Timebox (VTT), definedbtywopoints
( x1, y1and
)( x2,
y2a) ndasingleinteger R,isaconstraintonatimeseriesindicatingthat forthetime
range x1-R ≤ x ≤ x2 +R,thedynamicvariablemusthave value
a intheran ge y1 ≤ y ≤ y2,
foratleast
( x2- x1consecutive
) timeunits,(assuming y 2≥y and
1 x 2≥
x 1).
Figure5illustratesthedifferencebetweenTimebox esandVTTs.NotethatTimeboxescan
beconsideredaspecialcaseoV f TTs,wherethepar ameter Rissettozero.Assuchwecan
claim
thatVTTsaremoreflexibleandexpressiveth anTimeboxes.

(x2, y2) (x2, y2)

A) B)

0 5 10 15 20 25

(x1, y1)
(x1, y1)
TimeBox Variable
Augmented R
C)
Time
TimeBox
Timeboxes
Mechanism
0 5 10 15 20 25
0 5 10 15 20 25

Fig.5 A. Timeboxmaybevisualizedasashadedrectangle throughwhichaqualifyingse-

quencemustpass.Incontrast,anVariableTimeTim eboxes(VTT)requiresaqualifyingse-
quencetohaveitsvaluewithintheshadedregion, allowingtheshadedregiontomoveany-
wherewithinthelargerconstrainingrectangle( A).UnlikeTimeboxes( B),VTTSareableto
detectpatterns
withdegree
a ouncertainty
f inthe timeaxis

VTTscanbpe lacedontheGUIthesameway Timeboxe asre.By

defaultthe R-valueiset
tozero,thus,onmouse-uptheyactasclassicTime boxes.Howevertheusercanleftclickthe
edgesofthe
VTT to(symmetrically) resizetherect angle
representingtheR-value.

3.1EfficientlySupportingVTTs
AlthoughVTTSaremoreexpressivethanclassicTime Boxes,theyalsorequiremoreeffortto
supportefficiently.Asexplainedinpreviouswork, Timeboxqueriescanbeprocessedviaa
modifiedorthogonalrangetreequeryalgorithm[7]. WecansupportVTTsefficientlyby
leveragingoffpreviousworkonindexinginverseti meseriesqueries[13].Aninversequery
computesalltimepointsawhich
t sequence
a contai nsvaluesequaltothequeryvalue.Atime
seriescanbeindexedbygroupingsectionswithlit tlevariabilityintheY-axis,andbounding
thesectionswith
Minimum
a BoundingRectangle(MBR ).Figure6illustratestheidea.
 30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Fig.6 A.timeseriesdividedinto9MBRs.AlthoughtheM BRsareactuallyonedimensional,

they
areshownatswodimensionalfor clarity

TheMBRsareindexedusingaR-Tree[8],adatastr ucturethatcanefficientlysupporta
variety oqueries.
f
For
V
a TTquery thatasksfor
all
timepointsthat correspondttime
oa seriesthattakesona
valueequalto y’,where y1 ≤ y’ ≤ y2we , performraangequerywiththeR-Treetoretri eveall
theleafqueuesthatenclosevalue y’.Thereturnedtimeseriesareguaranteedtocontai nthe
fullanswersettothequery,pluspossiblysome“f alsealarms”,i.e.subsequencesthatonthe
valuey’,butforlessthan( x2- x1consecutive
) timeunits.Thesefalsealarmsarere movedbya
post-processingstep.Thistechniqueisimilars in spirittotheindexingtechniqueintroducedin
[8].Heretheauthorsprovethatany lowerbounding techniquecanbuesedtoindexdata,such
thatallqualifyingsequencesareretrieved.The onlyissueitshetightnessothe
f lowerbound.
Ifthelowerboundivs eryweak,manyadditionalno n-qualifyingsequenceswillberetrieved
(theso-called“falsealarms”),althoughthesecan beremovedinapostprocessingstage,this
wouldcausethesystemtobedegradegreatlyinter msosfpeed.Theotherextreme,anarbi-
trarilytightlowerbound,wouldallowcaonstantt imeaccessmethod.Ingeneral,thismethod
worksverywellformosttimeseries,sincemostre alworldtimeserieshavestrongautocorre-
lation,andarethereforewellapproximatedinbyt helowdimensionalityMBRs,givingrela-
tively tightbounds.

An
3.2
ExperimenttoDemonstratetheUtilityoVT
f TS
OursubjectiveevaluationofVTTssuggeststhatit isausefultoolforexploringlarge time
seriesdatabases;inthissectionwpe rovideanobj ectiveexperimentalevaluationotheir
f util-
ity.Inparticular,wewillsupportourclaimthat VTTsallowmoreexpressivequeries,by
showingexperimentswhereourproposedapproachout performspreviousworkinthetaskof
separating twodifferentclassesoftimeseries.
Inordertoallowreplicationoour
f results,and topermitcomparisontoexistingwork,we
haveusedthetwomostreferencedtimesseriesdata setsintheliterature.
• Cylinder-Bell-Funnel:Thissyntheticdatasethasbeenintheliterature for8years,and
hasbeencitedatleastadozentimes[21].Thedat asetconsistsof3differentbasic
shapes,whichareproducedbyafunctionthathasa stochasticelement.Forourexperi-
mentsweconsider onlythe“Funnel”and“Bell”clas ses.
• Control-Chart:Thissyntheticdataset hasbeenfreely
available for
the
UCIDataArchive
sinceJune1998[21].Thereare6differentclasses oftimeseries.Forourexperimentswe
consideronly
the“IncreasingTrend” and“UpwardSh ift”classes.
 Ourexperimentconsistsofirstshowingthesubjec labeled
t examplesoef achclass.We
showtheuserams anyatsheywishtosee,untilth eycanidentifyunlabeledexampleswith
100%precision.Theuseristhenshownagraphenve lopeviewcontaining10examplesof
eachofthetwoclasses.Theuserstaskitsocreat easinglequerythatcanseparatethetwo
classes.TheuserattemptsthiswithbothTimeboxes andVTTS(withtheirchoiceoof rder).
Theexperimentisrepeated10timesforeachsubjec t,andforeachothe
f twodatasets.Figure
7showsanexampleoan
fexperimentwiththeContro Chart
l dataset.
ControlChart ControlChart
60 IncreasingTrendand Upward
Shift 60 IncreasingTrendand UpwardShift
40 40

20 20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

60 TimeBoxI 60 TimeBox II
40 40

20 20

60 VTT I 60 VTTII
40 40

20 20

Fig.7 The
. basicexperimentsetupontheControlChartd ataset.Theuserisshowngraph
a enve-
lopecontaining20sequences,10eachof“Increasin gTrend”and“UpwardShift”.Theuseris
askedtocreateasinglequerytoseparatethetwo classes,usingtimeboxesandVVTs.Thetwo
queriesmaybpe lacedadifferent
t locations,howev erforcomparisonpurposestheyareplacedin
exactlythesamelocationsabove.Notethatforbot hcasesVTTsareabletodoabetterjobof
separatingtheclasses
Intheexampleshowntimeboxesseparatedout3otf he10exampleso“increasing
f trend”,
whereasVVTswereabletoseparateout8oftheexa mples.Forthesecondexperimentwe
attemptedtoseparateoutjustthe“upwardshift”s equences.Heretimeboxesseparatedout4
ofthe10examplesowf hereasVVTswereabletosep arateout7otfheexamples.Figure8
depictsanexampleofanexperimentwiththeCylind er-Bell-Funneldataset,wheresimilar
resultscanboebserved.
10 Cylinder-Bell-Funnel FunnelandBell
10
Cylinder-Bell-Funnel FunnelandBell

5 5
0 0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

10 TimeBoxI 10 TimeBox II
5 5

0 0

10 VTT I 10 VTT
II
5 5

0 0

Fig.8 The
. basicexperimentsetupontheCylinder-Bell-F unneldataset.Theuserishowna
graphenvelopecontaining20sequences,10eachof “Funnel”and“Bell”.Theuseriasskedto
createasinglequerytoseparatethetwoclasses, usingtimeboxesandVVTs.Thetwoqueries
maybpelacedadifferent
t locations,however for
c omparisonpurposesthey
areplacedine xactly
 thesamelocationsabove.Notethatforbothcases VTTsareabletodbetter
oa joboseparating
f
theclasses

Ourexperimentalsubjectswere10undergraduatestu dentsathe
t UniversityoC f alifornia
Riverside.Theyweregivenafive-minuteintroducti ontobothtimeboxesandVTTS,and
allowedto“play”withbothfortenminutesbefore theexperimentbegan.Wemeasuredthe
qualityothe
f separation Q,achievedbbyothtoolsas:
Q=2(* CorrectlySeparated – FalsePositives )/ Size oDataset
f
Becauseourdatasetshasequalnumbersoef achotf hetwoclasses10,thismeasureiisn
therange[-1,1],with1indicatingperfectsepara tionotfheclasses.Table1summarizesthe
resultsofourexperiments.
Table1 The
. qualityotfheseparation(Q)thetwoquerym echanismsundercon-
sideration,
ontheCylinder-Bell-FunnelandControl Chartdatasets

Timeboxes VariableTimeTimeboxes
Cylinder-Bell-Funnel 0.27 0.82
ControlChart 0.38 0.78
ItisclearfromtheseresultsthatVTTsaremore
a powerfulandintuitivetoolforquerying
timeseriesdatabases.

Related
4 Work
Timeseriesdataaccountsforanincreasinglylarge
randomsampleo4,000 f graphicsfrom15othe f worl
1989foundthatmorethan75%ofallgraphicswere
seriesdataattempttoimprovetheutilityotfhese
niquessuchasincreaseddatadensityopr olar-coor
periodicnatureothe f datas[7],
etorby
distort
displays[14].Arecentsurveyolfineartemporalv
thesetoolsfocusonvisualizationandnavigation,
datasets.
Afewtoolshavebeendevelopedforqueryingtime-s
earlyexampleosfearchesfortemporalpatternsin
pull-downmenus,andothertraditionalwidgetstos
isaninnovativequery-by-exampletoolthatusesan
filetoretrievesimilarprofiles,withsimilarity
thesimplicityotfhesketchinterfaceisappealing
canleadtonon-intuitiveresults [11].
Spotfire'sArrayExplorer[18]supportsgraphically
buttheresultsetisgeneratedbycomplexmetrics
approachproducesusefulresults,butusersmay wis
Supportforprogressiverefiningofquerieswasadd
suggestedtheuse orelevance
f feedback forresults
fractionotfheworld’ssupplyodata.
f A
d’snewspaperspublishedfrom1974to
timeseries[19].Visualizationsotime-
f
commongraphs,throughtheuseotfech-
dinatedisplaysthatemphasizetheserial
ingthetimeaxistorealizedenserinformation
isualizationsifsound[17].
in Generally,
withrelativelylittleemphasisonquerying
eriesdata.MIMSY [15]providedan
stockmarketdata,usingtextentryfields,
pecifytemporalconstraints.QuerySketch
easilydrawnsketchoatfime-seriespro-
definedbyEuclideandistance [20].Although
the
, useoE f uclideandistanceaasmetric
editablequeriesotfemporalpatterns,
inamultidimensionalspace.Thispotent
htoconstrainresultsetsmoreprecisely.
ressedbyKeoghandPazzani,who
ofqueriesover timeseriesdata
[11].
Conclusions
5
TheadditionalexpressivepowerprovidedbyVTTspr
meritfurtherstudy.AsVTTsrequirespecification
manipulationwilllikelybemoredifficultthanis
tionofappropriatemechanismsforthesetasks,per
designs,willbeneededtoidentifyapreferredstr
tics: forexample,whatistheinterpretationooverlapp
f ingVTTs?Theinterpretationoover-
lappingtimeboxesisstraightforward,butoverlappi
analogousextensionstothetimeboxmodelmightals
valuetimeboxes(VVTs)mightsupportvariationsin
supportedbV y TTs.Thesequerieswouldpresentfurt
andefficient
processing.
esentssomeadditionalchallengesthat
ofanadditionalparameter,creationand
thecasewithsimpletimeboxes.Identifica-
hapsincludingevaluationofalternative
ategy.VTTsalsoraisequestionsosfeman-
f
ngVTTsmightconfuseusers. Other
obepossible.Forexample,variable
valuessimilartothevaluationsintime
herchallengesincreation,
interpretation,

Acknowledgements

Harry
Hochheiseris supportedbfellowship
ay from
America
Online.

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