Interactive real-time visualization system for large-scale streaming data

A method comprising:

• loading, in memory, streaming data that describes a plurality of events, the streaming data including geospatial data that identifies a source location and a destination location corresponding to each event in the plurality of events;
• and
• rendering, on a display by one or more hardware processors, a plurality of visual metaphors on a map using a visualization mathematical model, each visual metaphor representing an event from the plurality of events, the visualization mathematical model defining, for each visual metaphor, a spatial position and opacity of each point on the visual metaphor throughout a sliding time window, the rendering including:
• determining an amount of jitter of the streaming data based on a difference between a most recent timestamp of the event and an upper bound of the sliding time window;
• and
• selecting to increase, decrease, or retain a rate of change of the sliding time window based on the amount of jitter.

A machine-storage medium embodying instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• loading, in memory, streaming data that describes a plurality of events, the streaming data including geospatial data that identifies a source location and a destination location corresponding to each event in the plurality of events;
• and
• rendering, on a display, a plurality of visual metaphors on a map using a visualization mathematical model, each visual metaphor representing an event from the plurality of events, the visualization mathematical model defining, for each visual metaphor, a spatial position and opacity of each point on the visual metaphor throughout a sliding time window, the rendering of at least one of the plurality of visual metaphors comprising:
• interpolating points of an arc that connects the source location and the destination location on the map;
• applying curvature control to the arc based on a distance between the source location and the destination location;
• animating movement of the arc from the source location to the destination location based on opacities of the points interpolated on the arc throughout the sliding time window;
• and
• decreasing opacity of the arc based on the sliding time window.