Systems and methods for focus plus context viewing of dense, ordered line graphs

A computer-assisted method of analyzing a dense graph, said method comprising:

• selecting a first portion of the dense graph via an input device;
• performing local distortion of said selected first portion of the dense graph, performing the local distortion comprising expanding a portion of the selected first portion along a time dimension axis of the graph, compressing at least one adjacent portion of the selected first portion adjacent the expanded portion along the time dimension axis, and maintaining a scale of all of the dense graph in a magnitude dimension orthogonal to said time dimension;
• and
• displaying said dense graph and said expanded and compressed portions, wherein all data represented by said dense graph displayed on said display prior to said locally distorting is displayed after said locally distorting.

A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions, executable by a computer, for facilitating computer-assisted analysis of a dense graph, the computer readable storage medium comprising:

• interface instructions for providing an interactive user feature for user selection of a portion of the dense graph via an input device;
• distorting instructions for locally distorting said selected portion of the dense graph, wherein locally distorting said selected portion comprises expanding a portion of the selected portion of the dense graph along a first dimension axis of the graph, compressing at least one adjacent portion of the selected portion of the dense graph adjacent to the expanded portion, and maintaining a scale of all of the dense graph in a second dimension orthogonal to said first dimension;
• and
• display instructions for generating a display signal representing said dense graph and said expanded and compressed portions, wherein all of said graph represented by said display signal prior to said locally distorting is represented by said display signal after said locally distorting.