Periodically occurring accumulations of events or measured values are present in many time-dependent datasets and can be of interest for analyses. The frequency of such periodic behavior is often not known in advance, making it difficult to detect and tedious to explore. Automated analysis methods exist, but can be too costly for smooth, interactive analysis. We propose a compact visual representation that reveals periodicity by showing a phase histogram for a given period length that can be used standalone or in combination with other linked visualizations. Our approach supports guided, interactive analyses by suggesting other period lengths to explore, which are ranked based on two quality measures. We further describe how the phase can be mapped to visual representations in other views to reveal periodicity there.

翻译：许多时间相关数据集中存在事件或测量值的周期性累积，这可能是分析中值得关注的内容。此类周期性行为的频率通常无法预先获知，导致检测困难且探索过程繁琐。尽管已有自动化分析方法，但其成本过高，难以支持流畅的交互式分析。我们提出了一种紧凑型可视化表示方法，通过展示给定周期长度的相位直方图来揭示周期性，该方法既可独立使用，也可与其他关联可视化结合。我们的方法通过基于两种质量指标排序并推荐待探索的其他周期长度，从而支持引导式交互分析。我们进一步描述了如何将相位映射到其他视图的可视化表示中，从而在其中揭示周期性特征。