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：在许多时间相关数据集中，事件或测量值的周期性累积现象普遍存在，并可能成为分析的重要对象。此类周期行为的频率往往无法预先获知，导致其检测困难且探索过程冗长。虽存在自动化分析方法，但通常计算成本过高难以支持流畅的交互式分析。我们提出一种紧凑的视觉表征方法，通过展示特定周期长度的相位直方图来揭示周期性，既可独立使用，也可与其他关联可视化技术协同。该方法基于两种质量度量对建议探索的其他周期长度进行排序，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至其他视图的视觉表征中，以可视化揭示其周期性特征。