... | @@ -139,7 +139,26 @@ The following prototypes are designed under the criteria from the previous list. |
... | @@ -139,7 +139,26 @@ The following prototypes are designed under the criteria from the previous list. |
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### General template
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### General template
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Since this work is about creating a software which is able to display a variety of diagrams via braille embossing and it is required to be extendable, a general approach to the conversion of diagram data in some form into a printable text output - such that it can be directly sent to an embosser - is needed.
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This requires a well-defined pipeline describing in which formats data will enter the system, which steps of processing it will undergo and in which formats it can be exported.
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In the chapter [Software Design](Software-Design) an overview on this pipeline is given.
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To keep this chapter purely about the conceptual part, a short analysis will be done to differentiate the various elements of the braille diagrams and in which group each element belongs: shared reusable elements or diagram type specific ones. It is also important to keep in mind that while this text will only deal with the implementation of three diagram types - namely line diagram, bar chart and scatter plot - a main goal is to keep the software extendable for all sorts of diagrams.
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A lot of known diagram types including their associated legends are potentially using the following elements indepent from the actual diagram type:
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- Texts (e.g. for titles, captions, explanation texts)
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- Textures (e.g. in bar charts, pie charts)
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- Axes (e.g. in line diagrams, scatter plots)
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Other elements seem to be more specifc to the actual diagram type:
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- Curves (line diagrams)
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- Straight Lines (radar charts)
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- Points (scatter plots)
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- Circles (pie charts)
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- Rectangles (box plots, bar charts)
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This means that the reusable elements texts, axes and textures should be developed in their own concepts, such that the 'higher-level' concepts for specific diagram types can then include them in an efficient way.
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### Bar charts
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### Bar charts
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... | @@ -159,17 +178,17 @@ The uniform texture can be applied as long as the spacing between the axis divis |
... | @@ -159,17 +178,17 @@ The uniform texture can be applied as long as the spacing between the axis divis |
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##### Basic bar chart prototype
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##### Basic bar chart prototype
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- Dealing with negative values -> move axis inside diagram area, better to not have the concrete values on the axis, but instead explained on legend, also for space reasons (give example of numeric values)
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All depictions of the bar chart prototypes are generated using a software called 'QuickTac' by Duxbury Systems.
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All depictions of the bar chart prototypes are generated using a software called 'QuickTac' by Duxbury Systems.
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![bar_charts_landscape](/uploads/1f22e924a5967161e15cf44fe2c7f68d/bar_charts_landscape.png)
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![bar_charts_landscape](/uploads/1f22e924a5967161e15cf44fe2c7f68d/bar_charts_landscape.png)
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The given prototype shows a bar chart with uniform textured horizontal bars on an A4 sheet in landscape orientation. Of course, many other chart arrangements with varying advantages and disadvantages are possible.
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The given prototype shows a bar chart with uniform textured horizontal bars on an A4 sheet in landscape orientation. Of course, many other chart arrangements with varying advantages and disadvantages are possible.
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##### How to choose an appropriate arrangement
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##### Investiagtion of different chart arrangements
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In the following, an exemplary comparison of different arrangements and their impact on the depcitable amount of information is given.
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The arrangement of a bar chart depends on three relevant properties:
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The arrangement of a bar chart depends on three relevant properties, while charts with vertically oriented bars are sometimes called line charts instead of bar charts. This will be ignored for the sake of simplicity:
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```mermaid
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```mermaid
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graph TD;
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graph TD;
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... | @@ -185,7 +204,7 @@ graph TD; |
... | @@ -185,7 +204,7 @@ graph TD; |
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```
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```
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Technically the maximum amount of categories with distinct textures is limited by the amount of available textures. (currently 4)
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Technically the maximum amount of categories with distinct textures is limited by the amount of available textures. This is problematic, because appropriate distinguishable textures are rare when dealing with such low resolution.
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The width of bars with distinct texture is assumed to be 9 dots.
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The width of bars with distinct texture is assumed to be 9 dots.
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Bars with uniform texture are described by 4 braille characters; horizontal: 5 dots wide, 1 dot spacing; vertical: 13 dots wide, 1 dot spacing.
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Bars with uniform texture are described by 4 braille characters; horizontal: 5 dots wide, 1 dot spacing; vertical: 13 dots wide, 1 dot spacing.
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The axis units are 4 dots apart.
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The axis units are 4 dots apart.
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