Visualizations for Real Time Big Data

Abstract

We live in a Big Data era in which data are generated every minute at astonishing rates: internet cookies, social networks, all kind of sensors, climate measurements, smartphone GPS systems, etc. While in the last years the value has moved from possessing the data to knowing how to interpret them, now, with all these amounts of data being generated every minute, the value reside in the ability of interpreting them in real time. This can give a competitive advantage to those able to achieve it, providing them the ability of taking advantage of real time opportunities. Visual analytics, a science combining the strengths of machines with those of humans, can be the solution to that. This work gives a review of existing literature about visualizations of real time Big Data by discussing the main parameters that must be taken into consideration, examining some approaches to perform effective and efficiently and identifying guidelines to evaluate how good a visualization tool is. Results have shown that, although this science is still in a non-mature phase and little is written about this concrete case, the implementation of existing strategies – some of them are even obtained from a more generic case –, can be of great help for successfully visualizing real time Big Data.