The multidimensional data were then synthesized and visualized to convey the everyday struggles that older adults face at home. The goal of our work was to combine our various data sources together so that we could better understand these sources in context. While graphing biomarkers can show when events occur, traditional graphs do not provide information on where these events occur. By combining our various data sources together we can analyze the ways in which participants utilize their environments and how their resulting biomarkers are affected.
To achieve this, an interactive visualization system was built inside of the Unity3D game engine. This visualization was able to show how participants interacted with their environment alongside their biomarkers during the observation period. The visualization used simplified 3D characters to showcase the participant’s position in space and sliders demonstrated different biomarkers. The analyst was able to see the coded timeline of the different spaces the participant had traveled to and was able to play or scrub the visualization to be at any point during this timeline. Finally, to add a greater context to the environment, quotes were placed to the spaces which were referenced during the interview process. An example of the visualization is shown below.
