Patent US 5,455,952

An object dependency network-based data visualization system allows a user to graphically edit a network of displayed objects and their interconnections to specify an underlying data computing and data visualization process. Each displayed object is selected by the user from among a menu of objects representing data structures and functions such as data fields to be analyzed, mathematical operations, data input functions, and display manipulation functions. The user graphically draws lines interconnecting ports on the objects that have underlying data structure addresses that establish and control a data and operational flow through the underlying computer-driven process. The underlying process is continually running but only performs a particular computation in response to a data change or state change associated with any of the objects in the network. Thereby, an improved data visualization system is provided that minimizes memory usage and computation time while maintaining accuracy of the computed results, which is particularly beneficial when analyzing data derived from very large data structures such as scalar, vector, and tensor data fields.