Fuseviz: A framework for web-based data fusion and visualization in smart environments

Recent advances in technology and algorithms for smart environments have made it possible to collect and store large amounts of data about many aspects of human life and the surrounding environment with limited effort and cost. However, such data become useful to lay users with no background in data analysis only if they are presented in a fashion that supports intuitive interaction to spot the patterns and trends, thus transforming the data into valuable information. In this paper, we introduce FuseViz, a framework for Web-based fusion and visualization of data in smart environments. FuseViz addresses the challenges posed by large, live, heterogeneous, and dynamic data streams from autonomous data sources, and lay users, with two basic features: fusion and visualization. CouchDB, a schemaless database with a ReSTful API and MapReduce support, is used to fuse data streams from multiple sources, while Web-based visualization is implemented on top of D3, a JavaScript library for manipulation of data-driven documents. We demonstrate the capabilities of FuseViz with E²Home, a case study application for energy-efficient smart home environments. We show how the precise information provided by E²Home can help the user easily improve the home energy efficiency by more than 10%.