Wanderlust: 3D Impressionism in Human Journeys

TL;DR

Wanderlust is a novel 3D visualization technique inspired by Impressionism that reveals human visitation patterns and urban spatial structures using large-scale mobile phone data.

Contribution

It introduces a new visualization method that captures recurrent human flows and attractive places through multi-layered 3D effects inspired by Impressionism.

Findings

Reveals universal visitation patterns from mobile data

Visualizes recurrent flows and attractive locations effectively

Creates an artistic impression of urban spatial structure

Abstract

The movements of individuals are fundamental to building and maintaining social connections. This pictorial presents Wanderlust, an experimental three-dimensional data visualization on the universal visitation pattern revealed from large-scale mobile phone tracking data. It explores ways of visualizing recurrent flows and the attractive places they implied. Inspired by the 19th-century art movement Impressionism, we develop a multi-layered effect, an impression, of mountains emerging from consolidated flows, to capture the essence of human journeys and urban spatial structure.