An Interactive Graphics Framework for R

• Activity Number: 446
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Graphics
• Author(s): Michael Lawrence*+ and Deepayan Sarkar and Hadley Wickham
• Companies: Genentech and Indian Statistical Institute and Rice University
• Keywords: interactive graphics ; R ; GGobi ; opengl ; visualization

Abstract

To accelerate graphics research, we have developed a framework for the rapid prototyping of dynamic, interactive graphics. Existing software, such as GGobi and Mondrian, are not easily extended by researchers at large. R provides a flexible and extensible system for developing statistical methods. However, while R is capable of generating rich, publication-quality static graphics, it has fallen short in its support for dynamic and interactive graphics. The R graphics model is not designed for rapidly drawing scenes with many graphical elements. The qtpaint R package provides an optimized, hardware-accelerated drawing layer that reacts to the user. qtpaint is a core component of the upcoming GGobi successor, which glues together independently functioning components into an extensible R-based graphics research platform.