A passenger flow data visualization method and system based on Sankey diagram

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for visualizing passenger flow data based on a Sankey diagram. The method comprises: collecting passenger flow data from a data source and preprocessing it; setting regional nodes and defining all regional nodes; connecting the regional nodes to draw a route map; calculating departure node position parameters; and adding departure regional nodes to the route map based on the departure node position parameters to complete the drawing of the Sankey diagram and achieve passenger flow data visualization. The method of the present invention improves the visualization effect by collecting raw passenger flow data, drawing the passenger flow data into a route map, calculating the departure node position parameters, and adjusting the layout of the Sankey diagram.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of data visualization, and in particular to a passenger flow data visualization method based on a Sankey diagram and a passenger flow data visualization system. Background Art

[0002] Raw customer flow data usually comes from multiple different data sources, such as entrance and exit cameras or access control systems, and cameras inside stores. These customer flow data not only differ in data structure and format, but also contain a large amount of invalid information. Using raw customer flow data for analysis cannot intuitively see the flow direction and size of customer flow, which is not conducive to data analysis.

[0003] In the prior art, for example, the invention patent with publication number CN113850884A renders the node layout information of the corresponding nodes and the edges between the nodes onto a page to generate a visual Sankey diagram, thus achieving the drawing of a visual Sankey diagram based on hierarchical information. However, it does not apply the Sankey diagram to the field of customer flow. Another example is the invention patent with publication number CN117058268A, which uses a Sankey diagram to process customer flow data. Although the Sankey diagram can intuitively display customer flow data, customer flow data usually contains a large number of nodes and edges, such as too many store entry and exit nodes. Therefore, using a traditional Sankey diagram to visualize customer flow data will result in the stacking of a large number of edges, which greatly affects the visualization effect.

[0004] In summary, there is an urgent need for a method to visualize passenger flow data based on the Sankey diagram to solve the problem that the current Sankey diagram is not suitable for passenger flow data visualization. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a passenger flow data visualization method based on a Sankey diagram, process the original passenger flow data, visualize the passenger flow data through a Sankey diagram, and improve the visualization effect by adjusting the layout of the Sankey diagram.

[0006] To solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a passenger flow data visualization method based on a Sankey diagram, comprising:

[0007] Collect passenger flow data from data sources and pre-process it;

[0008] Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes;

[0009] Connect regional nodes to draw a route map;

[0010] Calculate the location parameters of the departure node;

[0011] Based on the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map, and the Sankey diagram is drawn to realize the visualization of passenger flow data.

[0012] Optionally, after collecting the passenger flow data, the passenger flow data is cleaned and formatted to obtain data in a unified format, and information for displaying the Sankey diagram is extracted from the data.

[0013] Optionally, regional nodes are set, and the regional nodes include a starting regional node and a target regional node.

[0014] Optionally, define all area nodes, including area number, product number, area name, and cumulative number of people.

[0015] Optionally, connect the regional nodes to draw a line diagram. The process is as follows:

[0016] The starting area node and the target area node are used as nodes, the nodes are connected to form edges according to the passenger flow data, and the number of people on the route is used as the flow rate to complete the route map.

[0017] Optionally, the off-site node position parameter is used to customize the position of the off-site node. The off-site node position parameter includes the x-axis offset of the off-site node and the x-axis offset of the line connecting the off-site nodes.

[0018] Optionally, the process of calculating the departure node location parameters is as follows:

[0019] Calculate the node width of all nodes;

[0020] Get the upper left corner coordinates and lower right corner coordinates of each node through the Sankey diagram plug-in;

[0021] Calculate the x-axis offset of the leaving node. The x-axis offset of the leaving node = canvas width * leaving node position ratio - x-coordinate of the upper left corner of the node.

[0022] Calculate the x-axis offset of the line connecting the departure nodes. The x-axis offset of the line = x1 + canvas width * departure node position ratio - the x-coordinate of the node's upper left corner, where x1 is the x-coordinate of the midpoint of the line connecting the departure nodes.

[0023] Optionally, calculate the node width of all nodes, including:

[0024] For non-off-site nodes, the node width is equal to the maximum node width multiplied by the node data ratio;

[0025] For off-site nodes whose node data ratio does not exceed the visualization ratio, the node width is calculated using the calculation method for non-off-site nodes;

[0026] For off-site nodes whose node data ratio exceeds the visualization ratio, the node width adopts the visualization ratio of half the canvas width.

[0027] Optionally, adjust the position and width of the departure node by adjusting the departure node position ratio and visualization ratio.

[0028] The present invention also provides a passenger flow data visualization system, comprising a server and a client that are communicatively connected to each other;

[0029] The server is used to:

[0030] Collect passenger flow data from data sources and pre-process it;

[0031] Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes;

[0032] Connect regional nodes to draw a route map;

[0033] Calculate the location parameters of the departure node;

[0034] Based on the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram drawing;

[0035] The client is used to display a Sankey diagram that visualizes passenger flow data.

[0036] The present invention provides a passenger flow data visualization method based on a Sankey diagram, which collects original passenger flow data, draws the passenger flow data into a route diagram, calculates the position parameters of the departure nodes, and adds the departure area nodes to the route diagram to complete the drawing of the Sankey diagram, thereby realizing passenger flow data visualization. In addition, the method of the present invention adjusts the layout of the Sankey diagram by calculating the position parameters of the departure nodes, thereby improving the visualization effect and facilitating data analysis of the passenger flow data.

[0037] The present invention also provides a passenger flow data visualization system, which also has the above-mentioned beneficial effects and will not be described in detail here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions of the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0039] Figure 1 A flowchart of a passenger flow data visualization method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0040] Figure 2 This is a structural block diagram of a passenger flow data visualization system provided by an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] The core of the present invention is to provide a method for visualizing passenger flow data based on a Sankey diagram. In the prior art, using a Sankey diagram to visualize passenger flow data will result in a large number of edges being stacked, resulting in poor visualization effect and being unfavorable for data analysis.

[0042] The present invention provides a method for visualizing passenger flow data, which includes collecting passenger flow data from a data source and preprocessing it; setting regional nodes and defining all regional nodes; connecting regional nodes to draw a route map; calculating departure node position parameters; supplementing departure regional nodes on the route map based on the departure node position parameters to complete the drawing of a Sankey diagram; and the client is used to display a Sankey diagram that visualizes passenger flow data.

[0043] By collecting the original passenger flow data, drawing the passenger flow data into a route map, and calculating the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram and realize the visualization of passenger flow data; by calculating the departure node location parameters, the Sankey diagram layout is adjusted, thereby improving the visualization effect and facilitating data analysis of passenger flow data.

[0044] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the present invention, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. Obviously, the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0045] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 This is a flowchart of a passenger flow data visualization method based on a Sankey diagram provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

[0046] See also Figure 1 In an embodiment of the present invention, a method for visualizing passenger flow data based on a Sankey diagram includes:

[0047] S1: Collect passenger flow data from data sources and preprocess them.

[0048] In this embodiment, after collecting the passenger flow data, the passenger flow data is cleaned and formatted to obtain data in a unified format, and information for displaying the Sankey diagram is extracted therefrom.

[0049] Specifically, this embodiment uses JavaScript to write data processing scripts to clean and convert passenger flow data from different data sources. In this embodiment, regular expressions, string processing functions, and other methods can be used to remove noise and invalid information from the passenger flow data, and the passenger flow data can be uniformly converted into JSON format for easy subsequent processing and use.

[0050] Furthermore, this embodiment develops a data extraction and organization algorithm to extract node and edge information from the raw passenger flow data and construct the data structure required for the Sankey diagram. Node and edge information can be stored using data types such as arrays and objects. Node and edge information includes the node's name, location, edge start and end points, and flow rate.

[0051] S2: Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes. The definition includes regional number, product number, regional name and cumulative number of people.

[0052] In this embodiment, the regional nodes include the starting regional node and the target regional node. In this embodiment, the regional nodes are divided into the starting regional node and the target regional node. The defined regional nodes can be used to store passenger flow data, as follows:

[0053] nodes=[

[0054] [{key: "0_8322", productId: 8322, name: "entrance and exit", count: 8, percent: 100}],

[0055] [{key: "1_582", productId: 582, name: "Canteen", count: 2, percent: 25},

[0056] {key: "1_-1", productId: -1, name: "Departure", count: 6, percent: 75}],

[0057] [{key: "2_581", productId: 581, name: "Ping Pong Area", count: 1, percent: 12.5},

[0058] {key: "2_-1", productId: -1, name: "Departure", count: 1, percent: 12.5}],

[0059] [{key: "3_580", productId: 580, name: "exhibition hall", count: 1, percent: 12.5}],

[0060] [{key: "4_-1", productId: -1, name: "Departure", count: 1, percent: 12.5}]

[0061] ].

[0062] Here, key represents the area ID, productId represents the product ID, name represents the area name, count represents the cumulative number of people, and percent represents the percentage of the cumulative number of people. It should be noted that the starting area node can be an entrance or exit, a cafeteria, a table tennis area, or an exhibition hall, and the target area node is the destination that the passenger flow departs from the starting area node and arrives at. By connecting the starting area node and the target area node, a route map can be completed.

[0063] S3: Connect regional nodes and draw a route map.

[0064] Specifically, the process of connecting regional nodes to draw a route map is as follows:

[0065] The starting area node and the target area node are used as nodes, and the nodes are connected to form edges according to the passenger flow data. The number of people on the route is used as the flow rate to complete the route map drawing. The data content of the route map in this embodiment is as follows:

[0066] links=[

[0067] {source: "0_8322", target: "1_582", value: 2, percent: 25},

[0068] {source: "0_8322", target: "1_-1", value: 6, percent: 75},

[0069] {source: "1_582", target: "2_581", value: 1, percent: 12.5},

[0070] {source: "1_582", target: "2_-1", value: 1, percent: 12.5},

[0071] {source: "2_581", target: "3_580", value: 1, percent: 12.5},

[0072] {source: "3_580", target: "4_-1", value: 1, percent: 12.5}

[0073] ].

[0074] Among them, links represents the route map, source represents the starting area node, target represents the target area node, value represents the number of people on the route, and percent represents the proportion of people on the route.

[0075] It should be noted that in this embodiment, the backend provides the number of nodes in each layer of the Sankey diagram, the data for each node, and the connection data between nodes. The number of layers and paths in the Sankey diagram are provided by the backend. The backend database stores the complete movement paths of customers entering the store and navigating the merchandise areas at each time, forming a movement route. Movement paths are represented by lists of area numbers, for example: [581, 582, 583]. When calculating statistics, all movement path records within the range are first retrieved based on the filtering criteria. The entry area of ​​each record is added to the front of the list, and the exit node (represented by -1) is added to the back end of the list to form a new movement path list. The default number of layers in the Sankey diagram is 5, but it can be customized. When constructing the route map, excessively long movement path lists are first truncated based on the number of layers. Then, the frequency of each movement path list is counted, and the data is constructed according to a specific format and returned to the front end.

[0076] Furthermore, the Sankey diagram drawing technology used in this embodiment is as follows:

[0077] Select a suitable front-end drawing library, such as D3.js or ECharts. These libraries provide a wealth of drawing capabilities and APIs, making it easy to create Sankey diagrams. Taking D3.js as an example, its powerful data binding and visualization capabilities allow you to bind processed passenger flow data to the nodes and edges of the Sankey diagram to visualize the data. Additionally, this embodiment can employ techniques such as progressive rendering and data sampling to reduce unnecessary calculations and drawing operations, thereby improving the drawing speed and responsiveness of the Sankey diagram.

[0078] S4: Calculate the location parameters of the departure node.

[0079] The off-store node position parameters are used to customize the position of the off-store node. The off-store node position parameters include the x-axis offset of the off-store node and the x-axis offset of the line connecting the off-store nodes.

[0080] In this embodiment, the process of calculating the departure node location parameters is as follows:

[0081] Calculate the node width of all nodes;

[0082] Get the upper left corner coordinates and lower right corner coordinates of each node through the Sankey diagram plug-in;

[0083] Calculate the x-axis offset of the leaving node. The x-axis offset of the leaving node = canvas width * leaving node position ratio - x-coordinate of the upper left corner of the node.

[0084] Calculate the x-axis offset of the line connecting the departure nodes. The x-axis offset of the line = x1 + canvas width * departure node position ratio - the x-coordinate of the node's upper left corner, where x1 is the x-coordinate of the midpoint of the line connecting the departure nodes.

[0085] In this embodiment, the x-axis offset of the off-store node and the x-axis offset of the line connecting the off-store nodes can be used to adjust the position of the off-store node and the position of the line connecting the off-store nodes, thereby optimizing the Sankey diagram layout.

[0086] Specifically, the position of the departure node in this embodiment accounts for 60%, and the display effect is more beautiful when it is set at about 60% of the canvas width. It should be noted that due to the large number of departure nodes and the small number of people leaving a single departure node, each departure node displays the node width from 60% of the canvas, and the width value of a single departure node is small, which can meet the requirement of being within the 40% range of the canvas. When the departure node is set at 60% of the canvas width for the sake of aesthetics, it not only has a beautiful display effect, but also the sum of the widths of the non-departure nodes is equal to the sum of the widths of the departure nodes, which more intuitively shows the direction of the small customer flow leaving the store.

[0087] In this embodiment, calculating the node widths of all nodes specifically includes:

[0088] For non-off-site nodes, the node width is equal to the maximum node width multiplied by the node data ratio;

[0089] For off-site nodes whose node data ratio does not exceed the visualization ratio, the node width is calculated using the calculation method for non-off-site nodes;

[0090] For off-site nodes whose node data ratio exceeds the visualization ratio, the node width adopts the visualization ratio of half the canvas width.

[0091] Optionally, adjust the position and width of the departure node by adjusting the departure node position ratio and visualization ratio.

[0092] It should be noted that the maximum node width is calculated as follows: Maximum node width = canvas width * 0.5 - 16 * max, where 16 is the node spacing and max is the number of nodes in the layer with the largest number of nodes in the Sankey diagram. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the preferred percentage of departure nodes is 80%, meaning that departure nodes can only display 80% of the total number of store visitors. If the departure node data exceeds 80%, the canvas width of the departure node remains at 40%.

[0093] S5: Based on the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map, and the Sankey diagram is drawn to realize the visualization of customer flow data.

[0094] Furthermore, the method of this embodiment also includes the implementation of the interactive function of the Sankey diagram, and the methods used include but are not limited to:

[0095] Use JavaScript to listen for mouse events (such as mouse hover, click, etc.) and obtain the corresponding node or edge information based on the event type and location.

[0096] By modifying the style and content of DOM elements, interactive functions such as displaying detailed information when the mouse hovers, and filtering and drilling data by clicking nodes or edges can be implemented.

[0097] Combine with front-end frameworks (such as Vue.js, React, etc.) to manage interaction status and data updates.

[0098] The framework's responsive data binding and component-based development philosophy ensures that the Sankey diagram can update its display content promptly and accurately when users interact with it.

[0099] An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for visualizing customer flow data based on a Sankey diagram. The method collects customer flow data from a data source and preprocesses it; sets and defines regional nodes; connects the regional nodes to draw a route map; calculates departure node location parameters; and based on the departure node location parameters, adds departure regional nodes to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram. The client is used to display the Sankey diagram that visualizes the customer flow data. This method utilizes the visualization characteristics of the Sankey diagram to clearly display the flow paths of customers between different areas and the final exit direction after entering the store from various entrances over a period of time, based on the situation where the number of customers entering the store is the same as the number of customers leaving the store. In addition, this method can receive and process new customer flow data in real time and promptly update the Sankey diagram display content, allowing users to keep up to date with the latest customer flow trends. This method also implements rich interactive functions, allowing users to explore customer flow data more deeply, such as viewing customer flow information for specific time periods and specific areas, and performing data comparison and analysis, thereby reducing the difficulty of analyzing customer flow data.

[0100] A passenger flow data visualization system provided by an embodiment of the present invention is introduced below. The passenger flow data visualization system described below and the passenger flow data visualization method described above can be referenced to each other.

[0101] Please refer to Figure 2 , Figure 2 This is a structural block diagram of a passenger flow data visualization system provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

[0102] Reference Figure 2 , a passenger flow data visualization system, comprising a server 11 and a client 12 that are communicatively connected to each other, wherein the server 11 and the client 12 implement the above-mentioned passenger flow data visualization method;

[0103] The server 11 is used to:

[0104] Collect passenger flow data from data sources and pre-process it;

[0105] Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes;

[0106] Connect regional nodes to draw a route map;

[0107] Calculate the location parameters of the departure node;

[0108] Based on the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram drawing;

[0109] The client 12 is used to display a Sankey diagram that visualizes passenger flow data.

[0110] The passenger flow data visualization system of this embodiment is used to implement the aforementioned passenger flow data visualization method. Therefore, the specific implementation method of the passenger flow data visualization system can be seen in the embodiment part of the passenger flow data visualization method in the previous text. Therefore, its specific implementation method can refer to the description of the corresponding embodiments of each part and will not be repeated here.

[0111] The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner, with each embodiment focusing on its differences from the other embodiments. References to the same or similar parts between the various embodiments will be sufficient. The systems disclosed in the embodiments are described briefly because they correspond to the methods disclosed in the embodiments. For relevant details, refer to the method description.

[0112] Professionals may further appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, the above description has generally described the components and steps of each example according to their functions. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professionals and technicians may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present invention.

[0113] The steps of the methods or algorithms described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented directly using hardware, a software module executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software module may be placed in random access memory (RAM), internal memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically programmable ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.

[0114] Finally, it should be noted that, in this document, relational terms such as first and second, etc., are used only to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "comprise," "include," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or device comprising a set of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or elements inherent to such process, method, article, or device. In the absence of further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising a ..." does not preclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device comprising the element.

[0115] The above is a detailed introduction to a passenger flow data visualization method and a passenger flow data visualization system provided by the present invention. This article uses specific examples to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of the present invention. The description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method of the present invention and its core ideas. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this technical field, without departing from the principles of the present invention, several improvements and modifications can be made to the present invention, and these improvements and modifications also fall within the scope of protection of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A passenger flow data visualization method based on Sankey diagram, characterized in that: include: Collect passenger flow data from data sources and pre-process it; Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes; Connect regional nodes to draw a route map; Calculate the location parameters of the departure node; Extract node and edge information from the original passenger flow data to construct the data structure required for the Sankey diagram; based on the departure node location parameters, add departure area nodes to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram and realize passenger flow data visualization; The off-store node position parameters include the x-axis offset of the off-store node and the x-axis offset of the line connecting the off-store nodes; The process of calculating the departure node location parameters is as follows: Calculate the node width of all nodes; Get the upper left corner coordinates and lower right corner coordinates of each node through the Sankey diagram plug-in; Calculate the x-axis offset of the leaving node. The x-axis offset of the leaving node = canvas width * leaving node position ratio - x-coordinate of the upper left corner of the node. Calculate the x-axis offset of the line connecting the departure nodes. The x-axis offset of the line = x1 + canvas width * departure node position ratio - the x-coordinate of the node's upper left corner, where x1 is the x-coordinate of the midpoint of the line connecting the departure nodes.

2. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: After collecting passenger flow data, the data is cleaned and formatted to obtain data in a unified format, and information for Sankey diagram display is extracted from it.

3. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Set the regional nodes, which include the starting regional node and the target regional node.

4. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Define all regional nodes, including the region number, product number, region name, and cumulative number of people.

5. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Connect regional nodes to draw a line diagram. The process is as follows: The starting area node and the target area node are used as nodes, the nodes are connected to form edges according to the passenger flow data, and the number of people on the route is used as the flow rate to complete the route map.

6. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The departure node location parameter is used to customize the location of the departure node.

7. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Calculate the node width of all nodes, including: For non-off-site nodes, the node width is equal to the maximum node width multiplied by the node data ratio; For off-site nodes whose node data ratio does not exceed the visualization ratio, the node width is calculated using the calculation method for non-off-site nodes; For off-site nodes whose node data ratio exceeds the visualization ratio, the node width adopts the visualization ratio of half the canvas width.

8. The passenger flow data visualization method according to claim 7, characterized in that: Adjust the position and width of the departure nodes by adjusting the location ratio and visualization ratio of the departure nodes.

9. A passenger flow data visualization system, characterized in that: comprising a server and a client connected to each other for communication, wherein the server and the client implement the passenger flow data visualization method according to any one of claims 1 to 8; The server is used to: Collect passenger flow data from data sources and pre-process it; Set up regional nodes and define all regional nodes; Connect regional nodes to draw a route map; Calculate the location parameters of the departure node; Based on the departure node location parameters, the departure area nodes are added to the route map to complete the Sankey diagram drawing; The client is used to display a Sankey diagram that visualizes passenger flow data.

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