User's Tutorial - Introduction to Scopira Maps

User's Tutorial: Introduction to Scopira Maps

Scopira is a visual data analysis framework that allows users to place interconnected modules onto a virtual graphical user interface (GUI) canvas. We call this collection of interconnected modules a map. Figure 1 shows a Scopira map which loads multi-slice functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) from a file and performs exploratory data analysis using Bezdek's fuzzy clustering algorithm.

Figure 1: Scopira map with modules to load fMRI data, analyze with fuzzy clustering algorithm, and display the results.

A module represents an action that is able to accept input data, processes the data and generate output data to be passed on to other modules or displayed to the user in a proponent window. A proponent is a GUI widget that is bound to a module's property slot and can display information and interact with the user. Figure 2 shows the proponent window for the Binary Thresh Cube module that allows the user to interactively create a binary image that can be sent to other modules for further processing. In the above map, these binary images are converted into (x,y,z) region of interest (ROI) coordinates by the module Binary Cube ROI. These ROI coordinates can then be used to extract data vectors, from the original dataset, to be analyzed.

Figure 2: Interactive proponent interface to the module Binary Thresh Cube.

When a module attempts to run, if data is available in the required input slots, it is transferred into the module to be processed. Once the module finishes processing, data is placed in the output slots and advanced along the connection paths to the input slots of other modules. Once all the required input slots in the next module have data pending (ready to be used by the module), the module will automatically run. A more detailed explanation of Scopira's map execution algorithm is available in the User's Guide and an example of a map's firing mechanism will be given in a later section.

The following short tutorial will demonstrate how maps are created and used for data analysis from a user's point of view. Refer to the User's Guide for a more detailed explanation of all the user options available in Scopira. Once the basic concepts of a map, the modules, slots, proponents, connections and map execution are understood at a user's level, you can refer to the Programmer's Tutorial for an introduction on coding your own modules to incorporate into Scopira.

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