1. Drawing TimeML Relations
Marc Verhagen, Brandeis University

2. Outline Visualization of TimeML graphs
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

3. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

4. Alembic (1)

5. Alembic (2)

6. Tango

7. Other Efforts Using GraphViz (Luc Belanger) Event Diagram
Works nice for small samples, does not scale up gracefully
Event Diagram
Take one event and group all others around it
Using Petri Nets (Natalia Kotsyba)
More boxes in representation than there are events in the text
Tango improvements (Nick Chubrich)
Color-coding, skirts

8. Current Tango

9. Future Tango

10. Side by Side

11. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

12. Display Rules
Simultaneity
Precedence
Inclusion
Begins/Ends

13. Display Rules - special case
One event is included by two other events that have no further relation to each other

14. Example Fragments (1)

15. Example Fragments (2)

16. Drawing Procedure

17. Input to Drawing Procedure
TimeML annotation that is maximal and consistent

18. Temporal Closure (1)
Consistency and maximality are guaranteed by temporal closure
SputLink: temporal closure based on Allen’s interval algebra, but using restrictions from point algebra
Implications for annotation task
(in short: closure makes it feasible)
Added as a module to Tango

19. Temporal Closure (2)

20. Reducing the Graph (1)

21. Reducing the Graph (2)

22. Reducing the Graph (3) Create equivalence classes
Convert to basic set of relations:
before, ibefore, includes, begun_by, ended_by
eliminates cycles
Use temporal closure rules for reductions
[X ibefore Y] & [Z ended_by X] & [Z ibefore Y] ==> delete [X ibefore Y]

23. The Reduced Graph
It’s a… directed acyclic graph

24. Create Pseudo AVM

25. Basic Mapping Rule Draw a bar for 0 in the top left corner
For every before attribute, remove the attribute and draw an arrow from bar 0 to the drawing that is the value of before
For every includes attribute, remove the attribute and move the value of the attribute to the box underneath 0, draw the box if there isn't one yet.
If there are no more attributes in the box, remove the box (but keep the contents)
Remove the label of the box if its ID is the same as the head of the drawing.

26. Basic Mapping Rule at Work

27. Merging Branches (1)
There are three special cases for which we cannot use the basic mapping rule
Note that there are more cases when ibefore,
begun_by and ended_by are included

28. Merging Branches (2)
Simply draw arrow if merging in a re-entrancy after a before relation

29. Merging Branches (3)
In some cases, arrows will go to the left, which is not allowed
Simply move part of the drawing to the right

30. Merging Branches (4)
Event included by two events, relates to the special display rule

31. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

32. Consistency vs Drawability (1)
Can any consistent graph be drawn?
Yes, see the drawing procedure
Need a more formal proof
Can an inconsistent graph be drawn?
No, first step is to run closure
Yes perhaps, what about drawings that are constructed differently?

33. Consistency vs Drawability (2)
Closure throws an inconsistency
Graph cannot be drawn
Inconsistent graph, but it can be drawn

34. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

35. Disjunctions (1)
TimeML does not yet have disjunctions, but may need some soon
Closure uses 29 relation types, 16 of them are disjunctions
All those 16 disjunctions can be mapped to drawings

36. Disjunctions (2)

37. Disjunctions (3) Some disjunctions are still not available to us:
“He got promoted on Wednesday or Friday”
No neat way to localize or encapsulate disjunctions in TimeML graphs, but use multiple positions in TimeML drawings

38. Consistency vs Drawability (3)
Adding the disjunctions
Expanding the drawing procedure
Not necessarily a good idea to draw all disjunctions
Does drawability now imply consistency?
Previous example cannot be drawn

39. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

40. Displaying TLinks in Text (1)

41. Displaying TLinks in Text (2)
Temporal information by color-coding events
Problem: if two events have the same color, then you assume they are at the same time
Use a bar with a spectrum that spans the whole TimeML graph in a document
Distinguish three bins: past, present and future
Assign parts of the spectrum to these bins

42. Displaying TLinks in Text (3)
Four kinds of events with simple scheme
past present future
unknown
Scales up nicely when more precise information is available

43. Drawing TimeML Relations
Visualization history and future
Procedure to display TimeML relations
Consistency and drawability
What about disjunctions?
Temporal information in text widgets

44. Future Work
Yes