Starlight Information Visualization System
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Starlight is a software product developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It is an advanced visual analysis environment. It uses information visualization to show the importance of individual pieces of data by showing how they relate to one another.
The software, originally developed for the intelligence community, allows users to analyze data files with up to 100,000 records quickly and easily.[citation needed] When relationships exist within the information, the shapes cluster together on the system's three-dimensional display to integrate structured, unstructured, spatial, and multimedia data, offering comparisons of information at multiple levels of abstraction, simultaneously and in near real-time.
As an example, Starlight might be used to look for correlations in a database containing records about chemical spills. An analyst could begin by grouping records according to the cause of the spill to reveal general trends. Sorting the data a second time, she could apply different colors based on related details such as the company responsible, age of equipment or geographic location. Maps and photographs could be integrated into the display, making it even easier to recognize connections among multiple variables.
PNNL began developing Starlight in the mid-90's, with funding from the Land Information Warfare Agency, a part of the Army Intelligence and Security Command. Starlight integrates visual representations of reports, radio transcripts, radar signals, maps and other information. The software system was recently honored with an R&D 100 award for technical innovation.