GOALS
There are four primary goals of the Hobby School visualization trend analysis and pattern detection tools. The first goal is to achieve accuracy through the use of established methodologies. By using well-known techniques, the validity of results are easily defended and approaches not suitable for a given data set can be determined -- before the approach is used.
A second major goal of the Hobby School analysis tools is to provide simple user interactivity. For example, allow the user to easily change the important parameters used in a forecast or spectral analysis before that operation is performed. This interaction occurs through industry standardized dialog boxes, sliders, buttons, menus, etc.
The third major goal of all visualization analysis tools created by the Hobby School is to provide rapid evaluation and feedback to the user. Via use of high-performance mathematics and statistics libraries, the bulk of analysis is done in real-time or, at minimum, at interactive rates. These libraries are imbedded in the software and require no specific licenses by the end user. If a data set is too large to handle on-the-fly, it can be processed off line and a table of state vectors used instead.
The last major goal of the Hobby School visualization tools is to provide an easy method of exporting the results of analysis. The export format can either be standardized, such as an excel spreadsheet or comma separated value file, or a proprietary format specifically requested by a customer or research partner.