TimeMosaic

TimeMosaic is a time-focused data visualization framework designed to represent multiple temporal dimensions as a mosaic of tiles. It integrates time series from diverse sources and scales to accommodate varying temporal granularities, from seconds to centuries. The framework emphasizes reproducibility and exploratory analysis, enabling researchers to compare patterns across datasets within a unified visual space.

TimeMosaic was developed through a collaboration between Chrona Labs and the Temporal Studies Institute. The project began in 2021 as part of a grant on multiscale temporal analytics and was released as an open-source tool in 2023 under a permissive license. Its architecture supports modular data ingestion, with adapters for CSV, JSON, databases, and streaming sources.

Technical approach: the core idea is a mosaic grid where each row represents a dataset or timeline and each column corresponds to a fixed time interval. Tiles encode presence or magnitude of observations, with color, opacity, and height conveying multiple variables. The system includes a layout algorithm to optimize tile density, interactive controls for zoom, filtering, and temporal alignment, and an API for programmatic access and integration with statistical tools.

Use and reception: TimeMosaic has been applied in digital humanities to compare archival events, climate science to juxtapose proxy records, and economics to align market indicators across regions. It has been praised for unifying heterogeneous data and supporting cross-dataset inference, but some reviewers note its visual complexity and potential for misinterpretation if not used with appropriate context. The project maintains active development with community contributions.