Heatmap of Tweets from Super Bowl XLIII

This heatmap shows the density of postings on Twitter.com over the playtime of this years Super Bowl. The heatmap gives an intuitively readable visualization of the amount of conversation in a specific area.

The focus of this visualization is on the density of the postings. It follows a low-level approach without complex correlation between data objects and rather aims for ease of use and comprehension at first sight. We see this rather as an experiment than as a polished result and it is still a work in progress.

The visualization is created by using the ModestMaps library with a custom heatmap class inspired by the source code of Michael VanDaniker. We’ve also created a fullbrowser view for you to enjoy the map in full effect.

NeoMapper

The data was provided courtesy of Jeff Clark from Neoformix.com. He created a neat application for visualizing the same dataset over the whole game in realtime. The application provides the possibility to analyze Tweet by the mentioned team or phrase. Be sure to have a look at his NeoMapper project. The data was scraped using the Twittervision API and enhanced using the Yahoo GeocodingAPI. Neomapper is built with Processing whereas our small visualization is created using AS3.

NY Times

Twitter seems to be a preferred source of data lately. If you fancy a more typographic oriented visualization, have a look at the superb project done by the folks from the Visualization Lab from NYTimes.com.