• Good topic! I agree that creating systems to identify anomalous data is a great idea, and it's actually something that just about everyone reading this blog is familiar with already on some level. Any alert system that flags erroneous data/faied systems falls generally under this umbrella. With larger and more sophisticated data systems, we can create algorithms to flag more subtle irregularities. While a good visualization can allow humans to see irregularities in seconds that would take hours of poring over raw data to spot, when it comes to automating this, it may be helpful to remember that visualizations are simply something that we humans create to help leverage our visual skills. Computers don't necessaryily need the actual visualization to spot the pattern, just some clever algorithms -- algorithms that may or may not lend themselves to revealing visualizations. We may be alble to come up with algorithms that can identify anomalous data that we'd be hard pressed to visualize if we free ourselves from the constraint of "visualization".

    In the mean time, let's hear it for all of those folks who have found ways to visualize large amounts of data in simple form so that users can rapidly spot anomalies. And a "better late than never" blank square of participation award to MS for providing the PowerView visualization tool set.