Can computers master the art of communication? A focus on visual analytics

Visual analytics is a powerful paradigm for gaining insight from large, complex data. It seeks to engage the analyst more deeply in data exploration, allowing for iterative sense-making using visual interaction for fast, intuitive human-computer communication. Although researchers have made much progress in this field, the computer still plays a relatively passive role, reduced mostly to number crunching and record keeping. How can we make the computer a more active participant in the reasoning process? Can a computer be more of a mediator and collaborating partner in this insight-gathering task? A first step toward this goal is to determine how to make a computer a better communicator of the "insight" it has acquired, and so appeal to the human analyst as a source for creative input. This insight is typically available as some form of formatted knowledgea computational model. This article draws parallels from established rules of human interpersonal communication. It suggests equivalents by which a computer might use these communication channels, elements, and instruments, employing visual interaction as the bilateral medium.