Patent ID: 8717364

Claim:
A method implemented on an electronic computing device of creating a graphical representation of data points in the form of a heatmap wherein the heatmap represents a plurality of multi-directional flow values between the data points, the method including the steps of: on the electronic computing device, positioning data points on a heatmap for graphical representation; calculating bi-directional flow values between at least a first and a second data point; determining the intensity and direction of a predominant flow from the bi-directional flow values; determining heatmap colors for flow values between the at least first and second data points, the heatmap colors corresponding to the intensity of the bi-directional flow values, the heatmap colors being selected from colors in a range from a first color representing a highest intensity to a second color representing a lowest intensity; and graphically representing the predominant flow and bi-directional flows between the data points in the heatmap using the determined heatmap colors, wherein a width of a heatmap color corresponding to a data point on the graphical representation represents the intensity of a bi-directional flow value at the data point, the width increasing as the intensity increases.