Visualizing which parts of IIIF images are looked by users

Abstract

In this talk, we present how we evaluate and visualize the usage of IIIF-compatible images. We developed a script that analyzes IIIF Image API call logs. The script generates heatmaps that visualize which parts of IIIF images are looked intensively. The generated heatmaps are shown over images using Mirador's layer functionality, so that users can seewhich parts of images are focused. In addition, we report how long it takes to generate heatmaps and how we tried to reduce computational costs. Furthermore, we discuss how this heatmap generator can be deployed as a service for the IIIF images. Generally speaking, visualization of access logs of web sites is not a problem, if anonymization is conducted appropriately. We expect that the visualization not only stimulates users’ interests but also provides persuasive data to maintain the service of publishing digital images. However, anonymization can be invalidated for IIIF images that have few accesses. In addition, a series of activities of a researcher on IIIF images in a collection might reveal his/her viewpoint that would be a key issue of his/her academic outcome. Therefore, access logs to IIIF images require a careful management to be used, in order to make IIIF services be trusted by researchers. Since management of access log to the IIIF images has various options, we might have to create a kind of guidelines for it.