The fast capacity growth of cheap storage devices presents an ever-growing problem of scale for digital forensic investigations. One aspect of scale problem in the forensic process is the need for new approaches to visually presenting and analyzing large amounts of data. Current generation of tools universally employ three basic GUI components—trees, tables, and viewers—to present all relevant information. This approach is not scalable as increasing the size of the input data leads to a proportional increase in the amount of data presented to the analyst.
We present an alternative approach, which leverages data visualization techniques to provide a more intuitive interface to explore the forensic target. We use tree visualization techniques to give the analyst both a high-level view of the file system and an efficient means to drill down into the details. Further, we provide means to search for keywords and filter the data by time period.
","abstract_html":"<p>The fast capacity growth of cheap storage devices presents an ever-growing problem of scale for digital forensic investigations. One aspect of scale problem in the forensic process is the need for new approaches to visually presenting and analyzing large amounts of data. Current generation of tools universally employ three basic GUI components—trees, tables, and viewers—to present all relevant information. This approach is not scalable as increasing the size of the input data leads to a proportional increase in the amount of data presented to the analyst.</p> <p>We present an alternative approach, which leverages data visualization techniques to provide a more intuitive interface to explore the forensic target. We use tree visualization techniques to give the analyst both a high-level view of the file system and an efficient means to drill down into the details. Further, we provide means to search for keywords and filter the data by time period.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Dontula, Varun"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Vassil Roussev"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-12-17T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-12-17T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:24Z","subjects":["Interface","Digital Forensics","Varun Dontula","Visualization","Treemap","Sunburst","Computational Engineering","Data Storage Systems","Other Computer Engineering"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1373","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Vassil Roussev"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Dontula, Varun"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2011-11-11T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Interface","Digital Forensics","Varun Dontula","Visualization","Treemap","Sunburst","Computational Engineering","Data Storage Systems","Other Computer Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1373"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The fast capacity growth of cheap storage devices presents an ever-growing problem of scale for digital forensic investigations. One aspect of scale problem in the forensic process is the need for new approaches to visually presenting and analyzing large amounts of data. Current generation of tools universally employ three basic GUI components—trees, tables, and viewers—to present all relevant information. This approach is not scalable as increasing the size of the input data leads to a proportional increase in the amount of data presented to the analyst.
We present an alternative approach, which leverages data visualization techniques to provide a more intuitive interface to explore the forensic target. We use tree visualization techniques to give the analyst both a high-level view of the file system and an efficient means to drill down into the details. Further, we provide means to search for keywords and filter the data by time period.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Data Exploration Interface for Digital Forensics"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Vassil Roussev"],"dc:creator":["Dontula, Varun"],"dc:date.available":["2011-11-11T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The fast capacity growth of cheap storage devices presents an ever-growing problem of scale for digital forensic investigations. One aspect of scale problem in the forensic process is the need for new approaches to visually presenting and analyzing large amounts of data. Current generation of tools universally employ three basic GUI components—trees, tables, and viewers—to present all relevant information. This approach is not scalable as increasing the size of the input data leads to a proportional increase in the amount of data presented to the analyst.
We present an alternative approach, which leverages data visualization techniques to provide a more intuitive interface to explore the forensic target. We use tree visualization techniques to give the analyst both a high-level view of the file system and an efficient means to drill down into the details. Further, we provide means to search for keywords and filter the data by time period.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1373"],"dc:subject":["Interface","Digital Forensics","Varun Dontula","Visualization","Treemap","Sunburst","Computational Engineering","Data Storage Systems","Other Computer Engineering"],"dc:title":["Data Exploration Interface for Digital Forensics"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:24Z"}