In computer programming contexts, a data cube (or datacube) is a multi-dimensional array of values, commonly used to describe a time series of image data. The data cube is used to represent data along some measure of interest. Even though it is called a 'cube', it can be 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, or higher-dimensional. Every dimension represents a new measure whereas the cells in the cube represent the facts of interest.
The EarthServer initiative has established requirements which a datacube service should offer.
Video Data cube
Implementation
Many high-level computer languages treat data cubes and other large arrays as single entities distinct from their contents. These languages, of which APL, IDL, NumPy, PDL, and S-Lang are examples, allow the programmer to manipulate complete film clips and other data en masse with simple expressions derived from linear algebra and vector mathematics. Some languages (such as PDL) distinguish between a list of images and a data cube, while many (such as IDL) do not.
Array DBMSs (Database Management Systems) offer a data model which generically supports definition, management, retrieval, and manipulation of n-dimensional datacubes. This database category has been pioneered by the rasdaman system since 1994.
Maps Data cube
Applications
Multi-dimensional arrays can meaningfully represent spatio-temporal sensor, image, and simulation data, but also statistics data where the semantics of dimensions is not necessarily of spatial or temporal nature. Generally, any kind of axis can be combined with any other into a datacube.
Mathematics
In mathematics, a one-dimensional array corresponds to a vector, a two-dimensional array resembles a matrix; more generally, a tensor may be represented as an n-dimensional data cube.
Science and Engineering
For a time sequence of color images, the array is generally four-dimensional, with the dimensions representing image X and Y coordinates, time, and RGB (or other color space) color plane. For example, the EarthServer initiative unites data centers from different continents offering 3-D x/y/t satellite image timeseries and 4-D x/y/z/t weather data for retrieval and server-side processing through the Open Geospatial Consortium WCPS geo datacube query language standard.
A data cube is also used in the field of imaging spectroscopy, since a spectrally-resolved image is represented as a three-dimensional volume.
Business Intelligence
In Online analytical processing (OLAP), data cubes are a common arrangement of business data suitable for analysis from different perspectives through operations like slicing, dicing, pivoting, and aggregation.
See also
- Array DBMS
- Australian Geoscience Data Cube
- OLAP cube
- rasdaman
- Graph (discrete mathematics)
- Abstract semantic graph
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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