Torque is a (relatively) recently announced toolkit built on top of CartoDB 2.0 for performant browser rendering of large geospatially oriented time series data:
Torque allows you to create beautiful visualizations with big temporal datasets by bundling HTML5 browser rendering technologies with a generic and efficient temporal data transfer format created using the CartoDB SQL API. Torque visualisations work on desktop and ipads, and work well on temporal datasets with hundreds of thousands or even millions of datapoints. In anticipation of the Strata Conference starting this week in London, we have prepared some examples to share. Simon Tokumine will be there, so ping us for a private demo there.
Previously, I had found CartoDB a bit daunting for a hosted self-installation, but looking at the requirements now it doesn’t seem that bad. Feels like one of those tools where if you absorb the pain and get in on the ground floor, one can build a distinct competitive advantage. Working on tablets and desktops is a nice tease.