DBMiner 2.0Adnan RahiPrabhat Vivekanandan

Brief History of DBMiner Technology Inc.

Research on data mining since 1989.

International reputation and recognition.

Substantial research supports and contracts.

DBMiner Technology Inc.: A Simon Fraser University Spin-Off Company

Incorporated in March 1997, dedicated to data mining system development and commercialization.

Major products: DBMiner 2.0 (Enterprise)

Customization and application-oriented data mining systems

GeoMiner, WebMiner, WebLogMiner, …, more miners in progress

General architecture of DBMiner

Distinct Features of DBMiner

Multiple data mining functions. OLAP service, cube exploration, statistical

analysis, classification (market/customer segmentation, decision trees), association (basket data analysis), cluster analysis, etc.

On-line analytical mining of Microsoft/ PLATO OLAP cube.Data and knowledge visualization tools: visual data mining.OLEDB and RDBMS connections.

DBMiner Features

It incorporates several interesting data mining techniques

attribute-oriented induction progressive deepening for mining multiple-level rules meta-rule guided knowledge mining

Implements a wide spectrum of data mining functions

generalization characterization association Classification Clustering

DBMiner user interfaces

UNIX-basedWindows/NT-basedWWW/Netscape-based

DBMiner Wizard

OLAP Browser

OLAP Browser

3-D Cube

Association

Association Settings

Classification

Classification Settings

Clustering

Clustering Settings

How did We Evaluate?

we have used FoodMart database

comes with MS SQL server

made up of two cubes: Sales and Warehouse

hardware features Pentium 166 MHZ

with 64 MB RAM, running Windows 2000

Methodology capability:measures what a desktop tool can do, and how well it does it

scalability has programming language provides useful output reports has visualization capabilities

learnability/Usability:how easy a tool is to learn and use

tutorials wizards easy to learn user’s manual online help interface.

Methodology (Cont.)

interoperability: tool’s ability to interface with

other computer applications importing data exporting data links to other applications

flexibility: the ease with which one can alter critical

guiding parameters, or create a customized environment customizable work environment ability to write or change codes

Capability

the scalability factor of the software was efficient uses DMQL (Data Mining Query Language) the user is not able to manipulate the DMQL.

the visualization part of the software uses many graphics including ball graph, ball chart, grid, and frequent item sets pie charts and correlation plots were missing tree browsing was in graph view, which was

confusing OLAP browser, uses MS Excel 2000

visualization capabilities

Capability (Cont.)

DBMiner shows the statistics report does not analyze the statistical

results the statistics report is too short

we were not able to print any of results from Associations, Classifications, and Clustering, as well as the statistics results the page was blank!

Learnability/UsabilityDBMiner is not a complex program for people familiar with data mining does not include a tutorial to walk you through with an examplewizards are built in for automating the tasks of data mining

let the user select appropriate options for the tasks

the user interface is very simple and standard tool bars did not perform very well when enabled

for example, tools in the visualization pane

Learnability/Usability (Cont.)

some of the commands under menus do not have any function associated with them

“Export” command under the file menu

the user’s manual is well constructed for a user to find appropriate way to explore

the style of the user’s manual is old, not web fashioned

does not contain links to other relevant topics

has a good on line help pressing F1 shows help topic most dialog boxes have help button

Interoperability

does not support importing and exporting of data communicates with MS OLAP Server and has MS Excel 2000 embedded as a visualization tool for OLAP browsing.

Flexibility

it is not possible to change or write DBQLhas the flexibility to let the user change the values of settings after each task is done

it is possible to increase/decrease the support threshold or the confidence threshold if the user is not happy with the current level.

Other Limitations

depends only on MS SQL Server as its back-end

uses MS Excel 2000 as its visualization tool for OLAP

browsing unavailable functional modules

data dispersion module

time-serial analysis module

prediction module.

Capability, Learnability/Usability, Interoperability, and

Flexibility

  Excellent Good Average Needs Improvement Poor Does Not Exist

Scalability          

Has programming language           Provides useful output reports          

Visualization          

Wizards        

Easy to learn          

User’s manual          

Online help          

Interface          

Importing data           Exporting data           Links to other applications          

Customizable work environment          

Ability to write or change codes           Overall          

Any Questions?