HOU - Migraine Data Viz v3

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I've been a migraine sufferer for quite some time, over thirty years or so. It wasn't until July of 2013 that I decided to start logging my migraine events. I grabbed a basic ios app back then and began tracking the start time, end time, intensity, the impact it had, the possible triggers, noting the meals I had just prior, as well as how I dealt with the treating them.

Since 2013, I had logged 386 such migraine events. Some trivial and tolerable, and others that amplified my senses to excruciating levels. I could be stuck in a bed rolling about in outrageous pain, nausea, and utter blindness. Not a feeling I would even wish upon my greatest enemy.

It is difficult for those who do not suffer from migraines to truly grasp the intense nature these events can bring, and the crippling results that impact. There are no visible wounds, no bleeding appendage, no direct sign other than an irritable individual that can more appear to be intoxicated looking in some respects.

For some time now I have wanted to translate my log data into a visual form with Houdini. I've made four separate attempts over the years even. It wan't until this past week, that got on a track that I was happy with (mostly). So I've used some aspects of my data like the start time, the duration, and the intensity to drive different aspects of this animation.

I've chosen to drive the particle colors with the start time which has been mapped to a color scheme to roughly correspond with the time of day. Based on a military 24 hour time scale. The gradient is shown at the end of the video. I also ties the duration to the vertical height that the particles travel, and the intensity drives the explosive velocity scale.

I hope you enjoy this animation. I highly encourage you to do a few online searches to better understand what can happen during a migraine, and its impacts. You likely will know someone who has to deal with this disorder. Learning some of the triggers (and there are a lot of them) can be helpful if you are looking to help a friend out as well. Each person is different and will experience migraines differently and to varying degrees, but any gesture to help ease the pain during an active event can go a long way.

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