Tracer Spectrum is a novel visualisation method for Island-based Evolutionary Algorithms based on the concept of tracers as adopted in medicine and molecular biology to follow a biochemical process.
A tracer dye is applied to every individual, where each individual in any one island is marked with the same colour, each island having its own unique colour signature. We can then monitor how individuals undergoing migration events are distributed throughout the entire island ecosystem, thereby allowing the user to visually monitor take over times and the resulting loss of diversity.
Two variations of the tracer visualisation are implemented here, namely Tracer Spectrum and Tree Rings. The code is developed in Java to operate with ECJ.