Image collage treemap look a like

Question

I need to import multiple images and present an output like a collage. I was thinking is doing a treemap with the image size mapped to the score of the character.

df <- data.frame(character=c("Homer","Marge", "Bart", "Lisa","Maggie", "Moe", "Blinky","Bumblebee Man","Duffman","Maude Flanders","Ned Flanders","Rod Flanders","Todd",Jimbo","Otto Mann","Snowball"),score=c(268,267,495, 432, 219, 373, 152, 356, 461, 116,107,165, 305,228, 461, 608))

I had used treemap before and also ggplot geom_tile but i am not sure if it is possible to generate pictures whithin tiles. I don't even know how to insert the images into my dataframe for plotting...

Answer 1

Not really an answer, but a quick demonstration how you start to accomplish your task.

    library(treemap)
    library(gridSVG)
    library(XML)

    df <- data.frame(
        character=c("Homer","Marge", "Bart", "Lisa","Maggie", "Moe", "Blinky","Bumblebee Man","Duffman","Maude Flanders","Ned Flanders","Rod Flanders","Todd","Jimbo","Otto Mann","Snowball")
        ,score=c(268,267,495, 432, 219, 373, 152, 356, 461, 116,107,165, 305,228, 461, 608)
    )

    tm <- treemap( df, index = "character", vSize = "score" )

    svg <- grid.export()$svg

    # see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10688516/fill-svg-path-with-a-background-image-without-knowing-heightwidth?rq=1
    pattern <- newXMLNode(
        "defs"
        ,.children = list(
            newXMLNode(
                "pattern"
                , attrs = c(
                    id = "img_homer"
                    ,patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse"
                    ,patternTransform="translate(0, 0) scale(1, -1) rotate(0)"
                    ,width="106"
                    ,height="98"
                )
                , .children = newXMLNode(
                    "image"
                    , attrs = c(
                        "xlink:href" = "http://i.imgur.com/JP4s21O.jpg"
                        ,width = 106
                        ,height = 80
                    )
                )
            )
        )
    )

    addChildren( svg, pattern )

    homer <- getNodeSet(
        getNodeSet( svg, "//*[contains(@id,'data.2')]")[[1]]
        ,"//*[local-name()='rect']"
    )[[5]]

    homer_attrs <- xmlAttrs(homer)
    homer_attrs[["fill"]] <- "url(#img_homer)"
    xmlAttrs(homer) <- homer_attrs

    library(htmltools)
    browsable(HTML(saveXML(svg)))