User Interaction

This paper summarizes several initiatives at MITRE that are investigating the visualization of a range of content. We present results of our work in relevancy visualization, news visualization, world events visualization and sensor/battlefield visualization to enhance user interaction in information access and exploitation tasks. We summarize several initiatives we are currently pursuing and enumerate unsolved problems.

Larger display surfaces are becoming increasingly available due to multi-monitor capability built into many systems, in addition to the rapid decrease in their costs. However, little is known about the performance benefits of using these larger surfaces compared to traditional single-monitor displays. In addition, it is not clear that current software designs and interaction techniques have been properly tuned for

Sensory innovation in the flavor industry is a pro- cess that relies heavily on user involvement to carry out critical sampling trials at a high cost. We are interested in how recommender systems, in par- ticular, have an important role to play in view of addressing some of their key challenges and con- straints. We describe a purpose-built sensory rec-

PLACE-Hampi provides a framework for a new approach to the rendering of the cultural experience, whose aesthetic and representational features gives the general public a dramatic new appreciation of the many layered significations of such historical, archaeological, and architectural spaces. While PLACE-Hampi embodies a single user interaction model, the autonomous narrative scenarios that populate each of the panoramic scenes with

In this paper, we introduce the concept of a transactional pattern for specifying flexible and reliable composite Web services. A transactional pattern is a convergence concept between workflow patterns and advanced transactional models; thus it combines workflow flexibility and transaction reliability. Designers can simply connect together transactional patterns to define a composite Web service. In relation, we provide techniques to ensure control and transactional consistency of such services.

We present a new algorithm for morphing simple polygons that is inspired by growing forms in nature. While previous algorithms require user-assisted definition of complicated correspondences between the morphing objects, our algorithm defines the correspondence by overlapping the input polygons. Once the morphing of one object into another is defined, very little or no user interaction is necessary to achieve intuitive results. Our algorithm is suitable namely for growth-like morphing. We present the basic algorithm and its three variations. One of them is suitable mainly for convex polygons, the other two are for more complex polygons, such as curved or spiral polygonal forms.

Powerful computers and affordable digital media appliances result in a rapid growth of possibilities in the field of multimedia applications. There has been a significant increase in creation and use of multimedia content. Nowadays everybody can be treated as a potential creator and user of multimedia content. In order to deliver multimedia services to end-users, many parties are integrated and a series of Web services is accessed. A Web service in the composition can become unreachable by a number of circumstances, which requires run-time actions to replace it by another compatible Web service. A Web service can also perform less well than guaranteed, which also requires action in order to fulfill QoS requirements. To answer these requirements, we designed a broker middleware offering dynamic selection and composition of Multimedia Content Delivery services and automatic load balancing of these services over the available application servers. Since users want fast and reliable conn...

A method of analyzing Faraday rotation data from pulsed magnetic field measurements is described. The method uses direct least-squares elliptical fitting to measured data. The least-squares fit conic parameters are used to rotate, translate, and rescale the measured data. Interpretation of the transformed data provides improved accuracy and time-resolution characteristics compared with many existing methods of analyzing Faraday rotation data. The method is especially useful when linear birefringence is present at the input or output of the sensing medium, or when the relative angle of the polarizers used in analysis is not aligned with precision; under these circumstances the method is shown to return the analytically correct input signal. The method may be pertinent to other applications where analysis of Lissajous figures is required, such as the velocity interferometer system for any reflector ͑VISAR͒ diagnostics. The entire algorithm is fully automated and requires no user interaction. An example of algorithm execution is shown, using data from a fiber-based Faraday rotation sensor on a capacitive discharge experiment.

Computational intelligent techniques applied to economics have played an important role in the last years. In this paper we propose a framework based on an intelligent conversational agent embedded with a decision support system, aimed at suggesting the best managing strategies for a game-based model of a virtual town. The agent tries to prospect the future evolutions of particular choices taken by the user. Interaction is conducted through a natural language interface built as an Alice-based conversational agent.

Understanding how users behave when they connect to social networking sites creates opportunities for better interface design, richer studies of social interactions, and improved design of content distribution systems. In this paper, we present a first of a kind analysis of user workloads in online social networks. Our study is based on detailed clickstream data, collected over a 12-day period, summarizing HTTP sessions of 37,024 users who accessed four popular social networks: Orkut, MySpace, Hi5, and LinkedIn. The data were collected from a social network aggregator website in Brazil, which enables users to connect to multiple social networks with a single authentication. Our analysis of the clickstream data reveals key features of the social network workloads, such as how frequently people connect to social networks and for how long, as well as the types and sequences of activities that users conduct on these sites. Additionally, we crawled the social network topology of Orkut, so that we could analyze user interaction data in light of the social graph. Our data analysis suggests insights into how users interact with friends in Orkut, such as how frequently users visit their friends' or non-immediate friends' pages. In summary, our analysis demonstrates the power of using clickstream data in identifying patterns in social network workloads and social interactions. Our analysis shows that browsing, which cannot be inferred from crawling publicly available data, accounts for 92% of all user activities. Consequently, compared to using only crawled data, considering silent interactions like browsing friends' pages increases the measured level of interaction among users.

The mid-19 th century saw the rise of institutional collections which brought together artifacts from cultures and industry around the world for the enlightenment and entertainment of the public, and to raise the standards of the products of the industrial age. Inexpensive digital imaging and the internet have radically changed how we disseminate these artifacts in the best way to the most people. A charge to digital humanities collections now is to make the quality and significance of the virtual representation meet or exceed that of the original object and to create user interactions which are "conducive to information foraging" [1]. This paper discusses an inter-disciplinary, multi-cultural project to develop a best practices digital archive for historic costume using advanced digital technology to realize new ways of interpreting, examining and contextualizing historic fashion and how these realizations translate into real world application and effective classroom tools.

Automated segmentation of the esophagus in CT images is of high value to radiologists for oncological examinations of the mediastinum. It can serve as a guideline and prevent confusion with pathological tissue. However, segmentation is a challenging problem due to low contrast and versatile appearance of the esophagus. In this paper, a two step method is proposed which first finds the approximate shape using a "detect and connect" approach. A classifier is trained to find short segments of the esophagus which are approximated by an elliptical model. Recently developed techniques in discriminative learning and pruning of the search space enable a rapid detection of possible esophagus segments. Prior shape knowledge of the complete esophagus is modeled using a Markov chain framework, which allows efficient inferrence of the approximate shape from the detected candidate segments. In a refinement step, the surface of the detected shape is non-rigidly deformed to better fit the...

User interactions with search engines reveal three main underlying intents, namely navigational, informational, and transactional. By providing more accurate results depending on such query intents the performance of search engines can be greatly improved. Therefore, query classification has been an active research topic for the last years. However, while query topic classification has deserved a specific bakeoff, no evaluation campaign has been devoted to the study of automatic query intent detection. In this paper some of the available query intent detection techniques are reviewed, an evaluation framework is proposed, and it is used to compare those methods in order to shed light on their relative performance and drawbacks. As it will be shown, manually prepared gold-standard files are much needed, and traditional pooling is not the most feasible evaluation method. In addition to this, future lines of work in both query intent detection and its evaluation are proposed.

Collaborative systems have emerged as one of the most relevant future working environments. These systems offer a working way that allow new human cooperation strategies based on new interaction paradigms, which take into account not only individuals, but also groups. Due to the relevance of this new collaborative systems usage, it is important to provide new solutions to the construction of robust and complete collaborative systems. The starting point is the description of the system by using ontologies at different abstraction levels. Parts of this description will be connected with the architectural design of groupware applications. From the user interaction point of view, we propose the inclusion of new interaction paradigms (ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, etc.) within the development process of new usability and accessibility engineering methodologies. In addition, new interaction patterns which support the user interface design process and multi-agent systems that support the user interface adaptativity of the collaborative environment are included among other things. This document reports the results of the first twenty months of the project life.

In this paper, we present a set of optimizations for a spoken language interface for mobile devices that can improve the recognition accuracy and user interaction experience. A comparison between a speech and a graphical interface, when used to accomplish the same task, is provided. The implications of developing a spoken language interface and integrating speech recognition and text-to-speech modules for European Portuguese in a mobile device, are also discussed. The paper focuses in the speech recognition module and in an algorithm for name matching optimization that provides the user with a more comfortable interaction with the device. Usability evaluation trials have shown that spoken language interfaces can provide an easier and more efficient use of the device, especially within a community of users less experienced in handling mobile devices.

Telecare can help health and social care agencies address the challenges they face from an ageing society and deliver services improving the clients' quality of life. The end users of telecare systems are unlikely to have a deep understanding of technology, therefore good human factors and ergonomics are important for the system's acceptance, usability and safety. This paper reports preliminary results from a project initiated by the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI) to develop a set of guidelines for human factors in telecare systems, thereby maximizing user experience and promoting the usage of telecare, and directed towards all stakeholders in the telecare delivery chain. The guidelines are first structured along the dimension of human factors, consisting of: confidentiality and privacy; ethics; legal aspects; availability and reliability; integrity; safety; installation, setup and configuration; user interaction; localization and customization; service and system aspects; organizational aspects; user education; interoperability; development process and testing. For each of these, guidelines are enumerated and grouped as being either generic or pertaining to one of the different product lifecycles: research and development; design and manufacture; equipment delivery; and final service deployment. In all, a considerable number of generic and specific guidelines will be provided. The work is in progress (Sep. 2006), and the authors encourage input and comments. For more information, see

Figure 1: JECRIPE- a game for children with special needs Abtract There are not many initiatives in the area of game development for children with special needs, specially children with Down syndrome. The major purpose of our research is to promote cognitive development of disabled children in the context of inclusive education. In order to do so, we address aspects of interaction, communication and game design in stimulating selected cognitive abilities. By using a Human-Computer Interaction method based on the Inspection of Evaluation, it was possible to study and understand user interaction with the interface and thus examine the positive aspects as well as the communicability problems found with the JECRIPE game- a game developed specially for children with Down syndrome in pre-scholar age.

In this paper we discuss a new architecture to reduce unsolicited e-mail messages. We propose a system architecture that introduces two classes of messages-trusted e-mail and e-mail from untrusted sources. Trusted e-mail messages are signed with an S/MIME signature. To address usability problems that occurred previously with S/MIME signatures, outgoing e-mail messages are automatically signed on the e-mail server without

Optimization strategies for use within an automated optimization framework for PVC profile extrusion dies are presented. The methods are designed to work in an industrial environment and must therefore account for the specific design and manufacturing techniques for these profile dies. The complex threedimensional die geometry will be represented through a series of two-dimensional so-called 'die-slices'. The purpose of the presented optimization cycle is to find the optimal shape of the die cross-section of the die-slices. Each die-slice geometry is optimized by a computerized optimization loop using a finite element (FE) analysis of the polymer flow through the die. Simple data representation of the complex die geometry allows an efficient parameterization. Several optimization strategies are compared regarding the achieved quality of the optimization, the computational costs, the required user interaction and the robustness in industrial applications. The strategies are (i) a global scheme in which all design variables (DVs) are dealt with simultaneously, (ii) a sequential optimization in which DVs are addressed one after each other, (iii) employing a height approximation type method in which the new values for the DVs are found using assumptions of the flow between two parallel plates, and (iv) a global scheme in which the DVs are decoupled taking advantage of the particular FE analysis applied.

Online auction, shopping, electronic billing etc. all such types of application involves problems of fraudulent transactions. Online fraud occurrence and its detection is one of the challenging fields for web development and online phantom transaction. As no-secure specification of online frauds is in research database, so the techniques to evaluate and stop them are also in study. We are providing an approach with Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and mobile implicit authentication to find whether the user interacting online is a fraud or not. We propose a model based on these approaches to counter the occurred fraud and prevent the loss of the customer. Our technique is more parameterized than traditional approaches and so,chances of detecting legitimate user as a fraud will reduce.

Query formulation is a key aspect of information retrieval, contributing to both the efficiency and usability of many semantic applications. A number of query languages, such as SPARQL, have been developed for the Semantic Web; however, there are, as yet, few tools to support end users with respect to the creation and editing of semantic queries. In this paper we introduce a graphical tool for semantic query construction (NITELIGHT) that is based on the SPARQL query language specification. The tool supports end users by ...

Usage data logged from user interactions can be extremely valuable for evaluating software usability. However, instrumenting software to collect usage data is a time-intensive task that often requires technical expertise as well as an understanding of the usability issues to be explored. We have developed a new technique for software instrumentation that removes the need for programming. Interactive Usability Instrumentation (IUI) allows usability evaluators to work directly with a system's interface to specify what components ...

The Bsoft package [Heymann, J.B., Belnap, D.M., 2007. Bsoft: image processing and molecular modeling for electron microscopy. J. Struct. Biol. 157, 3-18] has been enhanced by adding utilities for processing electron tomographic (ET) data; in particular, cryo-ET data characterized by low contrast and high noise. To handle the high computational load efficiently, a workflow was developed, based on the database-like parameter handling in Bsoft, aimed at minimizing user interaction and facilitating automation. To the same end, scripting elements distribute the processing among multiple processors on the same or different computers. The resolution of a tomogram depends on the precision of projection alignment, which is usually based on pinpointing fiducial markers (electron-dense gold particles). Alignment requires accurate specification of the tilt axis, and our protocol includes a procedure for determining it to adequate accuracy. Refinement of projection alignment provides information that allows assessment of its precision, as well as projection quality control. We implemented a reciprocal space algorithm that affords an alternative to back-projection or real space algorithms for calculating tomograms. Resources are also included that allow resolution assessment by cross-validation (NLOO2D); denoising and interpretation; and the extraction, mutual alignment, and averaging of tomographic sub-volumes.

Immersive visualisation is increasingly being used for comprehensive and rapid analysis of objects in 3D and object dynamic behaviour in 4D. Challenges are therefore presented to provide natural user interaction to enable effortless virtual object manipulation. Presented in this paper is the development and evaluation of an immersive human-computer interaction system based on stereoscopic viewing and natural hand gestures. For the development, it is based on the integration of a back-projection stereoscopic system for object and hand display, a hybrid inertial and ultrasonic tracking system to provide the absolute positions and orientations of the user's head and hands, as well as a pair of high degrees-of-freedom data gloves to provide the relative positions and orientations of digit joints and tips on both hands. For the evaluation, it is based on a two-object scene with a virtual cube and a CT (computed tomography) volume created for demonstration of real-time immersive object manipulation. The system is shown to provide a correct user view of objects and hands in 3D with depth, as well as to enable a user to use a number of simple hand gestures to perform basic object manipulation tasks involving selection, release, translation, rotation and scaling. Also included in the evaluation are some quantitative tests of the system performance in terms of speed and latency.

Ranking and choosing the best material is one of most important stages in material selection process. Using linear assignment method, the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach is proposed in decision-making process to rank the materials for a given engineering component with respect to several criteria. The proposed material selection procedure is relatively simple, and can be a useful approach when material selection problem includes qualitative properties or user-interaction aspects. The suggested approach also can be use for quantitative properties. Three examples are included to demonstrate the suggested method. Result of proposed approach showed good agreement with other methods.

Human-robot interaction (HRI) for mobile robots is still in its infancy. Most user interactions with robots have been limited to tele-operation capabilities where the most common interface provided to the user has been the video feed from the robotic platform ...

Static Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) analysis is a technique to derive upper bounds for the execution times of programs. Such bounds are crucial when designing and verifying real-time systems. A key component in static WCET analysis is to derive flow information, such as loop bounds and infeasible paths. Such flow information can be provided as either as annotations by the user, can be automatically calculated by a flow analysis, or by a combination of both. To make the analysis as simple, automatic and safe as possible, this flow information should be calculated automatically with no or very limited user interaction. In this paper we present three novel algorithms to calculate infeasible paths. The algorithms are all designed to be simple and efficient, both in terms of generated flow facts and in analysis running time. The algorithms have been implemented and tested for a set of WCET benchmarks programs.

Advanced business applications like enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) are characterized by a high degree of complexity in data, functionality, and processes. This paper examines some decisive causes of this complexity and their implications for software configuration and user interaction. A case study of SAP ® 's R/3 ® Sales & Distribution module exemplifies complexity in order management systems, and documents its impact on the user experience. We emphasize the need to shield users appropriately from underlying system complexity to provide a convenient and simple-to-use software tool. We discuss several approaches for how to address this.

Our research agenda focuses on building software agents that can employ user modeling techniques to facilitate information access and management tasks. Personal assistant agents embody a clearly beneficial application of intelligent agent technology. A particular kind of assistant agents, recommender systems, can be used to recommend items of interest to users. To be successful, such systems should be able to

Alerting services can provide a valuable support for information seeking in Digital Libraries (DL). Several systems have been proposed. Most of them have serious drawbacks, such as limited expressiveness, limited coverage, and poor support of federated and distributed collections.

There are several tools used in materials selection processes by designers. However, they are mostly engineering based tools, which are dominated by numerical (or technical) material data that is mostly of use in embodiment or detailed design phases of new product development. On the other hand, product designers consider certain aspects such as product personality, user-interaction, meanings, emotions in their material decisions. In this regard, existing tools and methods do not fully support designers in their materials selection processes. This paper describes the development of a new materials selection tool holding the idea of [meaning driven materials selection]. In addition, the paper consists of a study conducted to create data for a dummy application.

The lack of realistic and interactive use in social media applications is the main problem. We will try to solve it by using Augmented Reality. An innovation in development, Augmented Reality is a new sort of technology that superimposes virtual objects into "Reality" by use of a smartphone, optical device, or tablet screen. We will be using this technology to make application, which will be used as a replacement for traditional text based social and data sharing applications. People are using Social media, forums and other communication Medias tremendously from past few years. We noticed that all such applications and resources are basically in text format and this trend is followed by all the applications until now. Using Augmented Reality in such cases will change the definition of such media applications. That is why we decided to follow this concept and make a project using it. This Paper is about file sharing, information sharing and social media. Which will drive daily life of people with AR integrated experience. It is one-step ahead towards Hyper Reality, which can be used for private as well as public purpose. Augmented Reality (AR) will make things more realistic and interactive.

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The recently approved Cal Poly software engineering major concludes with a significant capstone project. During a yearlong course sequence, students specify, design, construct and deploy a large software project for an industrial partner. This report summarizes the capstone sequence project in the current academic year; sixteen student teams constructed an automated testing system for an industrial partner - Brocade Communications.

Cloud computing is a revolutionary way of storing and accessing data with five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. Businesses have realized the tremendous potentiality and benefits of cloud computing and have accepted the technology, but still a small amount of scepticism hovers around. In defiance of its potential characteristics, the organizations risk their sensitive data by storing it in the cloud. In this paper, we have identified various privacy and security challenges associated with the novelty of cloud computing. The security and privacy challenge listed in this paper perceives demand for implementation of sophisticated technologies to deal with them.

For an illustration to fulfill the purposes for which it is designed, it is often important that certain objects depicted not be blocked by others. We describe an automated approach to the problem of generating illustrations that satisfy-a set of visibility constraints for a given viewing specification. We introduce a family of algorithms that automatically identify potentially obscuring objects, and render them using cutaway and ghosting effects modeled after those used by illustrators. These algorithms exploit modern z-bufferbased 3D graphics hardware to make possible dynamic illustrations that maintain a set of visibility constraints as a user interactively updates the viewing specification.

One of the challenges today in human-computer interaction is to design systems that are not only usable but also appealing to users. In order to contribute to meet this challenge, our general objective in the present study was to enhance current understanding of the perceptual features that favour users' interactions with Websites. This is a particularly important issue, as users' first impressions when they land on a site determine whether or not they stay on it. We conducted two experimental studies, focusing on one specific perceptual feature: Website colour. The first study investigated designers' and users' preferred colours for a Web homepage. Although researchers generally flag up differences between designers and users, we found that the latter also had several favourite colours in common. On the basis of these initial results, three colours were selected for a second study exploring colour in relation to an entire Website. The main originality of this second study lays in the fact that we used both subjective and objective measurements to gauge the impact of colour, analyzing not only users' judgments but also their Website navigation and the items of information they memorized. Results of this second study showed that colours were a determining factor in the way that users interacted with the Website. Their influence was also observed afterwards, when users were asked to exploit the information they had gleaned from the Website. As such, these findings will have a practical value for Website designers.

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an interactive tabletop system that supports co-located meeting capture and asynchronous search and review of past meetings. The goal of the project is to evaluate the design of a conference table that augments the everyday work patterns of small collaborative groups by incorporating an integrated annotation system. We present a holistic design that values hardware ergonomics, supports heterogeneous input modalities, generates a memory of all user interactions, and provides access to historical data on and off the table. We present a user evaluation that assesses the usefulness of the input modalities and software features, and validates the effectiveness of the MemTable system as a tool for assisting memory recall.

A personal computer (PC)-based desktop virtual reality (VR) system was developed for rehabilitating hand function in stroke patients. The system uses two input devices, a Cyber-Glove and a Rutgers Master II-ND (RMII) force feedback glove, allowing user interaction with a virtual environment. This consists of four rehabilitation routines, each designed to exercise one specific parameter of hand movement: range, speed, fractionation or strength. The use of performance-based target levels is designed to increase patient motivation and individualize exercise difficulty to a patient's current state. Pilot clinical trials have been performed using the above system combined with noncomputer tasks, such as pegboard insertion or tracing of two-dimensional (2-D) patterns. Three chronic stroke patients used this rehabilitation protocol daily for two weeks. Objective measurements showed that each patient showed improvement on most of the hand parameters over the course of the training. Subjective evaluation by the patients was also positive. This technical report focuses on this newly developed technology for VR rehabilitation.

A robust, semi-automatic way is presented to create 3D polyhedral building models from computer-drawn floor plans, requiring minimal user interaction. The models adhere to a consistent solids representation and can be used for computer rendering, visualization in interactive walkthroughs, and in various simulation and analysis programs. The output of our prototype program is directly compatible with the Berkeley WALKTHRU system and with the NIST CFAST fire simulator. A consistent model of a seven-storey building with more than 300 rooms has been generated in the time span of a few days from original AutoCAD floor plans drawn by architects. ᭧