ResultMaps: Visualization for Search Interfaces

Hierarchical representations are common in digital repositories, yet are not always fully leveraged in their onlinesearch interfaces. This work describes ResultMaps, which use hierarchical treemap representations with query string-driven digital library search engines. We describe two lab experiments, which find that ResultsMap users yield significantly better results over a control condition on some subjective measures, and we find evidence that ResultMaps have ancillary benefits via increased understanding of some aspects of repository content. The ResultMap system and experiments contribute an understanding of the benefits—direct and indirect—of the ResultMap approach to repository search visualization.     

Digit: A computational package for digital system design

To facilitate the analysis and design of digital control systems, the FORTRAN IV package DIGIT[1] is developed to transform analog process models into digital transfer functions. Of interest are the impulse and step invariant filters of digital signal processing and the trapezoidal approximation of the step invariant filter. The pertinent algorithms are developed; the program is highlighted and a user's guide is included. Application of the computational package is illustrated through a sequence of examples.     

Strange Bedfellows: Human-Computer Interaction, Interface Design, and Composition Pedagogy

As digital interfaces increasingly mediate our access to information, the design of these interfaces becomes increasingly important. Designing digital interfaces requires writers to make rhetorical choices that are sometimes technical in nature and often correspond with principles taught in the computer science subfield of human-computer interaction. We propose that an HCI-informed writing pedagogy can complicate for both writing and computer science students the important role audience should play when designing traditional and digital interfaces. Although it is a subtle shift in many ways, this pedagogy seemed to complicate student understanding of the relationship between audience and the texts/interfaces they created: it was not just the “human” (beliefs, attitudes, values, demographics) or the “computer” (the software or hardware or other types of mediation) that mattered but rather the “interaction” between the two. First we explore some of the ways in which writing code and writing prose have merged and paved the way for an HCI-informed writing pedagogy. Next we examine some parallels between human-computer interaction principles and composition principles. Finally, we refer to assignments, student responses, and anecdotal evidence from our classes where an HCI-informed writing pedagogy drew—or could have drawn—student attention more acutely to various audience-related technical and rhetorical interface design choices.     

Teachers’ and tutors’ social reflection around SenseCam images

As photographic technologies continue to develop, so too do the social practices surrounding their use. The focus of this paper is on the social practices surrounding images captured from a new photographic device—SenseCam—which, rather than capturing individual images when triggered by the user, automatically captures a series of images. This paper is concerned with the use of SenseCam digital images in social contexts where there is a professional purpose—supporting the collaborative reflective practices of school teachers and university tutors as part of their professional development. Analysis of video data collected from 16 in-situ case studies of reflective discussions shows evidence that reflection took place as defined in the literature. Further the phototalk around SenseCam images was found to benefit reflection in these social situations through promotion of a rich shared understanding of the lesson context: supporting return to the experience, sharing of background context, grounding conversations, illustrating and providing evidence, and allowing people to see more. The paper concludes with a discussion on how different features of SenseCam images, such as variable quality, lack of audio and incompleteness, helped in this reflection or not. Finally implications from this work and participant's comments are used to suggest ways in which SenseCam may be used in the future in teachers’ and tutors’ social reflection.     

Institution-based trust in interorganizational exchange relationships: the role of online B2B marketplaces on trust formation

Given the uncertainty of online transactions, the digital economy encourages the creation of institutional structures that assure online interorganizational exchange relationships. This research examines how institution-based trust develops in online B2B marketplaces to facilitate interorganizational trust (buyers' trust in sellers). Building upon the notion of institutional trust [Zucker,1986], this study proposes how specific institution-based structures help engender interorganizational trust and indirectly influence transaction success in B2B marketplaces. Five specific institution-based mechanisms are proposed—perceived monitoring, perceived legal bonds, perceived accreditation, perceived feedback, and perceived cooperative norms. To assess the influence of the proposed two dimensions of interorganizational trust—credibility and benevolence—in buyer–seller relationships, three trust outcomes are examined—satisfaction, perceived risk, and continuity. The proposed model is tested on data from 102 organizational buyers in an online B2B marketplace. The results support the proposed model, delineating the relationship between institution-based trust and interorganizational trust. The study provides evidence on how specific institutional mechanisms build trust in online B2B marketplaces, stressing the ability of institution-based trust to build a trustworthy trading environment in the digital economy. The paper discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of this study and proposes several suggestions for future research.     

Antics—Graphic animation by computer

The paper describes the Antics computer animation package—the first such package to be developed entirely by an animation studio specifically for use by animators and graphic designers in film and television production. Input is by drawing tablet and keyboard, controlled by an interactive program that converses in simple ordinary language and needs no technical knowledge to use. Output is full-colour raster-scanned images of quality equal to painted cel artwork, in a format suitable for direct recording on colour film or videotape. Animation is done with a range of 40 effects and controls whose possible combinations are unlimited in scope, giving unprecedented richness and flexibility, yet remaining simple to use—suitable for almost all kinds of graphic and diagram animation, for many kinds of cartoon character animation, and even for some kinds of 3-dimensional ‘solid’ perspective animation. Compared with conventional techniques, Antics offers a saving of around 50% on cost and up to 90% on time. The package is in FORTRAN for maximum portability.     

A tool for taking class notes

Students still take class notes using pencil and paper—although digital documents are more legible, easier to search in and easier to edit—in part because of the lack of software to support note-taking. Class notes are characterized by free spatial organization, many small chunks of text, and a dense mix of text and graphic elements. These characteristics imply that a note-taking system should use pen, keyboard and mouse-or-equivalent; allow the swift entry of text at any desired position; and minimize the need to switch between input tools. A system with these properties was built and used by 10 subjects in a controlled study and by four users in their classes. Some users preferred our system to pencil and paper, suggesting that taking class notes with the computer is feasible.     

Designing Scientific Knowledge Infrastructures: The Contribution of Epistemology

Scientific knowledge is increasingly being stored in online infrastructures such as electronic journals, digital libraries and online encyclopedias. Their designers need to find an adequate approach for representing this knowledge. Unfortunately, most online infrastructures adopt the traditional article-issue-journal model which is based on print technology. This article develops an alternative model for the representation of scientific knowledge which is based on epistemology—the theory of knowledge. The characteristics of scientific knowledge identified by four philosophers of science—Popper, Nagel, Dubin and Bunge—are synthesized into a conceptual model which can be used as the foundation of scientific knowledge infrastructures in an online environment. The article shows that much more fine-grained structures are needed for representing scientific knowledge. Knowledge should not be accumulated as a collection of articles but as a network of epistemologically relevant elements such as theories, concepts, statements, facts etc.     

Urban planning and artificial intelligence: The Urbys system

The subject of this paper is the complementary use of both a data base and an expert system in the analysis of urban areas in territorial planning.After a discussion of urban reasoning, this paper then states the fundamental principles of the URBYS system: —storage of the urban planner's knowledge; —the use of this knowledge by the expert system to assist in decision-making; —output of information from the urban data base to the expert system.A special effort was made to facilitate the use of this system and its closeness to the expert method by an easy modification of URBYS' knowledge without the overall coherence being affected.     

A vapor extraction teaching module based on AIRFLOW/SVE

This is the fourth in a series of papers exploring the application of professional quality software to environmental engineering education. Jennings (1997) discussed how the differences between ‘professional’ and ‘educational’ software should translate into software attributes and illustrated many of these attributes using the bioremediation package BIO1D (Srinivasan and Mercer, 1989). Jennings and Kuhlman (1997) illustrated more of these attributes using the MATHCAD 6.0 (Mathsoft, Inc., 1995) electronic book air pollution modeling package GAUSSIAN MODELS 1.1 (Zannetti, 1995). Most recently, Mesania and Jennings (1997) illustrated the power of a ‘pseudo-CAD’ user interface using the landfill hydraulic analysis program Help Model for Windows—HMfW v2.05 (Grace Dearborne, Inc., 1993). This paper concentrates on the power of using a true CAD user interface. This is done using the AIRFLOW/SVE (Guiguer et al., 1995) which evaluates vapor extraction soil remediation. Example simulations are presented to illustrate the power of CAD interfaces to express complex problems and to present results in easily comprehended graphics. Examples are also presented to illustrate how this package can help students identify successful applications of vapor extraction remediation.     

INFOREX-3.0: A database on experimental studies of phase equilibria in igneous rocks and synthetic systems: II. Data description and petrological applications

The purpose of the paper is to provide details of the application of the INFOREX-3.0 database, a package designed to store, retrieve, and process phase equilibria information. This most recent release of the system accesses data of 162 experimental studies, conducted from 1962 to 1994, including a total of 6174 experiments with 5188 addressed to natural igneous rocks and 986 runs carried out in synthetic systems, mostly CMAS. The total database was divided into 3893 “dry” conditions experiments, and 2281 runs performed in the presence of H₂O and/or CO₂: 1618 of the “wet” runs represented are water saturated. The number of 1 atm experiments (3750) is greater than the number of high-pressure runs (2474). The INFOREX database contains 8311 coexisting phase compositions: 3197 for glasses, 1247—olivine, 1429—pyroxenes, 501—spinels, 842—plagioclase. One block of the INFOREX information includes 298 liquid compositions where the Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ ratio was determined. Data for sulfur and water solubility experiments also have been systematized. The INFOREX data management system allows users to find and print out data on a specific set of mineral-melt or two mineral equilibrium experiments requested for a given range of temperatures, pressures, oxygen fugacities, and compositions in a matter of a few seconds. In addition, one can use subsets of the data to develop mineral-melt geothermometers for equilibria including olivine, plagioclase, pyroxenes, and spinels for any specific system type. Two examples illustrate the use of INFOREX for testing empirical equations proposed for the calculation of water solubility and Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ ratio in basic to acid melts.     

A computer approach to nonlinear planar systems of ODE's

In this paper the computer package NONLIN, running on IBM personal computers, is presented. The aim of the package is to provide Engineering and Applied Science students with an easy to use and application oriented introduction to nonlinear planar systems of ordinary differential equations.In the tutorial part, studying some typical problems, arising from different fields, the peculiar features of nonlinear systems are introduced, emphasizing the concept of local stability and the application of the theorem of stability “at the first approximation”.In the interactive part, the student can study his own systems, finding rest points and checking their stability, assisted step-by-step by the programme: trajectories in the phase plane can eventually be drawn.In two years of use with students, the package appeared to be very useful in enhancing calculus teaching.     

Operability Restoration Procedure for Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems with Dynamic Redundancy

A procedure was developed to restore operability of the fault-tolerant digital systems with dynamic redundancy. A method of reconfiguration of the fault-tolerant graph, which allows one to use the redundant chords to eliminate the effect of the faulty chords of the working configurations of graph, was described. Indiscriminability of the faults of adjacent components does not inhibit restoration of operability of the fault-tolerant systems with dynamic redundancy. A procedure of single diagnosis of faulty components was developed with regard for the characteristics of the model. For some fault situations of the 2-fault-tolerant vertex 3-cube, examples of realization of the main stages of the restoration procedure—diagnosis of the faulty components and change of the working configurations—were presented.     

The development of GRAMSKIL: A call grammar program for learners of English as a Second Language

To improve the grammatical skills of university-level students in an English as a Second Language (ESL) environment, the authors created a prototype software called GRAMSKIL. GRAM- SKIL differs from the current trend of software development in computer assisted language learning in two ways. Firstly, our program aims to develop grammatical competence instead of communicative competence in ESL learners. Secondly, it adopts the not-so-common approach of using a general purpose software tool—dBase III—to produce the program. GRAMSKIL uses the programming facility of dBase III to design menu-driven tasks which are user-friendly, and so computer novices can run the program without having to learn to run the database package. Moreover, GRAMSKIL allows teachers with little knowledge of database management systems to create their own database or modify the data to tailor them to the needs of their learners.     

GIA: design of a gesture-based interaction photo album

This paper describes a gesture-based interaction photo album (GIA) device which stores and manages digital images. It provides a natural interface—as if you are turning the pages of a photo album using gestural input on a touch screen. We feel that emotional satisfaction is more important than efficiency in this kind of task and requires a more natural user interface that is easily learned by novices. GIA demonstrates an innovative convergence between the digital and the analogue in this respect.     

Spatio-Temporal Modeling in Video and Multimedia Geographic Information Systems

The geographic application domain includes important information such as design plans, record drawings, photographs, and video data records. The corresponding geographic information systems (GISs) should maintain a specific model for each geographic data modality such as geographic video model for video records. Real-time 3-D geographic information systems provide comprehensive interface to complex and dynamic databases and truly immersive capability for visualizing geographic data. In cases, where information about location of geographic objects is needed at different moments of time, a GIS should process video data that is directly manipulated and retrieved through representation of its spatio-temporal characteristics. In this context, the most advanced multimedia form—digital video, finds an efficient application in GIS for versatile specification of geographic data. In this paper, a model for spatial data evolving with time is introduced in the context of video data manipulation. We designed a model that represents the spatio-temporal continuum among geographic objects in geographic video sequences, or digital video. The model developed here was motivated by the requirements for manipulating, managing, and analyzing geographic data for the necessities of infrastructure management, urban and regional planning, hazard prevention and management, transportation networks, vehicles routing, etc. This model allows the important issues for GIS such as conditions of adjacency (what is next to what), containment (what is enclosed by what), and proximity (how close one geographic object is to another) to be determined. Our model describes the spatial relationships among objects for each key frame in a given video scene, and the temporal relationships of the temporal intervals measuring the validity duration of the spatial relationships spanning over the given key frame. One of the main GIS issues—distance estimation, is solved as quantitative metrics of geographic objects in digital video are easily and precisely specified. This model is a basis for annotation of raw video for subsequent use in geographic video databases and digital libraries that provide access to and efficient storage of large volume of geographic data.     

Extended Petri net-based modeling,analysis and simulation of an intelligent materials handling system

This paper describes, models, analyzes and simulates an intelligent materials handling system with diagnostic intelligence capabilities using Extended Petri Nets (EPNs). The important modeled system properties of safeness, liveness and reversibility, which guarantee that the system operates in a stable, deadlock free and cyclic manner are verified and illustrated through the simulation results, obtained through an EPN based software package. A real system, the USL CIM system, modified to function as an intelligent materials handling system with on-line adaptation capabilities is used as a case study.This work has been partially supported by the LEQSF Research Grant LEQSF (91–93) — RD-A-40. A short version of this paper has been presented at the 31st IEEE CDC, Tucson, Arizona, December 1992.     

Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriter’s tale

Technology does indeed matter to writing—and in significant ways. But how it matters can vary, depending on the particular technology, the habits and attitudes of the individual writer, and the context of learning and use. Here I employ a personal narrative (“a cyberwriter’s tale”) to track my development as a writer over time—from handwriting to typewriting to cyberwriting—and to show how each new writing technology influenced my practices and products. I argue finally for a cyborgian, posthumanist view of writing technologies. Such a view does not isolate the technological tool as an abstracted machine apart from human use, but insists on defining technology as use—as the human and machine working in concert (joined at the interface) and writing in a particular social, political, and rhetorical context.     

Computer graphics and computer aided design in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota

Engineering design in industry is changing as a result of the application of the new tools provided by the digital computer and interactive computer graphics. This shift is placing new demands on engineering curricula. The engineering graduate today must be trained in the use of the computer and computer graphics as a design tool—in much the same way that engineers in the past used the slide rule and today use the hand-held calculator.This paper summarizes the efforts to integrate computer graphics and computer aided design into the design curriculum in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota. Specific software packages have been developed for use in teaching engineering graphics and mechanism synthesis and analysis. These packages are discussed in detail, including the hardware used.     

Resource-Limited Hyper-Reproductions: Electronically Reproducing and Extending Lectures

Multimedia authoring and publishing incorporates a variety of types of publications, from newly created multimedia presentations to digital libraries that incorporate a wide variety of pre-existing materials, from small self-published magazines to large productions that involve dozens or hundreds of workers and budgets nearing those of small feature films. In this paper, we consider an important form of electronic publication that is not frequently analyzed: the lecture, as reproduced and extended electronically.We present a methodology for transforming a recorded lecture into an appropriately useful and interactive multimedia publication—the hyper-reproduction—highlighting techniques appropriate for publications with limited resources (workers, time, bandwidth, etc.). We suggest techniques for automating parts of the construction and discuss the added capabilities of such reproductions and their effect on how users access, navigate, and retain information.