Automated Visual Presentation: From Heterogeneous Information to Coherent Visual Discourse

Automated visual presentation systems should be able to design effective presentations for heterogeneous (quantitative and qualitative) information. They should also be able to work in static or interactive environments and capable of employing a wide range of visual media and visual techniques. In this paper, we focus on three tasks in building visual production systems: establishing a thorough understanding of the presentation-related characteristics of domain-specific information; classifying several types of visual information and capturing their distinct syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features; and formulating a set of design principles.We define a data-analysis taxonomy to characterize heterogeneous information. In addition, we have modeled presentation context information such as audience identity to produce user-centered visual design. To utilize and manipulate visual information, we have classified it into visual objects and visual tools based on its role in the visual production process. To guide the visual design process, we have formulated a set of design principles that ensure the expressiveness and effectiveness of a design. To test and evaluate our work, we have developed a prototype system called IMPROVISE based on the research results. We use examples generated by IMPROVISE to illustrate how it constructs visual presentations.     

SX/Tools - An Open Design Environment for Adaptable Multimedia User Interfaces

In this paper a brief review of user interface management systems (UIMSs) and their advantages is given. Shortcomings of current UIMSs and open requirements imposed by industrial application areas are outlined. Among the most important requirements are uniform design mechanisms independent of interaction media, techniques, and styles as well as a straight forward end-user adaptability of user interfaces. A new approach to interactive interface construction, called “direct composition”, is introduced. In this approach all interface objects contain the means for their own modification and design and therefore offer consistent interaction techniques for both the construction and usage of user interfaces. Moreover, end-user adaptability is an inherent feature of direct composition interfaces. The user interface design environment SX/Tools is described to exemplify specific properties of user interface management systems following the principle of direct composition. The impacts of direct composition on user interface design include a uniform interface development process covering tool development, interface development, and “on-usage” interface adaptation. It is argued that the direct composition approach can overcome many of the problems with traditional UIMSs.     

HAGI, a High-level Application/Graphics Interface

HAGI is an object-oriented graphics system developed on top of the X window system. In addition to providing facilities that structured graphics systems such as GKS usually have, HAGI supports a high- level graphics paradigm with the following features:

• + In addition to graphical objects, the system provides a class of application objects with a higher level of abstraction than graphical objects.
• + Graphics manipulation operations can be issued simplyfrom application objects without explicitly referring to specific graphical objects. Thus graphics manipulation appears to be transparent to application programmers.
• + Graphical objects are designed to encompass more semantics, thus are at a level close to the application. For example, they useflexible visual objects to determine their visual appearance.

HAGI provides such a high-level application/graphics interface by maintaining a dependency relationship between graphical objects and application objects.     

传统与创新——浅析中国传统视觉元素与现代图形设计的融合

中国优秀的传统视觉元素源远流长,其内涵也可谓是博大精深,它由长期的历史积淀而成的,是中华民族的伦理道德、风俗习惯、文化教育、人生观、价值观综合的结果。在现代图形设计中注入中国传统视觉元素,倡导民族性视觉元素的运用,使现代图形设计在传统与现代的融合中迸发新的生命力。     

Motion estimation based on optical flow and an artificial neural network (ANN)

Motion estimation provides an attractive alternative to cumbersome interface devices for human-computer interaction (HCI). Worthy of note is that the visual recognition of hand gestures can help to achieve an easy and natural interaction between human and computer. The interfaces of HCI and other virtual reality systems depend on accurate, real-time hand and fingertip tracking for an association between real objects and the corresponding digital information. However, they are expensive, and complicated operations can make them troublesome. We are developing a real-time, view-based gesture recognition system. The optical flow is estimated and segmented into motion fragments. Using an artificial neural network (ANN), the system can compute and estimate the motions of gestures. Compared with traditional approaches, theoretical and experimental results show that this method has simpler hardware and algorithms, but is more effective. It can be used in moving object recognition systems for understanding human body languages.     

一个基于移动视觉搜索技术的博物馆导览系统

为了对游客的参观过程提供个性化导览服务,使游客可以通过手机拍照的方式获取展品的相关资讯.提出一个基于移动视觉搜索技术的博物馆导览系统.针对手机性能的差异性,提出一种改进的移动视觉搜索系统的框架,使得系统既能在服务器端对海量展品进行识别,又能在手机端对特定区域内展品实时识别;并基于这一框架实现了一个原型系统.与现有的导览系统相比,文中系统的交互方式更加人性化,提供的展品信息更丰富、全面,且无需在馆内安装任何辅助设备,能够更广泛地适用于博物馆导览.实验结果证明了该系统的可行性和实用性.     

工程图对象识别规则自动获取方法的研究

分析了工程图中工程对象的构图特点，设计了适用于识别的对象特征组结构．提出了通过抽取对象特征组、由特征组自动生成识别规则的方法．提出了在识别系统中加入对象特征抽取以及识别规则自动生成与调整功能使识别系统能方便地适应新图例从而提高适应能力的方法．该方法已应用于一个建筑工程图自动分析软件并取得了较好的效果．     

Stereoscopic human interfaces

This article focuses on the use of stereoscopic video interfaces for telerobotics. Topics concerning human visual perception, binocular image capturing, and stereoscopic devices are described. There is a wide variety of video interfaces for telerobotic systems [1]. Choosing the best video interface depends on the telerobotic application requirements. Simple monoscopic cameras are good enough for watching remote robot movements or for teleprogramming a sequence of commands. However, when operators seek precise robot guidance or wish to manipulate objects, a better perception of the remote environment must be achieved, for which more advanced visual interfaces are required. This implies a higher degree of telepresence, and, therefore, the most suitable visual interface has to be chosen. The aim of this article is to describe the two main aspects using stereoscopic interfaces: · the capture of binocular video images, according to the disparity limits in human perception · the proper selection of the visualization interface for stereoscopic images.     

A logical theory of interfaces and objects

This paper motivates and describes a logic-based approach to specifying and reasoning about interfaces and objects that focuses on separation of concerns issues. The approach is based on the abstract design view (ADV), a software design model for object-oriented systems. The model was originally introduced to characterize, in an informal and practical setting, a clear separation between objects, which we called abstract design objects and their interfaces (ADVs). The objects capture the basic concern, while the interfaces capture special concerns such as user interface, control, timing, and distribution. First, we analyze the ADV design model in order to precisely characterize the interfaces, their associated objects, and the relationship between them. Then, we present one possible approach to formalizing interfaces, objects, and the "views-a" relationship. The central mathematical tools used for this purpose are temporal logic and some tools from the category theory. The formal approach is illustrated by examples that show how the interface and related objects and the views-a relationship can be used in object-oriented specifications. We also show how the theory enables the designer to perform relevant analysis activities while modeling with separation of concerns in mind. The theory can be used to derive dynamic and structural properties of the interface objects and the views-a relationship. In particular, we can use the theory to derive global properties of interfaces that capture special concerns from the local properties of their related objects     

基于三维视觉系统的多运动目标跟踪方法综述

多运动目标跟踪是智能视觉监控系统中的关键性的亟待解决的问题,采用二维视觉特征跟踪会在目标相互遮挡时丢失目标特征造成跟踪困难,近年来三维视觉跟踪系统越来越成为热点,利用三维特征能在多目标相互遮挡时更好地识别、跟踪目标,实现多目标遮挡时的精确跟踪,从而全面提高智能视觉监控系统的精确性。总结了近年来基于三维视觉系统的多运动目标跟踪方法,根据采用的不同三维视觉系统分为三类,将每类中具有代表性的方法进行了论述,分析了各典型方法的优缺点,最后提出了进一步研究的主要发展内容和趋势。     

基于XML的嵌入式图形界面自动生成技术

在嵌入式图形系统ClearX上开发了图形界面开发工具DevelopGUI,它为用户提供了良好的操作界面,实现了基于控件库ClearWidget的界面可视化设计.利用XML文档作为图形界面的中间表示形式,一方面可以解析XML文档生成图形界面,便于修改图形界面;另一方面便于生成应用程序代码.DevelopGUI提供一个代码生成器,其功能是把存储图形界面信息的XML文档解析成符合ClearX程序风格的应用程序代码.     

Emergent features and perceptual objects: re-examining fundamental principles in analogical display design

Two sets of design principles for analogical visual displays, based on the concepts of emergent features and perceptual objects, are described. An interpretation of previous empirical findings for three displays (bar graph, polar graphic, alphanumeric) is provided from both perspectives. A fourth display (configural coordinate) was designed using principles of ecological interface design (i.e. direct perception). An experiment was conducted to evaluate performance (accuracy and latency of state identification) with these four displays. Numerous significant effects were obtained and a clear rank ordering of performance emerged (from best to worst): configural coordinate, bar graph, alphanumeric and polar graphic. These findings are consistent with principles of design based on emergent features; they are inconsistent with principles based on perceptual objects. Some limitations of the configural coordinate display are discussed and a redesign is provided.     

嵌入式系统图形处理平台设计与实现

介绍了嵌入式系统图形处理平台的研制背景和目的,即是为了屏蔽各种嵌入式环境底层的不同,如操作系统和底层图形开发工具包以及硬件的差异,为上层图形应用程序开发提供统一的接口和图形服务,构建图形支撑环境.采用了以图形核心系统(graphical kernel system,GKS)为基础的方法进行设计,实现了应用程序开发的设备无关性.介绍了该嵌入式图形处理平台的层次结构,以及该平台在VxWorks操作系统Windml版本实现中所用的一些关键技术.     

Graphic design for computer graphics

Because computer graphics systems are capable of sophisticated displays of typography, symbols, color, spatial organization, and temporal sequencing, it is appropriate to seek principles for designing effective communication from the discipline of graphic design whose expertise lies in programming visible language. Examples of the author's work are cited to demonstrate how graphic design can improve three different types of computer graphics.     

An interactive example-driven approach to graphics recognition in engineering drawings

An interactive example-driven approach to graphics recognition in engineering drawings is proposed. The scenario is that the user first interactively provides an example of a graphic object; the system instantly learns its graphical knowledge and uses the acquired knowledge to recognize the same type of graphic objects. The proposed approach represents the graphical knowledge of an object in terms of its structural components and their syntactical relationships. We summarize four types of geometric constraints for knowledge representation, based on which we develop an algorithm for knowledge acquisition. Another algorithm for graphics recognition using the acquired graphical knowledge is also proposed, which is actually a sequential examination of these constraints. In the algorithm, we first guess the next component’s attributes (e.g., size, position and orientation) by reasoning from an earlier found component and the constraint between them, and then search for this hypothetical component in the drawing. If all of the hypothetical components are found, a graphic object of this type is recognized. For improving the system’s recognition accuracy, we develop a user feedback scheme, which can update the graphical knowledge from both positive (missing) and negative (mis-recognized) examples provided by the user for subsequent recognition. Experiments have shown that our proposed approach is both efficient and effective for recognizing various types of graphic objects in engineering drawings. This paper is an extension of our papers published in ICDAR2003 and GREC2003.     

Towards a Framework for Visual Model Development

A number of decision support systems (DSS) based on a visual interactive simulation (VIS) model have been implemented in recent years. A key component of a VIS model is the visual model. Existing VIS model development methodologies suggest methods (such as the paper prototype method) for developing a visual model. However, these methods are quite general and do not contain a framework to guide development. This paper describes a framework which combines the paper prototype method with systems concepts to develop the visual model. The proposed framework consists of eight stages. A project proof of principle example is described in which a VIS-based DSS provides support to the owner of a company selling telephone systems.     

Human–computer interaction using vision-based hand gesture recognition systems: a survey

Considerable effort has been put toward the development of intelligent and natural interfaces between users and computer systems. In line with this endeavor, several modes of information (e.g., visual, audio, and pen) that are used either individually or in combination have been proposed. The use of gestures to convey information is an important part of human communication. Hand gesture recognition is widely used in many applications, such as in computer games, machinery control (e.g., crane), and thorough mouse replacement. Computer recognition of hand gestures may provide a natural computer interface that allows people to point at or to rotate a computer-aided design model by rotating their hands. Hand gestures can be classified into two categories: static and dynamic. The use of hand gestures as a natural interface serves as a motivating force for research on gesture taxonomy, its representations, and recognition techniques. This paper summarizes the surveys carried out in human--computer interaction (HCI) studies and focuses on different application domains that use hand gestures for efficient interaction. This exploratory survey aims to provide a progress report on static and dynamic hand gesture recognition (i.e., gesture taxonomies, representations, and recognition techniques) in HCI and to identify future directions on this topic.     

Design and implementation of a user-oriented speech recognition interface: the synergy of technology and human factors

The design and implementation of a user-oriented speech recognition interface are described. The interface enables the use of speech recognition in so-called interactive voice response systems which can be accessed via a telephone connection. In the design of the interface a synergy of technology and human factors is achieved. This synergy is very important for making speech interfaces a natural and acceptable form of human-machine interaction. Important concepts such as interfaces, human factors and speech recognition are discussed. Additionally, an indication is given as to how the synergy of human factors and technology can be realised by a sketch of the interface's implementation. An explanation is also provided of how the interface might be integrated in different applications fruitfully.