Towards an educational Superlnterface

Abstract  It is presumed that recent technological innovations, combined with three more established (educational) technologies, could cause a drastic change in university education, if adequate organizational conditions could be created. Such conditions are needed to structure, channel and manage an as yet undreamed of flow of information. Closely related to the metaphor of the 'Info Highway', an educational 'Superlnterface' is described. Based upon networked computer platforms, such a human-computer-human interface is to support large scale telestudy (and teleworking). The Superlnterface is to be designed or is to evolve in such a way that reliable and valid organizational foundations for university education can be established. As the organizational foundation is so paramount, the authors would like to see serious research into the modelling of Superlnterface structures, resources, and dynamics. Indications of some such research issues are presented.     

Towards an account of intuitiveness

Abstract

Since the 1970s, many improvements have been made in the technology available for automatic speech recognition (ASR). Changes in the methods of analysing the incoming speech have resulted in larger, more complex vocabularies being used with greater recognition accuracy. Despite this enhanced performance and substantial research activity, the introduction of voice input into the office is still largely unrealized. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of office applications of ASR, dividing them into the areas of voice messaging and word processing activities, data entry and information retrieval systems, and environmental control. Within these areas, cartographic computer-aided-design systems are identified as an application with proven success. The slow growth of voice input in the office is discussed in the light of constraints imposed by existing speech technology, and the need for human factors evaluation of potential applications.     

Towards an Assembly Language Stanldard

The world does not need another assembly language syntax, but it does need a standard for one-and now. Comments are invited on this analysis of the proposed draft standard.     

Towards an optimal swap gate

We present a novel approach that generalizes the well- known quantum SWAP gate to higher dimensions and construct a regular quantum gate composed entirely in terms of the generalized CNOT gate that cyclically permutes the states of $d$ qudits for $d$ prime. We also investigate the case for $d$ other than prime. A key feature of the construction design relates to the periodicity evaluation for a family of linear recurrences which we achieve by exploiting generating functions and their factorization over the complex reals.     

Towards an Informational Pragmatic Realism

I discuss the design of the method of entropic inference as a general framework for reasoning under conditions of uncertainty. The main contribution of this discussion is to emphasize the pragmatic elements in the derivation. More specifically: (1) Probability theory is designed as the uniquely natural tool for representing states of incomplete information. (2) An epistemic notion of information is defined in terms of its relation to the Bayesian beliefs of ideally rational agents. (3) The method of updating from a prior to a posterior probability distribution is designed through an eliminative induction process that singles out the logarithmic relative entropy as the unique tool for inference. The resulting framework includes as special cases both MaxEnt and Bayes’ rule. It therefore unifies entropic and Bayesian methods into a single general inference scheme. I find that similar pragmatic elements are an integral part of Putnam’s internal realism, of Floridi’s informational structural realism, and also of van Fraasen’s empiricist structuralism. I conclude with the conjecture that their valuable insights can be incorporated into a single coherent doctrine—an informational pragmatic realism.     

Towards an aesthetic of 'the Interactive

The Interactive is situated in the discourse of the user/player and discussed here in terms of domains of engagement and cursality, each of which is defined by a tension between qualities within the domain and each of which is affected by a dynamic of learning and familiarity. In its inherently ergodic nature, that discourse exists as particular instances which may never be shared. In its inevitable narrativity, in its construction of meaning through fleeting fragments juxtaposed in time, and in its unique instance determined by selection and selection histories, this discourse is unlike that of other media and represents a distinct and different way of storying the world. Reference is made to several contemporary interactive artworks and the text concludes with a short but detailed critique using the ideas mapped out in the preceding text.     

Towards an optimum language data model

Maximizing the satisfaction of a value in an engineering design is usually limited by tradeoffs in which other values become unacceptably sacrificed. In a few cases, however, the maximization is limited by a boundary between what is mathematically possible and what is not. Round wheels, vertical pillars, and binary memory elements are examples of optimum engineering structures which result from such mathematical limits. It is proposed that optimum characteristics of a language data model result similarly by minimizing the variety of primitive data objects, the complexity of those objects, and the number of objects needed to represent data states. Reducing these measures is needed to combine both rich data structure and powerful operations in one language. The minimizations lead to a narrow range of designs for language semantics in which the potential advantages of specialization is small compared with the advantages of commonality. Universal language for support of technical literacy appears to be an appropriate scope of generality in language design.     

Towards an ICT-based psychology: E-psychology

Cognitive science is the scientific domain which studies, analyzes, simulates and infers for various aspects, functions and procedures of human mentality such as, thinking, logic, language, knowledge, memory, learning, perception and the ability to solve problems. E-psychology is in close relation with the cognitive science domain, but expands beyond it, as e-psychology is the efficient convergence of psychology and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). E-psychology offers a number of services such as supporting, diagnosis, assessment, therapy, counseling, intervention and tests through an effective exploitation of ICTs. This article presents a user-friendly, flexible and adaptive electronic platform, which supports both synchronous and asynchronous e-psychology activities through the use of informative and communicative tools and services, which can be adapted to support various methods of e-psychology activities. It is important to underline that e-psychology is not an alternative psychology field, but a resource to enhance the conventional psychology process.     

Towards an advanced model-driven engineering toolbox

Model-driven engineering (MDE) is frequently presented as an important change in software development practice. However, behind this new trend, one may recognize a lot of different objectives and solutions. This paper first studies the multiple facets of MDE and its evolution in the recent period. Several new usage scenarios (i.e., reverse engineering, and models at runtime), which have appeared following the initial forward engineering scenario, i.e., platform-independent model (PIM) to platform-specific model (PSM), are described. Not surprisingly, new applications trigger the need for new tools and the requirement for model engineering platforms evolves correspondingly. We have adapted the AmmA toolbox to these new usages and the result is described herein together with some illustrative examples.     

Towards an architecture for virtual enterprises

An approach to the design of an architecture for industrial virtual enterprises (VE), with special emphasis on the identification of main functional requirements, is presented. First, a discussion of the various types of virtual enterprises is provided. Some classification scenarios and discussions of the modelling and reengineering tools and methodologies are described. Due to the importance of the information flows and management in the VE, one section is merely devoted to the analysis of the appropriateness of a federated information management approach. This work is based on and represents the ongoing activities in two European Union funded projects; the Esprit PRODNET II and the INCO-DC SCM+ projects.     

Towards an algebraic theory of information integration

Information integration systems provide uniform interfaces to varieties of heterogeneous information sources. For query answering in such systems, the current generation of query answering algorithms in local-as-view (source-centric) information integration systems all produce what has been thought of as “the best obtainable” answer, given the circumstances that the source-centric approach introduces incomplete information into the virtual global relations. However, this “best obtainable” answer does not include all information that can be extracted from the sources because it does not allow partial information. Neither does the “best obtainable” answer allow for composition of queries, meaning that querying a result of a previous query will not be equivalentto the composition of the two queries. In this paper, we provide a foundation for information integration, based on the algebraic theory of incomplete information. Our framework allows us to define the semantics of partial facts and introduce the notion of the exact answer—that is the answer that includes partial facts. We show that querying under the exact answer semantics is compositional. We also present two methods for actually computing the exact answer. The first method is tableau-based, and it is a generalization of the “inverse-rules” approach. The second, much more efficient method, is a generalization of the rewriting approach, and it is based on partial containment mappings introduced in the paper.     

Towards an algebraic specification of code generation

We show how the problem of code generation for a simple language can be treated fully algebraically. The algebraic approach enjoys several advantages which should be demonstrated here. First, it allows a uniform specification both of the abstract syntax and of the semantics of the source and the target language on one side and of the code generation on the other side by means of hierarchical abstract data types. Moreover, theorems about the compiler, such as the preservation of the semantics, can be proved by induction on the term structure of the abstract syntax. Furthermore, existing tools for rapid prototyping with abstract data types can be applied to validate the specification against the intention in an early stage. In addition, this paper shows how such a system can also be used for performing induction proofs of conjectures.     

Towards an asymptotic analysis of Karmarkar's algorithm

The Karmarkar algorithm for linear programming (1984) has generated excitement and controversy. This controversy has been the theme of many popular panel discussions, reporting on experimental results both supporting and refuting claims of substantial speed-ups. How does one resolve these conflicting reports? The thrust of the work here has been on implementation and experimentation. We argue that further theoretical analysis of the algorithm can shed light on this controversy. In particular we ask: What is the ‘average’ behavior of the algorithm, and what are its dynamical properties?In this paper we do not address the issue of work per iteration, perhaps the most controversial aspect of the algorithm in practice. We do look, however, at the iterative process, and here we give a new proof of the number of iterative steps required by the algorithm in the worst case. Our proof is considerably simpler than Karmarkar's, and provides new information and insight. Specifically, our proof identifies an explicitly geometric quantity that measures the algorithm's progress at each step. Analyzing the changing size of this quantity gives information about the dynamics of the algorithm.     

Towards an American Sign Language interface

In this paper, we present two major parts of an interface for American Sign Language (ASL) to computer applications currently under work; a hand tracker and an ASL-parser. The hand tracker extracts information about handshape, position and motion from image sequences. As an aid in this process, the signer wears a pair of gloves with colour-coded markers on joints and finger tips. We also present a computational model of American Sign Language. This model is realized in an ASL-parser which consists of a DCG-grammar and a non-lexical component that records non-manual and spatial information over an ASL-discourse.     

Towards an agent-oriented approach to conceptualization

Agent-oriented modeling provides a new technique for the conceptualization of agent-based systems. This paper extends and formalizes this agent-oriented modeling approach to the conceptualization process. It defines agent models and proposes a high-level methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. It also includes analogies with the object-oriented and other existing agent-oriented methodologies, wherever applicable. The paper is concluded with a case study and an insight to future challenges.     

Towards the construction of an eigenvalue engine

In this paper a new algorithm for the computation of the eigenvalues of real symmetric matrices is presented. The algorithm may be expressed in terms of a collection of communicating process and is suitable for implementation as a dedicated engine constructed from a network of transputers. However, it can also be efficiently implemented on a multiprocessor supercomputer such as the CRAY X-MP or on a set of interconnected SIMD machines.