The electronic scrapbook

Abstract

Video is increasingly being manipulated on computer systems. Can an interface for video manipulation be made sufficiently simple and powerful to free the user's attention to focus on creative aspects of the medium? How are images to be described so that they can be retrieved? How is this representation to be presented to the user? Issues of knowledge representation and interface design are tightly linked.The Electronic Scrapbook is an environment designed to encourage people to use home video as a creative medium. This work addresses issues of knowledge representation, narrative structure, and interface design. To date, I have:•Developed the metaphor of a scrapbook as an interface for a video manipulation environment.•Applied a semantic network to video logging.•Implemented a pane-based video logging interface, which keeps information organized and minimizes screen clutter (see Figure 1).•Used inheritance to save the user work in logging video.•Created a library of story models, which help the user to tell home-video stories.•Applied the use of specific domain knowledge to help the user.•Focused on viewing the computer and the user as partners in a creative process.•Implemented a working system.Issues still to be solved include:•Designing an interface to allow the user to create new story models.•Extending the logging interface to allow the user to modify the underlying ontology.•Creating ontologies for additional subject domains.•Integrating object and stream representations of video to maintain simplicity while better accounting for video's temporal nature.•Testing the design on real users.Computer technology promises to make video more accessible to the non-specialist. However, careful interface design is needed to hide technical complexities and free the user's attention to learn about narrative structures and the creative potential of the medium. Using detailed color screen shots of the interface, I will be able to discuss the solutions I have obtained so far and the challenges that remain for incorporating video in the interface.