Desktop Metaphor Research Articles

Voice Synthesis Improvement by Machine Learning of Natural Prosody.

Since the advent of modern computing, researchers have striven to make the human-computer interface (HCI) as seamless as possible. Progress has been made on various fronts, e.g., the desktop metaphor (interface design) and natural language processing (input). One area receiving attention recently is voice activation and its corollary, computer-generated speech. Despite decades of research and development, most computer-generated voices remain easily identifiable as non-human. Prosody in speech has two primary components-intonation and rhythm-both often lacking in computer-generated voices. This research aims to enhance computer-generated text-to-speech algorithms by incorporating melodic and prosodic elements of human speech. This study explores a novel approach to add prosody by using machine learning, specifically an LSTM neural network, to add paralinguistic elements to a recorded or generated voice. The aim is to increase the realism of computer-generated text-to-speech algorithms, to enhance electronic reading applications, and improved artificial voices for those in need of artificial assistance to speak. A computer that is able to also convey meaning with a spoken audible announcement will also improve human-to-computer interactions. Applications for the use of such an algorithm may include improving high-definition audio codecs for telephony, renewing old recordings, and lowering barriers to the utilization of computing. This research deployed a prototype modular platform for digital speech improvement by analyzing and generalizing algorithms into a modular system through laboratory experiments to optimize combinations and performance in edge cases. The results were encouraging, with the LSTM-based encoder able to produce realistic speech. Further work will involve optimizing the algorithm and comparing its performance against other approaches.

HyperCube4x: A viewport management system proposal

This article presents a novel management and information visualization system proposal based on the tesseract, the 4D-hypercube. The concept comprises metaphors that mimic the tesseract geometrical properties using interaction and information visualization techniques, made possible by modern computer systems and human capabilities such as spatial cognition. The discussion compares the Hypercube and the traditional desktop metaphor systems. An operational prototype is also available for reader testing. Finally, a preliminary assessment with 31 participants revealed that 81.05% “agree” or “totally agree” that the proposed concepts offer real gains compared to the desktop metaphor.

Using TRIZ for Maximizing Information Presentation in GUI

The modern software tools provide numerous graphic elements in their GUI, which demand more and more screen space. As size of a display screen cannot be extended beyond a limit, it is typically seen as a constraint in a graphical user interface. Looking from a TRIZ perspective, computer screen should display all information that user needs (Ideal Final Result). There are various methods of addressing problem of screen space, some of which are, using icons for windows, the desktop metaphor, the large virtual workspace metaphor, multiple virtual workspaces, overlapping windows and increasing dimensions etc.There are many inventions on how to maximize presentation of information on a graphical user interface. This article analyzes nine inventions from US Patent database from a TRIZ perspective illustrating how they solve contradictions in order to achieve desired result.

Reframing water governance praxis: Does reflection on metaphors have a role?

Action for adaptation is needed in the face of anthropogenic climate change. The record of adaptation in the field of freshwater governance is poor to date, as it is apparently constrained by operational frameworks. Analyses based on the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor can reveal underlying, often institutionally reified, operational frameworks. We present a desktop metaphor mapping study of one UK and one Australian water management planning document. This mapping demonstrates the potential of metaphor analysis, with further methodological and praxis development, to support the new ways of thinking and acting that are needed to challenge deeply held social and cultural norms of linear, rather than systemic, causality. We suggest that metaphor has the potential to help practitioners expose and examine reified operational frameworks and practices, and to change those that hinder adaptive and systemic praxis.

A Cloud-Based Environment for Collaborative Resources Management

The interaction between users and digital devices has deeply changed in the last decades. In particular, the so called desktop metaphor relied on assumptions which have been modified by the rise of new paradigms, such as Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing. This paper discusses the limits of the desktop metaphor and proposes a new interaction model, TablePlusPlus (T++), aimed at providing Web and Cloud users with interaction mechanisms fulfilling their needs, i.e., the possibility of handling activity contexts, collaborating with other users, and homogeneously managing heterogeneous objects. T++ tables provide a context-based environment which enables a homogeneous treatment of heterogeneous content items, enhanced by a table-level annotation mechanism supporting an abstract view over resources, which is missing in standard current desktop and collaborative environments. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, this work developed a prototype and tested it in two controlled experiments, whose results are definitely encouraging.

Object-focused environments revisited

Developers write Object-Oriented programs using numerous tools that come as part of integrated development environments (IDEs). We focus on the tool based interfaces of a dynamic class-based language named Smalltalk. Smalltalk IDEs have remained the same for almost 30 years now, despite that they have been found to induce problems related to navigation and the loss of context. The tools work on a textual representation of a program: the source code, which makes it more difficult to comprehend and manipulate the system under construction. In reaction to that, researchers have proposed building IDEs around other metaphors. We explore the desktop metaphor applied to Object-Oriented languages in the form of an object-focused environment, and provide a detailed description of our working prototype, named Gaucho. Our goal is to depart from IDEs with tool based interfaces and fancy text editors, towards an environment that eases the interaction and the crafting of objects by providing more concrete means of manipulation within the interface.

체현 인지에 기반한 개념 메타포에 관한 연구

The existing interface study has been focused on rhetorical metaphor based on a cognitive viewpoint in traditional objectivism. But the existing study viewpoint about the interface shows logical limitation by the changes in media environment. This study suggests conceptual metaphor based on embodied cognition for an alternative to solve the limitation, and research logical suitability of the existing interface environment. The result of this study is as follow; The first, the embodied cognitive viewpoint provides the interface as a space for holistic recognition communication, and the conceptual metaphor based on embodied cognition provides a well-structured metaphor logic and is a suitable metaphor to explain complicated metaphor structure. The second, the container image schema provides concrete and detailed metaphor structure than previous metaphor when it comes to explaining desktop metaphor by offering subsidiary image schema from `IN-OUT-BOUNDARY` image schema. The third, path image schema is possible to make a concrete logic and works off the laxity and confusion of logical structure in existing metaphor by offering subsidiary image schema from `SOURCE-PATH-GOAL` image schema. The conceptual metaphor based on embodied cognition is expected to be a basic theory to explain interfaces for various media environment by thinking of human physical experience as container and path image schema.

Hype or Help? A Longitudinal Field Study of Virtual World Use for Team Collaboration

Despite increasing organizational interest and investment in virtual worlds (VWs), there is a lack of research on the benefits of VWs. When and how does the use of VW systems engender better organizational outcomes than traditional collaborative technologies? This paper investigates the value of VWs for team collaboration. Team collaboration is particularly relevant in studying VWs given the rich interactive nature of VWs and an increasing organizational reliance on virtual teamwork. To understand the value of VW use for team collaboration, we examine the relationship between a team’s disposition toward IT, their general disposition (personality) and VW use in influencing team cohesion and performance. We conducted a field study that compares two collaborative technology systems – one that is based on a traditional desktop metaphor and one that is grounded in the principles of a virtual world. We tracked the use of the systems for one year. We analyzed data at the team level and the results generally support our model, with agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and computer self-efficacy interacting with time and technology type to positively influence team technology use. We also found that the use of the virtual world system positively influenced the relationship between technology use and team cohesion, which, in turn, predicts team performance. The model explains 57 percent, 21 percent, and 24 percent of the variance in team technology use, team cohesion, and team performance, respectively.

Intermediaries: reflections on virtual humans, gender, and the Uncanny Valley

Embodied interface agents are designed to ease the use of technology. Furthermore, they present one possible solution for future interaction scenarios beyond the desktop metaphor. Trust and believa...

Intermediaries: reflections on virtual humans, gender, and the Uncanny Valley

Embodied interface agents are designed to ease the use of technology. Furthermore, they present one possible solution for future interaction scenarios beyond the desktop metaphor. Trust and believability play an important role in the relationship between user and the virtual counterpart. In order to reach this goal, a high degree of anthropomorphism in appearance and behavior of the artifact is pursued. According to the notion of the Uncanny Valley, however, this actually may have quite the opposite effect. This article provides an analysis of the Uncanny Valley effect from a cultural and gender studies perspective. It invites readers to take a closer look at the narratives that influence the production of anthropomorphic artifacts. The article starts with a short introduction of the idea of the Uncanny Valley and gives a brief overview of current artifacts. Following this, a semiotic view on computer science is proposed, which in a further step serves as an epistemological grounding for a gender-critical rereading of the Turing test. This perspective will be supported by analyzing a classic story of user and artifact—E.T.A. Hoffmann’s narration of Olimpia. Finally, the special character of anthropomorphic artifacts is discussed by taking Freud’s concept of “Das Unheimliche”, as well as theories of identity formation into consideration, closing with a plea for a more diverse artifact production.

Detection of Face Direction by Implementing Face Edge Patterns

In this paper, a method for detecting the direction of a human face is developed; regardless of its age or sex. The method involves creating a set of five face patterns representing the front, up, down, left, and right directions of a face. The face patterns are produced by applying Canny’s edge detection algorithm on some face files. The direction of the input face is found by first applying the above algorithm on the input file and comparing it with the five face patterns. The face pattern that gives minimum difference will represent the direction of the input face. Excellent results were reported when applied on images with relatively clear background and the head were centered at the image area. 1. Introduction The interface between people and computers has developed over the years from the early days of switches and LEDs to punched cards, interactive command-line interfaces, and the direct manipulation style of graphical user interfaces (GUI). The “desktop metaphor” of graphical user interfaces, also known as WIMP interfaces (for Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing devices), has been the standard interface between people and computers for many years. Of course, software and technology for humancomputer interaction (HCI) is not isolated from other aspects of computing. In addition, there are many non-GUI (or “post-WIMP”) technologies, such as virtual reality, speech recognition, computer vision, and spatial sound, which promise to change the status quo in computer-human interaction [1]. Human face detection plays an important role in many applications such as intelligent human computer interface (HCI), biometric identification, and face recognition. The goal of any face detection technique is to identify the face regions within a given image. The reliable detection of faces has been an ongoing research topic for decades [2]. Current face detection methods can be categorized into image-based methods and feature-based methods. Image-based methods use the intensity array as template to match the standardized candidate regions. Feature-based methods detect facial features using the skin color, the specific patterns of various facial features, and their relative positions [3].

Itsme: Interaction Design Innovating Workstations

In the last 30 years, there has been little innovation in workstations. The desktop metaphor has become the standard user interface, with its pros (e.g., ease of learning) and cons (e.g., interaction constraints for skilled users, lack of context awareness). In this paper, we present itsme, an Italian initiative to design the next-generation workstation. Interaction design is the basis of the project, as well as the involvement of a wide community of contributing users. The early design phases of the project led to the definition of a new metaphor for personal computing, based on stories and venues. The metaphor is being adopted for the development of a novel front-end for the Linux operating system, aimed at fulfilling the needs and desires of knowledge workers.

Thinking about Android Epistemology * Beyond the Desktop Metaphor Designing Integrated Digital Work Environments * Business Knowledge for IT in Retail Banking

Journal Article Thinking about Android Epistemology Get access Thinking about Android Epistemology K.M. Ford, C. Glymourand P.J. Hayes The AAAI Press ISBN 978-0-262-56217-1 $30.00 Rating: 9/10 Elias Pimenidis, MBCS CITP Elias Pimenidis, MBCS CITP Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar ITNOW, Volume 50, Issue 2, March 2008, Page 27, https://doi.org/10.1093/itnow/bwn039 Published: 06 March 2008

Applying Task Modeling and Pattern-Based Techniques in Reengineering Processes for Mobile Learning User Interfaces: A Case Study

In the last years there has been a high production of groupware systems. However, most of these systems have been based on the desktop metaphor. We propose a translation process based on the use of the conceptual model (or, particularly, on the task model and the data model) of the original application. From this model and by means of a pattern-based reengineering process, we obtain mobile versions of the original systems. In this paper the user interface reengineering process is described and an example of the application of patterns for the evolution of a specific system, Domosim-TPC, is shown.

Everything is alive

The pervasive computing vision is a paradigm shift "back to the future." It could create a world 25 years hence where, once again, everything is alive (EiA) and can sense, act, think, feel, communicate, and maybe even move and reproduce. This might include equipment, vehicles, robots, clothing, pets, and objects such as trees and walls. The assumption behind this paradigm shift is that sensors, actuators, intelligent controllers, software, and communication devices will be virtually free and vanishingly small. They will be able to attach to their hosts transparently and intercommunicate and cooperate to help us with our tasks. This will extend the desktop metaphor so that computing is no longer just inside computers but rather inside all sorts of physical things. Wireless will replace telepathic communication - everything will be Internet-enabled and stamped with "agents inside.".

Augmented Reality Aided Design

Ten years after Nielsen wrote about the “next generation interface” [1] we are still largely confined to WIMP [2] interfaces in design computing. A big question that lies ahead is ‘Does the integration of computing technology through Augmented Reality help the formal design investigation process?’ There are several suggestions that the conventional desktop metaphors are counter-intuitive for understanding spatial relationships [1, 3, 4]. Main concern is the mismatch in mapping of presentation and interface. Looking at other research areas, one can see that the application of Augmented Environments (AE) can enhance the speed of decision making [5] or creates better understanding of complex spatial arrangements [6] due to the fact that information is displayed where it occurs. Obviously, the representation and interaction is crucial for perceptive performance in design sketching as it is in AEs. This article will discuss a software prototype called sketchand+ and the implications of Augmented Reality for digital design.

Geocomputation’s future at the extremes: high performance computing and nanoclients

Recent developments in computing are reviewed, with consideration given to the nature of the human–computer interface and its development. The emergence of the desktop metaphor and the Windows–Icons–Menus–Pointers interface, while suitable for most computing tasks, has now played out its course as far as innovation in hardware is concerned. The next phase of computing is only now emerging, and is being fed by changes at the “extremes” of computing, the parallel supercomputer at one end, and the extremely thin or “nano” client at the other. The paradox, of fat servers and ultrathin clients implies a further separation toward the extremes as systems develop. Examples are given of nanoclients, including wearable computers, smart dust, microelectromechanical systems and wireless integrated network sensors. Clearly, the user interface for nanoclients must explicitly or implicitly include geographical space, because the primitive of location, coordinates, will often be a critical part of the data stream. At the parallel and HPC end, the advantages and types of parallel computing are discussed, and examined in the light of what they can do for geographical systems. Some examples of the computing extremes are given in terms of application, including wearable computers, and geo-smart dust. Finally, the relationship between massive combined computing power at both the client and server side are considered in the light of tractability in geoscience. It seems quite likely that a new suite of methods, based in computing, will emerge to replace the standard set of mathematical tools, such as optimization methods, in use today.

Prototyping the workspaces of the future

The Access Grid creates collaborative scientific workspaces that challenge traditional desktop metaphors by integrating large-scale visualization displays and lab instruments.

TELECOMMUTING TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATIONS: A WITHIN‐ AND BETWEEN‐SUBJECTS LONGITUDINAL FIELD STUDY

This research examines the impact of technology design on the acceptance and long‐term use of telecommuting systems. Specifically, we compare employee acceptance and sustained use of a traditional system designed based on the common “desktop metaphor,” with a virtual‐reality system designed to enhance social richness and telepresence. This 1‐year study incorporated a within‐ and between‐subjects examination of 527 employees across 3 locations of a large organization. Results showed much higher telecommuter acceptance and use of the virtual‐reality system. Strong support emerged for the hypotheses that higher social richness and higher telepresence leads to higher telecommuter motivation and higher sustained use of the system.

The Studierstube Augmented Reality Project

Our starting point for developing the Studierstube system was the belief that augmented reality, the less obtrusive cousin of virtual reality, has a better chance of becoming a viable user interface for applications requiring manipulation of complex three-dimensional information as a daily routine. In essence, we are searching for a 3-D user interface metaphor as powerful as the desktop metaphor for 2-D. At the heart of the Studierstube system, collaborative augmented reality is used to embed computer-generated images into the real work environment. In the first part of this paper, we review the user interface of the initial Studierstube system, in particular the implementation of collaborative augmented reality, and the Personal Interaction Panel, a two-handed interface for interaction with the system. In the second part, an extended Studierstube system based on a heterogeneous distributed architecture is presented. This system allows the user to combine multiple approaches— augmented reality, projection displays, and ubiquitous computing—to the interface as needed. The environment is controlled by the Personal Interaction Panel, a twohanded, pen-and-pad interface that has versatile uses for interacting with the virtual environment. Studierstube also borrows elements from the desktop, such as multitasking and multi-windowing. The resulting software architecture is a user interface management system for complex augmented reality applications. The presentation is complemented by selected application examples.