Support User Interaction Research Articles

Development of XML-based tools to support user interaction with algorithm visualization

As a report of a working group at ITiCSE 2005, this paper represents a vision of the use of XML specifications and tools in algorithm visualization, particularly with regard to supporting user interaction. A detailed description is given of how an interesting event to be visualized is decomposed, combined with interactive questions, narratives, control flow code and metadata, and finally rendered into graphical primitive and transformation specifications. The heart of the paper is our discussion of XML specifications for content generation (the object being visualized), interactive questions, and graphical primitives and transformations, with briefer discussions of narratives and metadata. Examples are provided for each in an appendix, with fuller details to be published on an associated website that we hope will become a source of future standards in this area. In conclusion, the approach of the working group is discussed, and important remaining challenges are identified.

Public participation in a spatial decision support system for public housing

This paper reports the development of a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) that is currently in the early stages of implementation and testing. The project is a joint undertaking between the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the NSW Department of Housing (DoH). It features a robust, non-proprietary data structure incorporating 3D spatial models, use of VRML/X3D for graphics modelling and incorporating XML based data and customised tools to support effective web-based user interaction. Although the broader project aims to develop an SDSS that supports all aspects of the management of public housing for a governmental authority, this paper focuses specifically on a module to support public participation through the capture of community feedback and other input. The paper begins with an outline of the immediate context of this work, both in terms of the local community being used as the test bed for this implementation as well as comparing this work to similar undertakings in other places. It goes on to describe the unique approach taken in this project toward the structuring of the geo-spatial data that lies at the heart of the system and the tools developed to support user interaction and community participation. The paper concludes with a discussion of on-going issues encountered during the development and implementation of this system, and proposals for future developments. This paper is an extension of the work presented at the 24th Urban Data Management Symposium, in Chioggia, October 2004.

MADAMS: A software architecture for the management of networked measurement services

MADAMS (Management Architecture for Distributed meAsureMent Services) is a novel service-based software framework designed for publishing, retrieving, configuring, setting up, monitoring and executing distributed measurement services over the Internet. The basic building block is the measurement service, i.e. a software object properly configured and made remote accessible across a network. A measurement service corresponds either to a single (virtual or physical) instrument, or to a collection of measurement services abstracting a test method. Service attributes include the graphical interface which supports user interactions. MADAMS is especially tuned to: (i) defining a common way to manage and use distributed measurement services, (ii) introducing a data-exchange layer for inter-instrument communications, (iii) exploiting a design pattern which separates definition of service functionalities from distribution concerns. This paper introduces MADAMS, outlines its current implementation which depends on Java/Jini, and shows its application to a demand monitoring–control measurement system.

MCVEs: Using Cross-Scale Collaboration to Support User Interaction with Multiscale Structures

In this paper, a new type of interaction environment, the multiscale collaborative virtual environment (mCVE), is proposed to support multiple users working together at different scale levels. This paper introduces the concept of multiscale collaboration in the context of 3D virtual environments and describes the benefits of multiscale collaboration for understanding and managing large structures that present important features at different scale levels. After a discussion on the design and implementation of multiscale tools to support the visualization of structures, cross-scale information sharing, and cross-scale action, the paper presents an experimental study showing that cross-scale collaboration can improve user performance.

IMMS: Interactive multimedia messaging service

Multimedia messaging service (MMS) promises a dramatic increase in messaging capabilities for mobile phone users that will enrich their experience. For network operators and content and service providers, it will create a major new source of revenue because it adds features such as color pictures, animations, audio samples, and video clips. However, the current MMS standard provides only a few features that support user interaction, limiting the wide use of value-added messaging services. In this paper, we propose interactive MMS (iMMS) technology that can extend the current MMS standard and enhance interaction capability by embedding eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) technology into MMS Presentation Language. Moreover, an MMS application server (MAS) is presented in our research work. This framework can help service providers to quickly develop and deploy MMS services. We have implemented and tested a prototype that includes an interactive MMS client on a handheld device and an MAS on a Microsoft Windows® 2000 server.

Design, specification, and verification of interactive systems

More and more software applications are being developed to allow users to access data and communicate information. The parts of such applications dedicated to supporting user interactions is increasingly important and requires novel methods and techniques to develop effective user interfaces. DSV-IS'2000 provided experts from many countries of the world with the unique opportunity to meet and discuss the current state of art and new research results in this area.

Interactive brain atlas with the Visible Human Project data: development methods and techniques.

A prototype of an interactive digital brain atlas was developed by using the Visible Human Project data set of the National Library of Medicine. This data set provides corresponding axial magnetic resonance images, computed tomographic images, and cryosections of the brain. The prototype was developed to demonstrate the techniques and methods that will be used throughout the development process of the atlas. The atlas has a graphical user interface, supports user interaction with various representations of the brain (i.e., two-dimensional and three-dimensional [3D]), and displays multiple images simultaneously. Motion sequences of the 3D brain were incorporated in the atlas to provide an important link between two-dimensional brain slices and volume-rendered 3D anatomic structures. Volume visualization tools were used to interactively render, rotate, and reslice the volumetric brain data. The brain was segmented with manual tracing, thresholding, and morphologic algorithms and then rendered with volume-rendering tools.

Autonomous and Teleoperated Control of the AURORA Mobile Robot

This paper presents the main components of a control architecture that allows both autonomous and teleoperated navigation in agricultural and industrial environments with high obstacle density. They support user interaction, task execution, navigation, and feedback control. The architecture combines parallel behavior control concepts with hierarchical organization. Moreover, the architecture allows multilevel remote operator intervention for monitoring and control. The paper emphasizes the components (sensors and controllers) to implement motion and feedback control, as well as the teleoperation station integration. The control architecture has been implemented to control the AURORA mobile robot. The efficiency and robustness of the components have been tested in the experiments with this mobile robot. The paper includes a description of an autonomous navigation experiment.

Collaborative working systems to support user interaction within a Virtual Science Park

The paper reports on the progress at Leeds University to build a Virtual Science Park (VSP) to enhance the University's ability to interact with industry, enhance its applied research and deliver workplace learning activities. The VSP exploits the ad

ES ∗: An expert systems development planner using a constraint and rule-based approach

Numerous expert systems (ES) applications have been developed in the field, yet at this time no systematic, computerized tool for ES development planning exists. In this article, we present an ES development planner that adopts the constraint and rule satisfaction problems framework. We represent knowledge concerning ES development planning with objects, constraints, and rules under multiple objectives. We also present a unified reasoning process to obtain a consistent ES development plan, which has the following features: (1) supporting user interaction to reflect user intention about the problem situation and to resolve conflicts between objectives; (2) concurrent reasoning with multiple starting points to enhance the search efficiency; and (3) integrated reasoning encompassing the backward chaining popularly used in the rule-based systems and constraint propagation methods developed for constraint satisfaction problems. A prototype system ES ∗ is developed using the tool UNIK and LISP language on a SUN 4 SPARC workstation, and an application on tax advisory expert system development planning is illustrated.

Temporal synchronization support for distributed multimedia information systems

In distributed interactive multimedia information systems (DMIS), information of multiple media types is involved in an application. Information in these different media types is related and has to be presented in a specified order. To achieve this, a synchronization scheme is required to orchestrate the presentation of these media. There are four media synchronization requirements in DMIS: (1) to provide a means for users to specify media relationships expressively; (2) to ensure a smooth playback of the continuous media; (3) to ensure intermedia synchronization by overcoming the stochastic network access delay and host processing delay through proper transmission scheduling and buffer management; and (4) to support user interactions and to provide anomaly synchronization. This paper presents a synchronization scheme that can meet these requirements. In the scheme, media relationships are specified using an expressive script language that is being developed. A presentation schedule can then be generated from the script specifications. The presentation schedule is maintained by controlling the request times of data transfer for different media streams and by providing suitable buffers at the receiver. The main feature of the proposed scheme is that it can be used in general DMISs where the inter-media relationships are complex and the media data is stored in more than one server in the network. The scheme has been tested on an Ethernet-Unix platform and has proved to be reliable.

BRAQUE: Design of an interface to support user interaction in information retrieval

We suggest that information retrieval is most appropriately considered as an inherently interactive process, and describe the design of an interface to a bibliographic information retrieval system that supports user interaction in an integrated fashion. A significant aspect of the interface design is its dependence upon a two-level hypertext model of information retrieval system databases, and the seamless support of a variety of information seeking strategies through the use of this model, and of a model of dimensions of information seeking behaviors.

A descriptive/prescriptive model for menu-based interaction

As software systems continue to increase in sophistication and complexity, so do the interface requirements that support user interaction. To select the proper blend of ingredients that constitutes an adequate user interface, it is essential that the system designer have a firm understanding of the interaction process, i.e, how the selected dialogue format interacts with the user and with the underlying task software. One major approach to understanding the software design process and improving the quality of a product is through the use of models. The application of models to user/system interaction can provide the crucial feedback and innovative insights for designing and developing exemplary interactive systems. In this paper, we present one such model that describes as well as prescribes the critical elements for menu-based interaction and their interface dependencies. The model structure provides the flexibility for characterizing menu-based interactions that vary in levels of sophistication, and include 1) computational and decision capabilities based on task oriented actions, 2) user response reversal for error recovery, and 3) user directed movement. Finally, to illustrate the intrinsic power of our model, we present a descriptive narrative of two prominent menu-driven systems, Smalltalk and Zog, followed by a discussion of the model''s prescriptive influence on the design and development of a third menu-based system, Omni.