User's Viewpoint Research Articles

Viewport: A Distributed, Immersive Teleconferencing System with Infrared Dot Pattern

The Viewport immersive teleconferencing system reconstructs sparse 3D representations for each user and applies virtual seating to maintain the same seating geometry as face-to-face meetings. In this article, we propose a fully distributed immersive teleconferencing system that assumes there is only one user at each station during the conference. Such a system would allow users to conduct meetings in their own offices for greatest convenience. Compared with group conferencing systems, fully distributed systems let us render the light and sound fields from a single user's viewpoint at each site, which demands less of the system hardware.

Catalog Maintenance in the Discovery System: Opinions of Early Adopters

This article presents the viewpoints and comments gathered in a larger survey on cataloging maintenance and authority control activities within the framework of the discovery system. Qualtrics (an online survey and analysis product) was used. Only one survey per academic library (275) was accepted for those that have adopted one of these commercial discovery systems: AquaBrowser, EBSCO Discovery Services, Encore, Primo, Summon, and WorldCat Local. One hundred seven surveys (39 percent response rate) were usable for data manipulation. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in the proportion of libraries that felt that discovery systems expose more errors with catalog data and those that believed that the data will be buried or diminished within the larger database of the discovery system. User viewpoints were divided into categories such as authority control, quality control, the OPAC vs. the discovery system, WorldCat Local, and staffing.

미끄럼저항성능을 고려한 바닥재 시공법의 성능평가방안

현대사회는 대도시의 구조물 설계 시 협소한 공간제약을 극복하기 위해 옥상 및 지하공간을 활용하고 있으며, 이에 따라 바닥재의 시공도 증가하고 있다. 바닥재의 미끄럼저항성능은 보행자 및 운전자의 안전성 및 쾌적성 관점에서 대단히 중요한 성능임에도 불구하고, 바닥재의 미끄럼저항성능에 대한 뚜렷한 기준이 없어 개선이 되고 있지 않은 실정이다. 본 논문에서는 국토해양부의 도로안전시설 설치 및 관리지침과 서울시의 서울형 보도포장 미끄럼 저항 기준에 기초하여 미끄럼저항성능의 평가방안을 제시하였다. 세 가지의 우레탄 바닥재 시공법을 선정하여 실험적인 연구를 통해 각 바닥재의 미끄럼저항성능을 분석하고, 제시된 평가 방안에 따라 평가하였으며, VE분석을 통해 세 가지 바닥재 시공법의 성능을 종합적으로 평가함으로써 미끄럼저항성능이 우수한 바닥재가 시공될 수 있도록 독려하였다. 본 논문에서 제시된 평가방법에 따른 VE분석 결과, 미끄럼저항성능이 최대 4배 이상 향상되었던 파티클재료를 첨가한 공법이 83.86의 성능지수를 보임으로써 기타 비교안에 비해 가장 우수한 성능을 나타내었다. In modern society, rooftops and underground spaces are utilized for overcoming a confined space limitation of metropolitan areas. Therefore, floor covering construction is also increasing steadily. From the user's viewpoint, skid resistance performance of floor covering methods is a very important performance criterion for safety and amenity, but an appropriate design and assessment criteria for skid resistance performance are not available. This study presents the skid resistance performance assessment method of floor covering methods considering the sidewalk skid resistance standard of Seoul city and the guideline of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs(MLTM) of Korea for road safety facilities'installation and maintenance. For this research, three alternatives among urethane floor covering methods are selected and their skid resistance performance is analyzed through an experimental study. The analyzed performance is also evaluated by the skid resistance performance assessment method. Finally, the comprehensive performance assessment including the results of skid resistance performance assessment is conducted by Value Analysis(VA) in order to encourage the construction methods of floor covering which have a high skid resistance performance. As a result of VA, the particle method which the skid resistance performance is improved up to four times more than other alternatives shows the highest performance index of 83.86.

입자개념계층구조를 기반으로 하는 데이터 분석 기법

본 논문에서는 형식개념분석기법에 입자의 정밀도를 조절하기 위해 스케일링 정도(Scaling level)를 도입하여 다양한 관점과 추상화 수준을 토대로 데이터를 분류하는 새로운 기법을 제안하였다. 이 기법의 특징은 주어진 데이터를 다양한 기준에 맞춰서 입자화하고, 입자들 사이에 관계를 토대로 분석하여, 입자개념계층구조(Granular Concept Hierarchy)를 구축함으로써, 데이터를 분석하고자 하는 사용자의 의도 또는 목적에 맞추어서 다양한 분류가 가능하다는 것이다. 또한, 본 연구에서 제안한 기법을 지원하는 도구(G-Tool)를 개발하였으며, 본 연구에서 제안한 기법의 유용성을 검토하기위해 실제 데이터를 대상으로 G-Tool을 사용하여 실험을 실시하였으며, 그 결과 사용자의 목적에 맞는 다양한 형태로 데이터를 분류할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 기존의 형식개념분석기법에는 입자의 정밀도를 조절할 수 없어서 특정한 어느 한 관점에 대한 분류만 가능하였으나, 본 연구에서 제안한 기법은 사용자의 의도 또는 목적에 맞추어서 다양한 종류의 스케일 정보를 조합하고 스케일링 정도를 조절함으로써 다양한 관점을 반영한 다양한 분류가 가능하다. In this paper, we propose a novel data analysis approach that extracts granules suitable for various perspectives by introducing scaling level into formal concept analysis in order to control the level of granularity. Based on our approach, we can extract various granules from the given data set and constructs granular concept hierarchies based on the relations between the granules. Therefore, we can classify the given data with respect to the purpose or the intention of user's viewpoints. And, we developed G-Tool that supports our approach. In order to verify the usefulness of our proposed approach and G-Tool, we have done some experiments for real data set and reported about results of our experiments. From the experiments' results, we can verify our approach with G-Tool can be useful and suitable for classifying the given data with various scaling levels. The traditional formal concept analysis cannot control the level of granularity and can only classify for a particular perspective. However, our proposed approach can classify the given data with respect to user's purpose or intention by combining of diverse scale information and scaling levels.

자산관리관점에서 터널시설물의 서비스 수준 평가항목에 관한 연구

한국은 경제 부흥을 꾀하기 위해 1980년대 말부터 도로시설물 건설을 확대해 왔다. 그 결과, 2010년 이후부터는 시설물의 보수, 보강 수요가 급증할 것으로 예측된다. 따라서 제한된 예산을 가지고 사용자의 만족도를 높이면서 시설물의 관리 기술을 혁신하기 위해 자산관리정보시스템을 연구하고 있다. 본 연구는 터널시설물의 유지관리를 대상으로 서비스 수준을 평가하는 항목을 제시하는 내용으로서, 이를 위해 사용자와 관리자를 구분하여 평가항목의 중요도에 대해서 설문조사를 실시하였다. 설문조사 결과를 토대로 Satty가 제시한 AHP(Analytical Hierarchy Process) 기법을 사용하여 평가항목들의 상대적 중요도를 파악하였다. 사용자관점에서의 중요도는 안정성-이동성-접근성-편리성-관리 효율성-쾌적성-지역 활성화-환경성-정보성 순서로 파악되었다. 또한 관리자관점에서의 중요도는 안정성-이동성-접근성-환경성-지역 활성화-편리성-관리 효율성-정보성-쾌적성 순서로 파악되었다. 이는 도로가 갖는 가장 기본적인 기능인 이동성보다 터널시설물의 안전성에 대한 관심이 더 높다는 것을 의미한다. 따라서 터널시설물의 유지관리 투자계획을 수립할 때 안전성을 확보할 수 있도록 보다 많은 관심과 노력을 기울려야 할 것으로 사료된다. Korea was followed by a rapid increase in road construction investment in late 1980s with the help of strong economic conditions. As a result of such investment, it will be expected that there must be a rapid increase in demand for maintenance or rehabilitation of the facilities after 2010. We are developing asset management information systems for enhancing user's satisfaction and innovating the facility management techniques within a limited budget. We suggested the assessment items for the Level of Service for tunnel facility's operation and maintenance(O&M), in this study. We have surveyed for the importance of assessment items by considering both user's viewpoints and facility management agency's viewpoints. We came to realize the relative importance of the items based on this survey using the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) method proposed by Satty. The relative importance of assessment items in terms of the user's viewpoint was identified in descending order such as safety, mobility, accessibility, convenience, O&M efficiency, comfort, rural revitalization, environment, and information. Also, the importance of the items in terms of the management agency's viewpoint was identified in descending order such as safety, mobility, accessibility, environment, rural revitalization, convenience, O&M efficiency, information, and comfort. It means that safety of tunnel facilities is more important than mobility, although which is the basic function of the road facility, both in agency's and user's concern. Therefore, the agencies have to pay more attentions and efforts to ensure safety of tunnel facilities when they establish the investment plans for the tunnel facility O&M.

A cost-effective system design approach for vehicle positioning using GNSS/INS integration

This paper presents a system design approach for vehicle positioning systems. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and inertial sensors are major positioning measurements used in this approach. A number of phases are designed in this approach including: system architecture design using an estimator, GNSS error modeling, estimator low level design, simulation and experiment design, frequency domain simulation, time domain experiment, sensor selection and deployment decision making. This approach enables to model GNSS errors from end user’s view point, and choose low cost inertial sensors to meet positioning system requirements using a new sensor selection criterion.

A Classification Method of Open-ended Questionnaire Using Category-based Dictionary from Sampled Documents

This paper addresses a classification method of open-ended questionnaire using category-based dictionary from categorized samples. Different from generally-used document classification methods, our proposed method here introduces a new category-based dictionary which is generated from a small set of categorized samples, because the purpose of analysis is to have meaningful results along with a user's viewpoints in a sense. This category-based dictionary is used to judge a category as to a questionnaire with tf-idf (term frequency inverted document frequency) and co_tf-idf (co-occurrence tf-idf). We show the effectiveness in applying our proposed method to questionnaires about an university lecture.

Conceptual design pattern for ergonomic workplaces

In this paper, we analyzed two laboratories of liquid chromatography (LC), separation technique of mixtures and identification of its components, in order to identify projectual gaps relating to the environment and the working station. The methodology used was the ergonomic analysis with interactional and participatory techniques applied during the activity performance. This work incorporated and adapted the concept developed by Alexander (1979)--pattern languages--passing from architectural projects to workstations project and physical arrangement of the work environment. The adaptation of the concept resulted in a list of recommendations, requirements and concepts that have brought design solutions for the problematic aspects observed in the ergonomic analysis. The employed methodology, strongly supported in ergonomics principles, and in interactional and participatory techniques, contributed to achieve our gold that is what we now call Conceptual Standards. The patterns go beyond of a usual model of book a of ergonomics specification, once incorporating the viewpoint of the end user, it is also a set of best project practices and of project management in conception ergonomics.

Implementing a genomic data management system using iRODS in the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

BackgroundIncreasingly large amounts of DNA sequencing data are being generated within the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI). The traditional file system struggles to handle these increasing amounts of sequence data. A good data management system therefore needs to be implemented and integrated into the current WTSI infrastructure. Such a system enables good management of the IT infrastructure of the sequencing pipeline and allows biologists to track their data.ResultsWe have chosen a data grid system, iRODS (Rule-Oriented Data management systems), to act as the data management system for the WTSI. iRODS provides a rule-based system management approach which makes data replication much easier and provides extra data protection. Unlike the metadata provided by traditional file systems, the metadata system of iRODS is comprehensive and allows users to customize their own application level metadata. Users and IT experts in the WTSI can then query the metadata to find and track data.The aim of this paper is to describe how we designed and used (from both system and user viewpoints) iRODS as a data management system. Details are given about the problems faced and the solutions found when iRODS was implemented. A simple use case describing how users within the WTSI use iRODS is also introduced.ConclusionsiRODS has been implemented and works as the production system for the sequencing pipeline of the WTSI. Both biologists and IT experts can now track and manage data, which could not previously be achieved. This novel approach allows biologists to define their own metadata and query the genomic data using those metadata.

Real-time and accurate extrinsic camera parameter estimation using feature landmark database for augmented reality

In the field of augmented reality (AR), many kinds of vision-based extrinsic camera parameter estimation methods have been proposed to achieve geometric registration between real and virtual worlds. Previously, a feature landmark-based camera parameter estimation method was proposed. This is an effective method for implementing outdoor AR applications because a feature landmark database can be automatically constructed using the structure-from-motion (SfM) technique. However, the previous method cannot work in real time because it entails a high computational cost or matching landmarks in a database with image features in an input image. In addition, the accuracy of estimated camera parameters is insufficient for applications that need to overlay CG objects at a position close to the user's viewpoint. This is because it is difficult to compensate for visual pattern change of close landmarks when only the sparse depth information obtained by the SfM is available. In this paper, we achieve fast and accurate feature landmark-based camera parameter estimation by adopting the following approaches. First, the number of matching candidates is reduced to achieve fast camera parameter estimation by tentative camera parameter estimation and by assigning priorities to landmarks. Second, image templates of landmarks are adequately compensated for by considering the local 3-D structure of a landmark using the dense depth information obtained by a laser range sensor. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we developed some AR applications using the proposed method.

A Wide-View Parallax-Free Eye-Mark Recorder with a Hyperboloidal Half-Silvered Mirror and Appearance-Based Gaze Estimation

In this paper, we propose a wide-view parallax-free eye-mark recorder with a hyperboloidal half-silvered mirror and a gaze estimation method suitable for the device. Our eye-mark recorder provides a wide field-of-view video recording of the user's exact view by positioning the focal point of the mirror at the user's viewpoint. The vertical angle of view of the prototype is 122 degree (elevation and depression angles are 38 and 84 degree, respectively) and its horizontal view angle is 116 degree (nasal and temporal view angles are 38 and 78 degree, respectively). We implemented and evaluated a gaze estimation method for our eye-mark recorder. We use an appearance-based approach for our eye-mark recorder to support a wide field-of-view. We apply principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA) to determine the relationship between the captured images and their corresponding gaze points. Experimental results verify that our eye-mark recorder successfully captures a wide field-of-view of a user and estimates gaze direction with an angular accuracy of around 2 to 4 degree.

The Role of Accounting Information in Financial Performance Measurements from External User's Viewpoint

The paper concerns measuring and reporting of financial performance of an enterprise from external user's point of view. Basic approach of the paper is the analysis of the Income Statement as amended by US GAAP. If it is appropriate wording of US GAAP is enriched by requirement of IAS/IFRS. The paper comes from following premise: Advanced accounting systems of the world could be rich sources of inspiration that would help to improve the Czech accounting legislation, the Czech accounting standards and their interpretations. Where it is appropriate the paper also brings inspiration for solving partial inconsistencies between IAS / IFRS and US GAAP. It gives some recommendations for continuing the harmonization process of both accounting systems in the field of measuring and reporting of financial performance.

GREGOR solar telescope: Design and status

AbstractThe integration and verification phase of the GREGOR telescope reached an important milestone with the installation of the interim 1 m SolarLite primary mirror. This was the first time that the entire light path had seen sunlight. Since then extensive testing of the telescope and its subsystems has been carried out. The integration and verification phase will culminate with the delivery and installation of the final 1.5 m Zerodur primary mirror in the summer of 2010. Observatory level tests and science verification will commence in the second half of 2010 and in 2011. This phase includes testing of the main optics, adaptive optics, cooling and pointing systems. In addition, assuming the viewpoint of a typical user, various observational modes of the GREGOR Fabry‐Pérot Interferometer (GFPI), the Grating Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS), and high‐speed camera systems will be tested to evaluate if they match the expectations and science requirements. This ensures that GREGOR will provide high‐quality observations with its combination of (multi‐conjugate) adaptive optics and advanced post‐focus instruments. Routine observations are expected for 2012 (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The Tendency of Pesticide Development from the Viewpoint of End User (1)

The Tendency of Pesticide Development from the Viewpoint of End User (1)

The Tendency of Pesticide Development from the Viewpoint of End User (2)

The Tendency of Pesticide Development from the Viewpoint of End User (2)

User participation in software development projects

Introduction It is commonly acknowledged that success in IT projects is difficult to achieve. A recent industry survey observed that only 34% of IT projects were considered successful. Of the several potential factors contributing to this hard-to-achieve success, user involvement was noted as the most important one. Consistent with this notion, both researchers and practitioners have viewed user participation as an important way of improving software quality and increasing user satisfaction and acceptance. Users/customers are often encouraged to participate and directly communicate with developers in the software development process. On the other hand, empirical evidence shows that user participation in the development process can negatively influence project performance since it could make the process more difficult, lengthy, and less effective. Such contradictory findings raise the question of when user participation is actually helpful and when it might negatively impact project performance. Previous research tells only one side of the story since it has examined user participation or project performance by focusing primarily on user viewpoints. The findings give an incomplete picture since they have not thoroughly addressed developer viewpoints. Clearly, there is a need to investigate software project success from the perspective of developers given that not only are they at the core of development process but they also represent the largest single cost in software development. Developer satisfaction is imperative for systems development success. Dissatisfied developers would adversely affect the quality of software as well as the productivity of development teams. A high rate of developer turnover in projects (due to dissatisfaction) could lead to increasing costs for development firms as well as high user/customer dissatisfaction. Due to the differences in background and circumstance, developers and users often share different and sometimes conflicting interests during software development. Researchers have identified a large gap in perceptions and definitions of project success between developers and the software industry (for example, users/customers). For example, developers tend to be achievement-oriented and are intrinsically motivated to develop excellent software, while users/ customers emphasis more on meeting a schedule or maintaining a budget. Thus, the potential conflicting interests between users and developers might negatively affect the software development performance. This article addresses the question of the relative effectiveness of user participation by empirically examining the perceived software project performance (for example, satisfaction) from both user and developer perspectives simultaneously. We used survey data from 117 software development projects and 746 respondents at a large Fortune 100 manufacturing firm during a four-year time period to investigate the impact of user participation on the satisfaction of both developers and users. Our findings offer insights into the impact of user participation on generating higher levels of developer and user satisfaction and, at the same time, minimizing the perception gap between users and developers on project performance. In addition, we also study the role of software complexity (for example, whether projects involve new software development as opposed to maintenance of existing software) in user participation and its effect on satisfaction. Questionnaire data was collected from 453 software developers and 293 users/customers working on 117 software projects (for details of the data collection process, see the sidebar "How the Survey was Conducted"). The average number of developer survey respondents per project (for example, team) was four and the average number of user/customer respondents per project was three. Our analysis was performed at project level, and satisfaction scores for developers and users were averaged for each project. Of the 117 software development projects, 45 (39% of our sample) were maintenance projects and 72 (61%) were new development projects. The average software development time of the 117 software projects was 126 days. Figure 1 outlines the project characteristics in our sample. The most common business domain for our software projects was the manufacturing and supply chain (41 projects, 35%) and most of the projects were Web-based applications (78 projects, 66%).

A method for the evaluation of meaning structures and its application in conceptual design

In this paper, we discuss the relations between the viewpoints of users and designers. The main issue in design is that the user's and designer's viewpoints do not integrate well. In this study, we integrate the user's viewpoint into our new proposed design methodology by applying a meaning-based framework in conceptual design. This methodology introduces a user-derived evaluation of 'structure of meaning elements' (SoME) as part of the user's viewpoint into the particular design phase. Furthermore, we test the proposed design methodology in a case study. The results outline the feasibility of the framework. This study reveals details of how concepts are formed in design and how concept formation can be achieved using design methodology. The significance of this study for science and practical application lies in the proposed integration of the user-derived evaluation of SoME as a step in the design methodology.

Handling Occlusions for Robust Augmented Reality Systems

In Augmented Reality applications, the human perception is enhanced with computer-generated graphics. These graphics must be exactly registered to real objects in the scene and this requires an effective Augmented Reality system to track the user's viewpoint. In this paper, a robust tracking algorithm based on coded fiducials is presented. Square targets are identified and pose parameters are computed using a hybrid approach based on a direct method combined with the Kalman filter. An important factor for providing a robust Augmented Reality system is the correct handling of targets occlusions by real scene elements. To overcome tracking failure due to occlusions, we extend our method using an optical flow approach to track visible points and maintain virtual graphics overlaying when targets are not identified. Our proposed real-time algorithm is tested with different camera viewpoints under various image conditions and shows to be accurate and robust.

鉄道駅券売機の利用者視点からの使いやすさの考察 - 高齢者・若者比較から見る画面表示の評価-

鉄道駅券売機の利用者視点からの使いやすさの考察 - 高齢者・若者比較から見る画面表示の評価-

An intelligent remote controller for Free-Viewpoint TV

One of the merits of Free-Viewpoint TV (FTV) is to generate a scene according to the user's viewpoint. In order to generate a scene according to the user's requirements, a position in 3D space has to be defined as the viewpoint. To achieve this, we present an intelligent remote controller that locate a focus of attention for the generation of candidate viewpoints based on the theory of human visual attention. It enables a viewer to change his viewpoints with easy by providing some candidate viewpoints automatically, and also prevents the viewer from disorientation caused occasionally from 3D space navigation.