| Breaking the Copy/Paste Cycle: The Stretchable Selection Tool | | BIBAK | HTML | 3-10 | |
| Mark Apperley; Dale Fletcher; William J. Rogers | |||
| Copy and paste, or cut and paste, using a clipboard or paste buffer has long
been the principle facility provided to users for transferring data between and
within GUI applications. We argue that this mechanism can be clumsy in
circumstances where several pieces of information must be moved systematically
-- for example, extracting a predetermined set of data fields from a piece of
unstructured text. In dealing with the plethora of potentially useful, but not
appropriately structured, information on the World Wide Web, interfaces which
facilitate manual information gathering are of considerable importance. We
present an alternative, more natural, user interface facility to make the task
less onerous, and to provide improved visual feedback during the operation. We
call our facility the "Stretchable Selection Tool", a semi-transparent overlay
augmenting the mouse pointer to automate paste operations and provide
information to prompt the user. We describe a prototype implementation that
functions in a collaborative software environment, allowing users to cooperate
on multiple copy/paste operations. Keywords: Copy and Paste, Cut and Paste, Paste, Multiple Selection, Collaborative,
Transparent Overlay, Augmented Pointer | |||
| Finger Tracking for the Digital Desk | | BIBAK | HTML | 11-16 | |
| Thomas Brown; Richard C. Thomas | |||
| A trend in computing environments today is to move towards more natural
interaction, another is to make hardware invisible to the user. Both these
ideas converge into ubiquitous computing -- the Digital Desk is an example of
this idea. In this paper we concentrate on an input device for the Digital
Desk, namely the users fingertip, which is made to act like a mouse. Tracking
such an input device is common to a number of augmented reality environments
and involves vision and motion analysis. However, previous attempts have
focused more on the vision aspect of tracking general objects than on using the
information already known about the users hand, which is the approach taken
here. We adopted the goal of tracking the users fingertip as fast as possible
in real-time so the system could be compared with other input devices, using
models such as Fitts Law. Our system is shown to comply with the law
adequately. Keywords: Digital Desk, Fitts Law, augmented reality, finger tracking | |||
| Developing Adaptable User Interfaces for Component-Based Systems | | BIBAK | HTML | 17-25 | |
| John C. Grundy; John G. Hosking | |||
| Developing software components with user interfaces that can be adapted to
diverse reuse situations is challenging. Examples of such adaptations include
extending, composing and reconfiguring multiple component user interfaces, and
adapting component user interfaces to particular user preferences, roles and
subtasks. We describe our recent work in facilitating such adaptation via the
concept of user interface aspects, which facilitate effective component user
interface design and realization using an extended, component-based software
architecture. Keywords: software components, adaptable user interfaces, component-based user
interfaces, component aspects | |||
| EMCE: A Multimodal Environment Augmenting Conferencing Experiences | | BIBAK | HTML | 26-32 | |
| Arna Ionescu; Luc Julia | |||
| To illustrate research regarding how to augment people's experiences in
office meetings of different types, we have developed EMCE (Enhanced Multimodal
Conferencing Environment), a prototypic conference room. EMCE assists meeting
participants in performing a host of functions including but not limited to
passing private messages, taking electronic notes, accessing personal files,
writing both public and private annotations on projected objects, automatically
creating meeting minutes and remote conferencing. Our multimodal approach
allows people to interact with the conference room through spoken or
handwritten commands and drawn information. The room reacts in a multimedia
fashion, outputting sound, video, text, etc. To make EMCE's use as intuitive as
possible, our interface consists of a virtual view of the conference room that
users can access either with screens embedded in a conference table or on their
personal laptops. Our goal is to create an augmented environment that is as
natural and easy to use as existing, non-augmented meeting environments. Keywords: Multimodal Natural Interfaces, Augmented Mediated Spaces | |||
| Stepping into Cooperative Buildings | | BIBA | HTML | 33-40 | |
| Simon M. Kaplan; Geraldine Fitzpatrick; Michael Docherty | |||
| If we are stepping out of windows, what are we stepping into? We suggest it is into cooperative buildings. For the foreseeable future, at least, we can identify two major characteristics of the cooperative building. The spaces of the building will be augmented in various ways, providing an ambient environment that bridges spatial discontinuities in work-groups and provides a continuous window into the state of the virtual world. Secondly, the ways in which the spaces themselves are used will evolve to be more congruent with the fluid, dynamic and distributed nature of the work taking place in the building. These two characteristics are deeply interconnected. This evolution need not happen entirely in the physical world; the essence of a cooperative building will be-come the way in which it mixes both physical and virtual affordances to support the workaday activities of its inhabitants. | |||
| Applying Ecological Interface Design to Experimental Apparatus Used to Monitor a Refrigeration Plant | | BIBAK | HTML | 41-48 | |
| Pat Lehane; Mark Toleman; John Benecke | |||
| A small refrigeration plant, for teaching refrigeration theory, used a
control console built to traditional design guidelines: one output in the
display for each sensor in the plant. This style of console is notorious for
inducing high cognitive loads on operators and for displaying redundant data.
Often the high cognitive load is the result of inconsistency between the intent
for displaying the data and the format of the displayed data. An interface,
based on Ecological Interface Design Theory (EID) was designed and implemented.
The completed interface provided the operator with information commensurate
with the operator's mental model derived from the system image. During testing
of the new interface the expert operator's mental model of the refrigeration
system was modified due to improved observation of the refrigeration plant's
operational parameters. The application achieved the desired result and reduced
the operator's workload by removing a cognitive task -- determining system
stability -- from the operator's task list. Keywords: Ecological Interface Design, Mental Model, System Image, Design Model,
Cognitive Load | |||
| WAP Enabling Existing HTML Applications | | BIBAK | HTML | 49-57 | |
| Marcin Metter; Robert M. Colomb | |||
| Already existing HTML applications can be converted into WML applications
for use on WAP-enabled devices, yet this process is not as simple as the
alteration of the markup tags. This paper investigates the problems associated
with the conversion process by examining the conversion of a functional
information system that would be of benefit to its users when access from
remote locations is required. This paper details a number of problems
discovered with the conversion of complex HTML documents into simplified WML
documents. The major problems of displaying tabulated data, hyperlinks,
navigational aids, and user input are discussed, with possible solutions
presented. The paper concludes by raising the issue of 'intelligent' automated
HTML to WML conversion, a topic for future research. Keywords: WAP, HTML, WML, Internet, Human-Computer Interaction | |||
| Exploring Visualizations through Subspace Composition | | BIBAK | HTML | 58-66 | |
| Rajehndra Nagappan | |||
| This paper presents a method for exploring visualizations of complex data by
considering them as compositions of smaller, simpler, structural elements.
Subspaces of data are mapped into simple visualization constructs that each
represent a number of well-defined tasks on the data. The visualization
elements and their associations form a map that is used to assist navigation
through the data space. The approach is illustrated by a number of examples
that visualize complex data sets. Keywords: Information Visualization, Data Visualization, Data Spaces, Visualization
Algorithms | |||
| Activity Breakdowns in QuickTime Virtual Reality Environments | | BIBA | HTML | 67-72 | |
| Brian E. Norris; William B. L. Wong | |||
| Recent research into virtual environments has identified difficulties that users have in navigating and searching for objects within a QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) environment. Through the use of Activity Theory, the location and size of QTVR hotspots were identified as causing a breakdown between what the user expected to happen and what actually happened. This subsequently caused a focus shift from within the environment, out to the interface tool in order to try and overcome this breakdown. These breakdowns were the result of the environment design process. Careful planning of the environment is needed to greatly reduce these breakdowns. | |||
| Visual Gesture Interfaces for Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | HTML | 73-80 | |
| Rochelle O'Hagan; Alexander Zelinsky | |||
| Virtual environments provide a whole new way of viewing and manipulating 3D
data. Current technology moves the images out of desktop monitors and into the
space immediately surrounding the user. Users can literally put their hands on
the virtual objects. Unfortunately techniques for interacting with such
environments have yet to mature. Gloves and sensor based trackers are unwieldy,
constraining and uncomfortable to use. A natural, more intuitive method of
interaction would be to allow the user to grasp objects with their hands and
manipulate them as if they were real objects. We are investigating the use of
computer vision in implementing a natural interface based on hand gestures. A
framework for a gesture recognition system is introduced along with results of
experiments in color segmentation, feature extraction and template matching for
finger and hand tracking and hand pose recognition. Progress in the
implementation of a gesture interface for navigation and object manipulation in
virtual environments is discussed. Keywords: gesture, virtual environments, gesture interfaces, user interface | |||
| Task and Dialogue Modeling: Bridging the Divide with Lean Cuisine+ | | BIBAK | HTML | 81-87 | |
| Chris Phillips; Chris Scogings | |||
| Interactive system design requires good descriptive systems, and the
development of tools to support it. In particular, models and notations are
required for describing user tasks, and for describing the structure of the
human-computer dialogue to support these tasks. These descriptions should
ideally be linked. This paper reviews task and dialogue models, and describes
how the divide between the two can be bridged via the Lean Cuisine+ notation.
The notation is placed in a wider context by reference to the system
development life cycle and the unified modeling language (UML). Keywords: task models, dialogue models, Lean Cuisine+, UML | |||
| User Interfaces for Lightweight In-Line Editing of Web Pages | | BIBAK | HTML | 88-94 | |
| Michael J. Rees | |||
| In 1990, the earliest web browser allowed the person reading a web page to
edit and save that page-the early Web provided fully collaborative pages.
Mosaic, the browser that popularized the Web in 1993, allowed pages to be
viewed and not changed. It took several more years before fully collaborative
web pages were available once more using specialized page sharing pages and
servers. However, the user interfaces for these shared editing web page systems
are complex. When several users share the creation and editing of a web page it
is rare that each user requires full editing control over the whole page.
Rather, the page originator usually sets the basic structure for the page, and
collaborating authors fill in the detail to the structure. Synchronization and
user interface design to support such a 'fill-in' process are much simpler to
implement. This paper refers to such collaborative page construction as
lightweight in-line editing. Examples of some existing user interface designs
for lightweight in-line editing are shown and discussed. The paper concludes
with the author's own lightweight in-line editing system. Pardalote, which is
under development. The Pardalote user interface design that employs new web
page components is presented. Keywords: lightweight editing, in-line editing, user interface design, computer
supported cooperative work, web page components | |||
| The Metaphor of the Face as an Interface for Communicating Non-Quantitative Information | | BIBAK | HTML | 95-102 | |
| Simeon J. Simoff; Fay Sudweeks | |||
| In this paper we propose that a metaphor can be used to represent domains
that are not easily quantifiable. Formal representation of the metaphor then
can be used as an interface to communicate information about those domains
between the human and the computer at a cognitive and visual level. We propose
a model, which uses the metaphor of a human face as an interface data
formatting system for the perception and evaluation of universal aesthetics. Keywords: aesthetics, cognition, communication, design, human-computer interaction,
information systems, metaphor analysis, multimedia | |||
| BUS: A Browser Based User Interface Service for Web Based Applications | | BIBAK | HTML | 103-109 | |
| Michael O. Sweeney | |||
| The growing complexity of web-based applications have uncovered software
engineering problems in developing and maintaining these systems. The current
web application development and maintenance environment lacks the architectural
models that are used in the development of other systems. This paper introduces
a Browser User-interface Service (BUS) that offers an object oriented
presentation language to build custom web user interfaces that dynamically
connect to application components. The components are able to re-use HTML,
JavaScript, and stylesheet content using prototype inheritance and dynamically
bind presentation objects with data supplied in XML format. The BUS is designed
to be platform, web-server, and browser independent, and use XML messages on
TCP sockets to communicate with distributed application component processes.
The BUS is a flexible component that is intended to improve consistency and
flexibility in web interface design and application maintenance. The BUS is
also an integration component that can connect a custom user interface to
multiple distributed application components. Keywords: web application, web architecture, web engineering, user interface service,
XML, user interface language | |||
| Evaluation of Animation Effects to Improve Indirect Manipulation | | BIBAK | HTML | 110-117 | |
| Bruce H. Thomas; Victor Demczuk | |||
| This paper describes an experiment we have conducted to explore the
effectiveness of animation in improving indirect manipulation operations.
Indirect manipulation operations are those initiated by command menus and
buttons, to perform a transformation on a graphical object or set of graphical
objects. The particular improvement is an operation's ability to show both what
would happen if the operation is committed and what would happen if it were
cancelled, while an operation is being considered. The experiment required
subjects to watch a simple alignment operation for a set of graphical objects.
They were then asked to record the original placement of those graphical
objects. Each task used one of four visual cues: modified telltale, wiggle,
color, or no visual cue. We found the modified telltale, wiggle, and color
visual effects significantly more effective than no visual feedback for cuing
the user as to original position of the graphical objects. The modified
telltale and color effects were significantly more effective than the wiggle
effect. Keywords: animation, graphical interfaces, direct manipulation, indirect manipulation | |||
| Supporting Special-Purpose Health Care Models via Web Interfaces | | BIBAK | HTML | 118-125 | |
| James R. Warren; Heath K. Frankel; Joseph T. Noone; Berend-Jan van der Zwaag | |||
| The potential of the Web, via both the Internet and intranets, to facilitate
development of clinical information systems has been evident for some time.
Most Web-based clinical workstations interfaces, however, provide merely a
loose collection of access channels. There are numerous examples of systems for
access to either patient data or clinical guidelines, but only isolated cases
where clinical decision support is presented integrally with the process of
patient care, in particular, in the form of active alerts and reminders based
on patient data. Moreover, pressures in the health industry are increasing the
need for doctors to practice in accordance with "best practice" guidelines and
often to operate under novel healthcare arrangements. We present the Care Plan
On-Line (CPOL) system, which provides intranet-based support for the SA
HealthPlus Coordinated Care model for chronic disease management. We describe
the interface design rationale of CPOL and its implementation framework, which
is flexible and broadly applicable to support new health care models over
intranets or the Internet. Keywords: Decision support, intranet-based systems, on-line health, practice
guidelines | |||
| (Focus + Context)3: Distortion-Oriented Displays in Three Dimensions | | BIBAK | HTML | 126-133 | |
| Donovan Winch; Paul R. Calder; Raymond Smith | |||
| Three-dimensional datasets are becoming increasingly common, especially the
use of large 3D datasets in Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
applications. Similar problems are likely with 3D datasets as have been found
with large two-dimensional datasets; namely the loss of context when examining
a particular area of the data in detail. This paper proposes a solution based
on three-dimensional distortion-oriented displays, building on previous work on
such displays for two-dimensional datasets. Two such 3D distortion-oriented
displays are described: the 3D Cartesian Fisheye display and the 3D Polar
Fisheye display (after their two-dimensional counterparts, the Cartesian
Fisheye and Polar Fisheye displays, respectively). These displays are tested
with a very small 3D dataset as proof of concept, and it is proposed that their
operation be examined when applied to large datasets. Keywords: Distortion-oriented displays, non-linear magnification, three-dimensional
graphics, computer graphics, human-computer interaction | |||
| Question-Driven Classification of Retrieved Documents | | BIBAK | HTML | 134-140 | |
| Mingfang Wu; Ross Wilkinson; Michael Fuller | |||
| Many existing information access systems deliver ranked lists of documents
in response to users' queries. Some systems also endeavor to represent some of
the various types of relationships that can exist between documents. However,
few systems provide effective mechanisms to help users discover useful
information within the set of retrieved documents. In this paper, we present a
question-driven approach to delivering retrieved documents in an attempt to
organize them in a way closer to the user's mental representation of the
expected answer. In our purposed approach, retrieved documents are dynamically
classified into categories; an appropriate classification scheme is selected by
a user on the basis of their own understanding of the information need.
Experimental results show that users are more satisfied with such a directed
categorization than with a list of retrieved documents. Keywords: Information delivery, classification, answer organization, retrieved
documents, information need | |||
| Programming without a Computer: A New Interface for Children under Eight | | BIBAK | HTML | 141-148 | |
| Peta Wyeth; Helen C. Purchase | |||
| Electronic Blocks are a new programming interface, designed for children
aged between three and eight years. The Electronic Blocks programming
environment includes sensor blocks, action blocks and logic blocks. By
connecting these blocks children can program structures that interact with the
environment. The Electronic Block programming interface design is based on
principles of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood
education. As a result the blocks provide young children with a programming
environment that allows them to explore quite complex programming principles.
The simple syntax of the blocks provides opportunities for young children
unavailable through the use of traditional programming languages. The blocks
allow children to create and use simple code structures. The Electronic Block
environment provides a developmentally appropriate environment for planning
overall strategies for solving a problem, breaking a strategy down into
manageable units, and systematically determining the weakness of the solution.
Electronic Blocks are the physical embodiment of computer programming. They
have the unique dynamic and programmable properties of a computer minus its
complexity. Keywords: Physical Programming; Early Childhood Education; Electronic Building Blocks | |||