| Soft tissue deformation with reaction-diffusion process for surgery simulation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-12 | |
| Yongmin Zhong; Bijan Shirinzadeh; Julian Smith; Chengfan Gu | |||
| This paper presents a new methodology to conduct modelling and analysis of
soft tissue deformation from the physicochemical viewpoint of soft tissues for
surgery simulation. The novelty of this methodology is that soft tissue
deformation is converted into a reaction-diffusion process coupled with a
mechanical load, and thus reaction-diffusion of mechanical load and non-rigid
mechanics of motion are combined to govern the dynamics of soft tissue
deformation. The mechanical load applied to a soft tissue to cause a
deformation is incorporated into the reaction-diffusion system and consequently
distributed among mass points of the soft tissue. An improved
reaction-diffusion model is developed to describe the distribution of the
mechanical load in the tissue. A generic finite difference scheme is presented
for construction of the reaction-diffusion model on a 3D tissue surface. A
gradient method is established for derivation of internal forces from the
distribution of the mechanical load. Real-time interactive deformation of
virtual human organs with haptic feedback has been achieved by the proposed
methodology for surgery simulation. The proposed methodology not only
accommodates isotropic, anisotropic and inhomogeneous materials by simply
modifying diffusion coefficients, but also accepts local and large-range
deformations simultaneously. Keywords: Soft tissue deformation; Surgery simulation; Reaction-diffusion process and haptic feedback | |||
| User-centric adaptation of Web information for small screens | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 13-28 | |
| Hamed Ahmadi; Jun Kong | |||
| A global increase in PDA and cell phone ownership and a rise in the use of
wireless services lead mobile browsing to become an important means of Internet
access. However, mobile devices have a small screen, which limits the usability
of mobile browsing. This paper presents a novel method that automatically
adapts a desktop presentation to a mobile presentation, proceeding in two
steps: detecting boundaries among different information blocks (i.e., page
segmentation) and then generating a user preferred adaptive layout. Distinct
from other approaches, our approach analyzes both the DOM structure and the
visual layout to detect closely related contents. In the process of page
segmentation, our approach first divides a Web page into several common areas
(such as top, bottom, and main content), and then further identifies different
topics in the main content based on the visual and structural analysis. The
page segmentation produces a block tree, which represents the information
organization underlying a Web page. Based on the block tree, an adaptive
layout, which places closely related information in proximity and minimizes
scrolling, is automatically generated. All current approaches support only one
fixed style (e.g., a narrow-page style) to render an adaptive layout for a
diverse range of users, Websites, and devices. This "one size fits all"
strategy could not offer universal usability. Our approach supports a user to
flexibly specify the style of an adaptive layout according to his/her personal
preferences. The theoretical foundation of such a user-centric adaptive layout
is a feature space, which specifies an adaptive layout from different aspects,
such as the location and presentation of navigation options. A user can
visually manipulate those features to create a personalized style in a
graphical user interface, and then an adaptive layout consistent with the
personalized style is automatically generated. The user study based on a
prototype shows the usability and efficiency of mobile browsing are
significantly improved. Keywords: Adaptive layouts; Mobile browsing; Presentation adaptation | |||
| A new force-directed graph drawing method based on edge-edge repulsion | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 29-42 | |
| Chun-Cheng Lin; Hsu-Chun Yen | |||
| The conventional force-directed methods for drawing undirected graphs are
based on either vertex-vertex repulsion or vertex-edge repulsion. In this
paper, we propose a new force-directed method based on edge-edge repulsion to
draw graphs. In our framework, edges are modelled as charged springs, and a
final drawing can be generated by adjusting positions of vertices according to
spring forces and the repulsive forces, derived from potential fields, among
edges. Different from the previous methods, our new framework has the advantage
of overcoming the problem of zero angular resolution, guaranteeing the absence
of any overlapping of edges incident to the common vertex. Given graph layouts
probably generated by previous algorithms as the inputs to our algorithm,
experimental results reveal that our approach produces promising drawings not
only preserving the original properties of a high degree of symmetry and
uniform edge length, but also preventing zero angular resolution and usually
having larger average angular resolution. However, it should be noted that
exhibiting a higher degree of symmetry and larger average angular resolution
does not come without a price, as the new approach might result in the increase
in undesirable overlapping of vertices as some of our experimental results
indicate. To ease the problem of node overlapping, we also consider a hybrid
approach which takes into account both edge-edge and vertex-vertex repulsive
forces in drawing a graph. Keywords: Force-directed method; Potential field; Angular resolution | |||
| Foreword | | BIB | Full-Text | 45-46 | |
| A meta-design approach to the development of e-government services | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 47-62 | |
| Daniela Fogli; Loredana Parasiliti Provenza | |||
| This paper describes a meta-design approach to the development of online
services for citizens of a government agency. The goal is to transfer the
development of government-to-citizen services from professional software
developers to administrative employees, without forcing employees to acquire
any programming skills. The approach encompasses two main phases. The first
phase analyzes the different perspectives of the stakeholders involved in
service creation and usage -- employees, citizens, software developers and
human-computer interaction specialists -- in order to derive a meta-model of
e-government services. The latter applies the meta-model to design and develop
an end-user development environment that properly supports employees in
creating an instance of the service meta-model, which is then automatically
interpreted to generate the service pages for citizens. A pilot application of
the proposed approach is illustrated with reference to a specific class of
e-government services offered by the Brescia Municipality, even though the
approach is general enough to be applied to different kinds of e-government
services and application domains. The results of the evaluation with a group of
municipality employees provide initial feedback from the government field and
show how to proceed along this research direction. Keywords: End-user development; Meta-design; e-government; Interaction design | |||
| From real to metaphoric maps: Cartography as a visual language for organizing and sharing knowledge | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 63-77 | |
| Augusto Celentano; Fabio Pittarello | |||
| In this paper we discuss about geographic representations as a basis for
describing, organizing, accessing and understanding heterogeneous shared
information on the web. Maps are popular on the web, because of the reference
to space, the most important domain of human experience, the proliferation of
location aware devices and services and the availability of a set of tools that
enable an heterogeneous population of users to explore and even modify these
representations.
Metaphorical maps, representing concepts and relations of a specific knowledge domain with symbols taken from another well known and widely used domain, couple the benefits of cartographic representation with the power and intuitiveness of the metaphor, permitting the communication and sharing of such knowledge. We introduce a classification of maps based on antinomies between real and imaginary worlds, and between direct and metaphoric knowledge; we argue that cartography can be used as a visual language for organizing and sharing knowledge related to different semantic domains, supporting our arguments with examples. Finally, we define a set of functions and related data structures able to support a user in browsing cartographic representations using state-of-art tools and systems available on the web. Keywords: Geographic web; Knowledge representation; Map; Metaphor; Navigation | |||
| End users as co-designers of their own tools and products | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 78-90 | |
| Carmelo Ardito; Paolo Buono; Maria Francesca Costabile; Rosa Lanzilotti; Antonio Piccinno | |||
| In our Age of exponential technological advance, recent developments are
determining an evolution of end users from passive information consumers into
information producers. Users are increasingly willing and, indeed, determined
to shape the software they use to tailor it to their own needs. Based on a
brief review of research activities we performed in the last decade, this paper
analyzes some challenges that software designers face to comply with the new
roles of end users in the software life cycle, and discusses how to provide end
users with software environments that empower them to become co-designers of
their own tools and products. The examples reported in the paper show why and
how end users are involved in design activities in various application domains. Keywords: End-user development; Meta-design; Design model | |||
| Spatial and temporal aspects in visual interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 91-102 | |
| Paolo Bottoni; Anna Labella; Stefano Kasangian | |||
| The formal modeling of visual interaction processes, where images are
composed by placing elementary pictures on a rectangular space, has to take
into account both temporal and spatial aspects. Time is relevant in that some
moves are enabled or disabled by previous ones, while for the spatial aspect
one can impose constraints on the positions which can be occupied by certain
pictures. Interaction can then be seen as a sort of visual game, in which
players have to synchronise their moves in order to make the interaction
progress. However, due to this dual nature, traditional models of concurrent
computation are not sufficient to give reason of specific types of
non-determinism encountered in visual interaction processes. We propose a
characterisation of visual interaction in terms of games, and show that the
algebraic structure derived from the association of temporal and spatial
structures is canonically associated with a system of logics, in which the
limitations on the possible inferences imposed by this type of non-determinism
can be adequately expressed. Moreover, the logics can be naturally extended by
the introduction of operators which simultaneously model both temporal and
modal qualifications of formulae. In particular, it becomes possible to give a
formal account of the "surprises" experienced by users in visual interaction
processes or, equivalently, by players of visual games. Keywords: Visual interaction; Logics; Visual games | |||
| Participatory knowledge-management design: A semiotic approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 103-115 | |
| Stefano Valtolina; Barbara Rita Barricelli; Yvonne Dittrich | |||
| The aim of this paper is to present a design strategy for collaborative
knowledge-management systems based on a semiotic approach. The contents and
structure of experts' knowledge is highly dependent on professional or
individual practice. Knowledge-management systems that support cooperation
between experts from different (sub-)fields need to be situated and tailored to
provide effective support even if the common aspects of the data need to be
described by ontologies that are generic in respect to the sub-disciplines
involved. To understand and approach this design problem, we apply a semiotic
perspective to computer application and human-computer interaction. From a
semiotic perspective, the computer application is both a message from the
designer to the user about the structure of the problem domain, as well as
about interaction with it, and a structured channel for the user's
communication with herself, himself or other users of the software. Tailoring
or "end-user development" -- i.e. adapting the knowledge-management system to a
specific (sub-)discipline, task or context -- then refines both the message and
adapts the structure of the interaction to the situated requirements.
The essential idea of this paper is to define a new perspective for designing and developing interactive systems to support collaborative knowledge management. The key concept is to involve domain experts in participatory knowledge design for mapping and translating their professional models into the proper vocabularies, notations, and suitable visual structures for navigating among interface elements. To this end, the paper describes how our semiotic approach supports processes for representing, storing, accessing, and transferring knowledge through which the information architecture of an interactive system can be defined. Finally, the results of applying our approach to a real-world case in an archaeological context are presented. Keywords: Knowledge-management; Computer semiotics; Semiotic engineering; Ontology-based model; Participatory design; Co-design | |||
| The semiotic turn | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 116-119 | |
| Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza | |||
| This paper reports the author's personal collaboration with Piero Mussio. It
begins with an analysis of Mussio's increasing involvement with semiotic
concepts while working with visual languages. In conclusion, the author
proposes follow-up questions, in continuation to an ongoing intellectual
conversation that current and future researchers may help to sustain. Keywords: Computational Semiotics; Semiotic Engineering | |||
| Spanish Sign Language synthesis system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 121-136 | |
| Fernando López-Colino; José Colás | |||
| This work presents a new approach to the synthesis of Spanish Sign Language
(LSE). Its main contributions are the use of a centralized relational database
for storing sign descriptions, the proposal of a new input notation and a new
avatar design, the skeleton structure of which improves the synthesis process.
The relational database facilitates a highly detailed phonologic description of the signs that include parameter synchronization and timing. The centralized database approach has been introduced to allow the representation of each sign to be validated by the LSE National Institution, FCNSE. The input notation, designated HLSML, presents multiple levels of abstraction compared with current input notations. Redesigned input notation is used to simplify the description and the manual definition of LSE messages. Synthetic messages obtained using our approach have been evaluated by deaf users; in this evaluation a maximum recognition rate of 98.5% was obtained for isolated signs and a recognition rate of 95% was achieved for signed sentences. Keywords: Animated conversational agent; Spanish Sign Language | |||
| Star-like auto-configurable layouts of variable radius for visualizing and exploring RDF/S ontologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 137-153 | |
| Stamatis Zampetakis; Yannis Tzitzikas; Asterios Leonidis; Dimitris Kotzinos | |||
| The visualization of ontologies is a challenging task especially if they are
large. In this paper we propose a visualization approach which is based on
star-like graphs of variable radius which enables users to gradually explore
and navigate through the entire ontology without overloading them. The
star-like graphs are visualized using a Force Directed Placement algorithm
(FDP) specially suited for RDF schemas whose configuration parameters can be
adjusted interactively by the end-user via an intuitive on-screen tool bar. In
addition, and since each star-like graph exhibits different graph features, we
propose a novel automatic configuration method for the FDP algorithm parameters
that is based on a number of quality metrics (area density and verticality of
subclass hierarchies) and corresponding corrective actions. The experimental
evaluation showed the quality of the yielded layout is significantly improved
and the proposed approach is acceptably fast for real-time exploration. The
user study showed that users prefer these views and perform various very common
tasks faster. Keywords: Force directed graph layout algorithms; RDFS ontologies | |||
| A graph mining approach for detecting unknown malwares | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 154-162 | |
| Mojtaba Eskandari; Sattar Hashemi | |||
| Nowadays malware is one of the serious problems in the modern societies.
Although the signature based malicious code detection is the standard technique
in all commercial antivirus softwares, it can only achieve detection once the
virus has already caused damage and it is registered. Therefore, it fails to
detect new malwares (unknown malwares). Since most of malwares have similar
behavior, a behavior based method can detect unknown malwares. The behavior of
a program can be represented by a set of called API's (application programming
interface). Therefore, a classifier can be employed to construct a learning
model with a set of programs' API calls. Finally, an intelligent malware
detection system is developed to detect unknown malwares automatically. On the
other hand, we have an appealing representation model to visualize the
executable files structure which is control flow graph (CFG). This model
represents another semantic aspect of programs. This paper presents a robust
semantic based method to detect unknown malwares based on combination of a
visualize model (CFG) and called API's. The main contribution of this paper is
extracting CFG from programs and combining it with extracted API calls to have
more information about executable files. This new representation model is
called API-CFG. In addition, to have fast learning and classification process,
the control flow graphs are converted to a set of feature vectors by a nice
trick. Our approach is capable of classifying unseen benign and malicious code
with high accuracy. The results show a statistically significant improvement
over n-grams based detection method. Keywords: Malware; Detection; Unknown malwares; PE-file; CFG; API | |||
| Automatically drawing Euler diagrams with circles | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 163-193 | |
| Gem Stapleton; Jean Flower; Peter Rodgers; John Howse | |||
| Euler diagrams are used for visualizing categorized data. These categories,
together with information about when categories share some datum, can be turned
into a succinct diagram description from which an Euler diagram can be
generated. Closed curves represent the categories and the relationships between
the curves (such as containment) correspond to relationships between the
categories (such as subset). A range of automated Euler diagram drawing methods
have been proposed but they often produce diagrams that are aesthetically
unpleasing, can be computationally complex and most of them cannot draw a
diagram for some (often many) given collections of categories. One such method
is capable of drawing aesthetically pleasing Euler diagrams, using only
circles, and is computationally efficient (being of polynomial time complexity)
but it applies to a very restricted subset of collections of categorized data.
This paper substantially extends that method so it can always draw an Euler
diagram, that is it applies to all collections of categorized data. In
particular, we identify a class of diagram descriptions that can be drawn with
circles, generalizing previous work. For diagram descriptions outside of this
class, we define transformations that can be used to turn them into
descriptions inside the 'drawable with circles' class. We demonstrate how such
transformations can be done in a general, a process during which many choices
must be made. Further, we provide strategies for making particular choices
which ensure desirable properties, such as curve containment, are preserved. We
have provided a software implementation of the drawing method, which is freely
available from www.eulerdiagrams.com/inductivecircles.htm. Keywords: Euler diagrams; Information visualization; Non-hierarchical data visualization; Venn diagrams | |||
| Evaluating a graphical notation for modelling software development methodologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 195-212 | |
| Kenia Sousa; Jean Vanderdonckt; Brian Henderson-Sellers; Cesar Gonzalez-Perez | |||
| This work aims at evaluating a graphical notation for modelling software
(and other kinds of) development methodologies, thus demonstrating how useful
the graphical aspects can be for sharing knowledge between the people
responsible for documenting information and those responsible for understanding
and putting it into practice. We acknowledge the importance of having a common
set of symbols that can be used to create, use and disseminate information for
a larger audience than is possible today with a variety of alternatives and
lack of a common ground. Using a cognitive dimensions framework, we make a
standard evaluation of the elements and diagrams of the notation proposed to
support the ISO/IEC 24744 methodology metamodel standard, considering the
trade-offs between different dimensions. We suggest improvements to this
existing notation based on this analysis, in the context of improving
communication between creators and users of methodologies. Keywords: Software development methodologies; Method engineering; Graphical notation; Cognitive dimensions | |||
| Probability issues in locality descriptions based on Voronoi neighbor relationship | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 213-222 | |
| Yongxi Gong; Lun Wu; Yaoyu Lin; Yu Liu | |||
| Spatial relationships play an important role in spatial knowledge
representation, such as in describing localities. However, little attention has
been paid to how to describe the position of a target object (TO) with a
qualitative referencing system that consists of a set of reference objects
(ROs) in the locality description context. We propose a method that accounts
for the differences between two scenarios in locality descriptions. This method
is probabilistic and is based on the Voronoi neighbor relationship to determine
candidate ROs for describing a given TO's position in the second scenario. The
Voronoi neighbor relationship is adopted to determine candidate ROs of a TO and
to compute the neighboring area of an RO. A probability function is presented
to model the uncertainty of selecting appropriate ROs. To build locality
descriptions that are consistent with commonsense, four constraints are placed
on the probability function. Two probability functions based on Euclidean
distance and stolen-area, and a mixed probability function that considers both
Euclidean distance and stolen-area, are analyzed and compared. With the mixed
probability function, we establish a method to construct the locality
description of a given TO. Finally, three examples demonstrate how to select
ROs to describe a TO's position. Keywords: Voronoi diagram; Probability function; Locality description; Voronoi neighbor relationship | |||
| Modeling functional requirements for configurable content- and context-aware dynamic service selection in business process models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 223-247 | |
| Ales Frece; Matjaz B. Juric | |||
| In this article, we propose a meta-model for formal specification of
functional requirements for configurable content- and context-aware dynamic
service selection in business process models with the objective to enable
greater flexibility of the modeled processes. The dynamic service selection can
cope with highly dynamic business environments that today's business processes
must handle. Modeling functional requirements for dynamic service selection in
business process models is not well covered in literature. Some partial
solutions exist but none of them allows modeling a complete set of functional
requirements for the selection similar to the one we are addressing in this
article. Our meta-model enables formal specification of service selection
relevant data extracted from service request message, custom configuration data
(e.g., thresholds), process and task definition/instance metadata, and service
selection rules. The meta-model is configurable and content- and context-aware.
Processes leveraging our meta-model can adapt to changing requirements without
redesign of the process flow. Proposed meta-model allows users to additionally
configure the models at run time (e.g., raising a threshold). Modeling can be
divided into roles with different required competences. We implement our
meta-model in BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) through specific
extensions to the BPMN semantic and diagram elements. By measuring complexity
of real-world sample process models we show that using our solution modelers
can efficiently model business processes that need to address frequent changing
demands. Compared to available alternatives, models using our solution have on
average 13% fewer activities, 16% fewer control-flow elements and 22% fewer
control paths. By reading 10% smaller models (by volume) model readers get more
flexible process models that capture all functional requirements for the
dynamic selection. Keywords: Business process model; Functional requirement; Dynamic service selection; Content/context awareness; BPMN | |||
| A time cost optimization for similar scenarios mobile GIS queries | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 249-266 | |
| Haifa Elsidani Elariss; Souheil Khaddaj | |||
| Query optimization strategies have been recently employed for various types
of queries such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in particular Location
Based Services and proximity analysis. This work proposes a new decision making
mechanism called Time Cost Optimizer (TCOP) which aims to effectively reduce
the cost of execution for multiple mobile GIS queries. TCOP is implemented in
order to employ the new paradigm Sharing Global Execution Plans (GEP) where
multiple users share the previously melted templates. It is integrated as a new
component of the Query Melting Processor (QMP) that has been developed for
processing multiple dynamic complex queries based on the Query Melting (QM)
paradigm which consists of the sharing paradigm and the push-down strategy. An
experimental evaluation has been conducted using a case study based on the map
of Paris. The results analysis proved that significant saving in time can be
achieved by employing the newly developed strategy. Keywords: Query optimization; Mobile visual query languages; Mobile GIS; Dynamic queries | |||
| Systematic evolution of model-based spreadsheet applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 267-286 | |
| Markus Luckey; Martin Erwig; Gregor Engels | |||
| Using spreadsheets is the preferred method to calculate, display or store
anything that fits into a table-like structure. They are often used by end
users to create applications, although they have one critical drawback --
spreadsheets are very error-prone. Recent research has developed methods to
reduce this error-proneness by introducing a new way of object-oriented
modeling of spreadsheets before using them. These spreadsheet models, termed
ClassSheets, are used to generate concrete spreadsheets on the instance level.
By this approach sources of errors are reduced and spreadsheet applications
become easier to understand.
As usual for almost every other application, requirements on spreadsheets change due to the changing environment. Thus, the problem of evolution of spreadsheets arises. The update and evolution of spreadsheets is the uttermost source of errors that may have severe impact. In this paper, we will introduce a model-based approach to spreadsheet evolution by propagating updates on spreadsheet models (i.e. ClassSheets) to spreadsheets. To this end, update commands for the ClassSheet layer are automatically transformed to those for the spreadsheet layer. We describe spreadsheet model update propagation using a formal framework and present an integrated tool suite that allows the easy creation and safe update of spreadsheet models. The presented approach greatly contributes to the problem of software evolution and maintenance for spreadsheets and thus avoids many errors that might have severe impacts. Keywords: Model-based; Spreadsheet; Evolution; Update; Propagation | |||
| ASM2Bogor: An approach for verification of models specified through Asmeta language | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 287-298 | |
| Vahid Rafe; Saeed Doostali | |||
| Nowadays, publish-subscribe (pub-sub) and event-based architectures are
frequently used for developing loosely coupled distributed systems. Hence, it
is desirable to find a proper solution to specify different systems through
these architectures. Abstract state machine (ASM) is a useful means to visually
and formally model pub-sub and event-based architectures. However, modeling per
se is not enough since the designers want to be able to verify the designed
models. As the model checking is a proper approach to verify software and
hardware systems, in this paper, we present an approach to verify ASM models
specified in terms of Asmeta language using Bogor -- a well known model
checker. In our approach, the AsmetaL specification is automatically encoded to
BIR, the input language of the Bogor. Our experimental results show that in the
most cases our approach generates more efficient results in comparison with the
existing approach. Keywords: Model checking; Abstract state machine; Bogor; Asmeta; Linear temporal logic | |||
| Emotional eye movement generation based on Geneva Emotion Wheel for virtual agents | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 299-310 | |
| Zheng Li; Xia Mao | |||
| Eye movement plays an important role in face to face communication in that
it conveys nonverbal information and emotional intent beyond speech. Our
research proposes a computational framework that enables virtual agents to
convey different emotional expressions to users through eye movement. We build
this framework based on eye movement parameters derived from the Kohn-Canade AU
(action unit)-Coded Facial Expression Database as well as real-time eye
movement data. We also describe a rule-based approach to generate emotional eye
movement based on the Geneva Emotion Wheel. We then present one experiment in
which subjects evaluated the emotional eye movement generated by this
framework. When our proposed model was employed, the results showed a higher
rate of recognition of the agent intended emotion, proving the validity of our
approach. Keywords: Virtual agents; Human-computer interaction; Eye movement synthesis; Computer animation | |||
| Taxonomy-driven prototyping of home automation applications: A novice-programmer visual language and its evaluation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-326 | |
| Zoé Drey; Charles Consel | |||
| Home automation environments are dedicated to helping users in their
everyday life and are being deployed in an increasing number of areas,
including home security, energy consumption, and assisted living. The range of
situations to be addressed makes the development of home automation
applications challenging: it requires to manage heterogeneous entities with a
wide variety of functionalities. Moreover, since this area covers a large
spectrum of user needs, it is crucial to ease the development and the evolution
of these applications.
This paper presents Pantagruel, an expressive and accessible approach to integrating a taxonomical description of a home automation environment into a visual programming language. A taxonomy describes the relevant entities of a given home automation area and serves as a parameter to a sensor-controller-actuator development paradigm. The orchestration of area-specific entities is supported by high-level constructs, customized with respect to taxonomical information. We have implemented a visual environment that integrates a taxonomical approach in the development of orchestration rules. Furthermore, we have developed a compiler for Pantagruel and successfully used it to test applications in various areas related to orchestration development for the domain of home automation. Finally, we have successfully evaluated the usability of Pantagruel through a user study performed with 18 novice programmers. Keywords: Visual rule-based language; Home automation; Entity orchestration | |||
| Sketch-based aesthetic product form exploration from existing images using piecewise clothoid curves | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 327-339 | |
| Günay Orbay; Mehmet Ersin Yümer; Levent Burak Kara | |||
| We present a new sketch-based product form exploration technique that works
from images and sketches of existing products. At the heart of our approach, is
a multi-stroke curve beautification method and a curve-based image deformation
algorithm. The proposed approach converts groups of strokes into piecewise
clothoid curves in order to produce visually pleasing shapes. The deformation
diffusion algorithm then spatially distributes the user specified deformations
through out the image to produce smooth transformations from the original image
to the resulting image. We demonstrate the technique on a variety of images
including photo-realistic images, real product images, and sketches. Keywords: Sketching; Product design; Aesthetics; Curve design; Image editing | |||
| Using visual languages in management | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 340-343 | |
| Kang Zhang | |||
| Recent great advances of information visualization and visual languages have
not been utilized in the management field. This View point article advocates
the use of appropriate visual languages in general and visualization in
particular to maximize human's visual perceptual power for rapid and effective
communication in management. Keywords: Visual languages; Visual communication; Visualization; Management | |||
| Facilitating insight into a simulation model using visualization and dynamic model previews | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 344-353 | |
| Joost de Folter; Timothy Cribbin | |||
| This paper shows how model simplification, by replacing iterative steps with
unitary predictive equations, can enable dynamic interaction with a complex
simulation process. Model previews extend the techniques of dynamic querying
and query previews into the context of ad hoc simulation model exploration. A
case study is presented within the domain of counter-current chromatography.
The relatively novel method of insight evaluation was applied, given the
exploratory nature of the task. The evaluation data show that the trade-off in
accuracy is far outweighed by benefits of dynamic interaction. The number of
insights gained using the enhanced interactive version of the computer model
was more than six times higher than the number of insights gained using the
basic version of the model. There was also a trend for dynamic interaction to
facilitate insights of greater domain importance. Keywords: Visualization; Simulation; Dynamic query; Query preview; Insight evaluation; Counter-current chromatography | |||
| User-driven modelling: Visualisation and systematic interaction for end-user programming | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 354-379 | |
| Peter Hale; Anthony E. Solomonides; Ian Beeson | |||
| This research enables computer literate engineers to model problems in
software by minimising code they need to write. Software development is
difficult for many engineers as they may have no time, experience, or access to
software development tools necessary to model their problems. Using a
combination of modelling via use of formulae (equations) and visualisation of
the way these formulae interact, it is possible to construct modelling software
without requiring code. This technique of user-driven modelling/programming
(UDM/P) could be applied to any problem that requires linked equations to be
represented and tracked, and results from these calculated. End-user
programming could be tackled by many researchers co-operating to create
specific solutions to different kinds of end-user programming problems. A
stepped ontology based translation process assists with progress towards a
generic solution, this is first applied to engineering modelling. Keywords: Visual programming; Visualisation; Translation; Transformation; Meta programming; Cost modelling; Modelling; Decision support; Design; Manufacture; User-driven modelling; Semantic Web; Ontologies; End-user programming | |||