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Large displays are becoming commonplace for home and office computers. Although researchers have quantified the benefits of working on large displays, there has been little investigation of how large displays physiologically and emotionally impact the user. Using subjective and physiological measures, we compared the user's experience when game playing on a large display versus a small display. We found that the large display caused greater physiological responses and higher subjective ratings of excitement. These physiological results were mirrored in the participants' subjective reports. The study contributes to understanding of interaction with large displays and refining the requirements for what constitutes effective and desirable humancomputer interaction (HCI). Keywords: Large display, User experience, Physiological measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NEAR (Navigating Exhibitions, Annotations and Resources) is a compact panel designed to help people navigating, searching and interacting in an information repository by visualizing implicit data relations such as sharing, reference and similarity. It is implemented on A∙VI∙RE, an online multimedia repository. A∙VI∙RE supports semi-structured collections (exhibitions) containing various resources and annotations. Its users are encouraged to contribute, share, annotate and interpret resources. Similar to the act of adding items into shopping carts in the e-commence applications, a user's acts of searching and organizing and interpreting data in A∙VI∙RE are considered as evidence of the user's preferences. The design process of NEAR was guided by several design moves analyzed from literatures. It implements new navigation and communication approaches that support discovery of relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical information is often presented in graphs. However, this medium is problematic for certain audiences such as inexperienced graph readers, people with visual impairments and users of mobile technologies featuring small screens. We have developed a system called iGraph which provides short verbal descriptions with the information depicted in graphs and a way of interacting with it by means of dialogue in natural language. In this paper, we present the general architecture of the system and its representational and querying mechanisms, together with a glimpse of the natural language interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction model supported by web search engines has changed very little since the early days of web search. Users are required to formulate their queries with very little support from the system, and are provided with a list-based representation of the web search results that promotes a sequential evaluation of the document surrogates. The short queries used by web searchers, and the few pages viewed as a result of a web search are indications of the inadequate support provided for the users' information retrieval tasks. We propose a model for web information retrieval that uses visualization and interactive visual manipulation to support the users as they take an active role in satisfying their information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological and scientific images, and other images with epistemic uses, have varied appearances and functions. They seem to be analog or symbolic representations available to researchers for a variety of epistemic purposes such as summarizing data, or presenting, discussing and verifying hypothetic propositions about the world. This article studies the perception and understanding of scientific/epistemic images within a conceptual framework grounded in the notion of reference. It introduces the hypothesis stating that the performance of the perceptual understanding of a particular scientific image depends on the epistemic uses of attention. The hypothesis suggests that understanding a scientific picture requires making an epistemic use of the attentional control of visual routines in order to obtain knowledge on the spatial structure and the referents of a particular image or graphic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parametric CAD applications enable designers to model and maintain both objects and relationships. Selection is the first step in the process of establishing relationships in a CAD model. Because designing is characterized by a process of change and development, establishing and maintaining relationships can contribute significant overhead to a parametric design process. Selection rules can be used to reduce the overhead involved in maintaining relationships and increase the portability of model objects by pushing responsibility for maintaining relations to the computer. We report on two implemented concepts for rule based selection and discuss directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational creativity is certainly interesting and potentially important. ArTVox, a Java programmed evolutionary environment, arose from the attempt to emulate computational creativity applied to artistic production, in visual and sound domains, by using interactive genetic algorithms. Objects inspired in Kandinsky's artworks are being programmed in Shape, an auxiliary Java environment, to be inserted in ArTVox. Today, ArTVox creates and evolves visual compositions of geometric primitives that, by their turn, guide the sound production in another evolutionary environment, JaVox, integrated to ArTVox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss some interface design concepts for supporting and enhancing collaborative creativity in multi-user interactive environments. We focus on the design of affordances for direct manipulation and collaboration on table-top displays. As an application of our concepts, we introduce the EnLighTable, an appliance for creative teamwork in the selection of pictures and layout design based on a table-top touch-sensitive display. We present our rationale for the design of affordances which metaphorically relate to artifacts - and map to gestures - of the physical world. Finally we discuss the results of our first design iteration and introduce a possible future extension of the table-top appliance to other devices of an instrumented environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-monitor systems are becoming increasingly popular as a way for users to expand their display surface to facilitate multitasking. However, users may have difficulty accessing user interface elements on the borders of the displays, accidentally crossing over to neighbouring displays. We present a smart pseudo-haptic technique to enhance boundary widgets in multi-monitor systems. Our technique was compared to current desktop behaviour as well as to two other pseudo-haptic approaches. All three techniques significantly reduced crossover errors; however, our smart sticky technique also significantly reduced the time to acquire targets on the secondary monitor over the other sticky techniques and was strongly preferred by users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new copy-paste user interface for 3D geometry based on repetitive patterns. The system, guided by the user, analyzes patterns of repetition in the source geometry and then pastes the geometry while increasing or decreasing the number of repetitions using scaling and deformation, which is controlled by two freehand strokes called handles. The system has two main advantages over existing methods: the entire copy-paste operation is controlled by the user's stroke input and thus can be specified easily without explicitly adjusting the parameters, and splitting the shape information into source geometry and handles can not only significantly reduce the amount of data required but also quickly change a scene's appearance while keeping its structure consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A human photographer can frame an image and enhance its composition by visualizing how elements in the frame could be better sized or positioned. The photographer resizes elements in the frame by changing the zoom lens or by varying his or her distance to the subject. The photographer moves elements by panning. An intelligent virtual photographer can apply a similar process. Given an initial 3D camera view, a user or application specifies high-level composition goals such as Rule of Thirds or balance. Each objective defines either a One-D interval for image scaling or a Two-D interval for translation. Two-D projections of objects are translated and scaled in the frame according to computed optima. These Two-D scales and translates are mapped to matching changes in the 3D field of view (zoom), dolly-in or out varying subject distance, and rotating the aim direction to improve the composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declarative approaches to lighting design model image quality using an objective function that captures the desired visual properties of an object or scene. The value of the objective function is optimized for a particular camera configuration through the manipulation of the lighting parameters of a scene. We review the notion of declarative lighting design, and introduce LightOp, a tool by which the design of objective functions (the components and settings) and the application of different optimization techniques can be explored. We show how LightOp can be used to explore declarative lighting design through the realization of a number of extensions to existing approaches, including the application and evaluation of stochastic optimization; the use of backlighting to maximize edge enhancement; contrast modeling; and the use of a perceptually uniform color space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an extension of the Through-the-Lens Camera Control approach proposed by Gleicher and Witkin. It first provides a higher means of control on the camera by using virtual composition primitives and second offers a means for through-the-lens interaction with both the location of the objects in the scene and the lighting. By setting properties on the composition primitives, users convey constraints to enforce the positioning of the camera, the objects and the lights directly through the lens. The paper presents how to express all three problems of indirect camera, object and light interaction in a consistent way and provides some first results. The solving techniques rely on the expression of the image Jacobian coupled with a constrained optimizer based on Quadratic Programming. The Jacobian expresses the relation between the user input and the possible degrees of freedom on the entity to manipulate; in order to avoid solving failures that are delicate to manage in user interfaces, we propose a mass-spring interaction model. As a result, the user should be able concentrate on higher level properties such as composition, balance and unity through a natural and effective interaction process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L-system is a tool commonly used for modeling and simulating the growth of plants. In this paper, we propose a new tree modeling system based on L-system that allows the user to control the overall appearance and the depth of recursion, which represents the level of growth, easily and directly, by drawing a single stroke. We introduce a new module into L-system whose growth direction is determined by a user-drawn stroke. As the user draws the stroke, the system gradually advances the growth simulation and creates a tree model along the stroke. Our technique is the first attempt to control the growth of a simulation in L-system using stroke input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a method to generate compact and accuracy-controllable free-form surfaces for web-based surgical simulations. Users can input an important area where high accuracy is required, such as an affected area. The input area can be reflected as meshes with high level of details. By utilizing display tablet interfaces, surgeons are able to draw incision lines or boundaries between organs on an on-screen 3D model, just like they draw lines on paper in surgical planning procedures. Input lines can be reflected as boundaries between patches on free-form surfaces. Practical surgical simulators are also presented to evaluate the efficiency of our framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 3D sketching has gained popularity as an efficient alternative to conventional 3D geometric modeling for rapid prototyping, as it allows the user to intuitively generate a large range of different shapes. In this paper, we present some sketching interactions for 3D modeling, based on a set of two different bidimensional sketches (profile curve and silhouette curve). By using these two sketches and combining them with a gesture grammar, a very large variety of shapes (including shapes with topological holes) can be easily produced by our interactive modeling environment. Keywords: Sketch-based 3D Modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good saliency map captures the locally sharp features effectively. So a number of tasks in graphics can benefit from a computational model of mesh saliency. Motivated by the conception of Lee's mesh saliency [12] and its successful application to mesh simplification and viewpoint selection, we modified Laplacian smoothing operator with mesh saliency. Unlike the classical Laplacian smoothing, where every new vertex of the mesh is moved to the barycenter of its neighbors, we set every new vertex position to be the linear interpolation between its primary position and the barycenter of its neighbors. We have shown how incorporating mesh saliency with Laplacian operator can effectively preserve most sharp features while denoising the noisy model. Details of our modified Laplacian smoothing algorithm are discussed along with the test results in this paper. Keywords: Mesh Fairing; Lapalacian Smoothing Operator; Perceptually Salient; Shape Features; Mesh Saliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose interactive visualization techniques which support the spatial comprehension of angiogram images by emphasizing depth information and introducing combined depth cues. In particular, we propose a depth based color encoding, two variations of edge enhancement and the application of a modified depth of field effect in order to enhance depth perception of complex blood vessel systems. All proposed techniques have been developed to improve the human depth perception and have been adapted with special consideration of the spatial comprehension of blood vessel structures. To evaluate the presented techniques, we have conducted a user study, in which users had to accomplish certain depth perception tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collections of electronic music are mostly organized according to playlists based on artist names and song titles. Music genres are inherently ambiguous and, to make matters worse, assigned manually by a diverse user community. People tend to organize music based on similarity to other music and based on the music's emotional qualities. Taking this into account, we have designed a music player which derives a set of criteria from the actual music data and then provides a coherent visual metaphor for a similarity-based navigation of the music collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel and efficient visualization technique intended for hierarchical-temporal data using a tree-ring like layout. Temporal hierarchies appear in numerous fields such as genealogy, evolution taxonomies or time lines. In many cases, state-of-the-art static diagrams are produced in these fields. By using several information visualization strategies, such as focus + context, the tree-ring approach has the ability to visualize and navigate these, potentially complex, hierarchies trough time. Thus, a deeper insight into the problem at hand can be gained. Keywords: tree-ring layout, information visualization, focus + context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe our responsive video performance, Deep Surrender, created using Cycling '74's Max/MSP and Jitter packages. Video parameters are manipulated in real-time, using chroma-keying and colour balance modification techniques to visualize the keyboard playing and vocal timbre of a live performer. We present the musical feature extraction process used to create a control system for the production, describe the mapping between audio and visual parameters, and discuss the artistic motivations behind the piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal perception is an important cognitive phenomenon, which plays a central role in our understanding of the world. As such, its study is also relevant to interactive graphics systems. In this paper, we introduce a virtual reality system which can elicit causal perception. The system operates by intercepting the consequences of subjects' actions and modifying them to generate new event co-occurrence. This process is based on an explicit representation of action structure, which supports the generation of event co-occurrences on a principled basis. We present results from a user experiment, which confirm a high level of causal perception in subjects having used the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michotte argued that humans almost immediately perceive causality in simple animations as a consequence of spatial and temporal localities. To explore the usefulness of these ideas in animation, Ware et al. introduced a semiotic method called a visual causal vector. This work studies their wave metaphor, shows a method for calibrating timings to produce a causal impression, and explores the effect of animations timed in this way. Keywords: Perception, Causality, Data Visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel real-time algorithm to integrate internal and external labels of arbitrary size into 3D visualizations. Moreover, comprehensive dynamic content can be displayed in annotation boxes. Our system employs multiple metrics in order to achieve an effective and aesthetic label layout with adjustable weights. The layout algorithm employs several heuristics to reduce the search space of a complex layout task. Initial layouts are refined by label agents, i.e., local strategies to optimize the layout and to minimize the flow of layout elements in subsequent frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new predictive text fitting algorithm is introduced in this paper. Through this algorithm, the ideal font size of given text content can be efficiently determined to fit the text into frames of arbitrary shapes. After trying out the initial font size, the algorithm measures a fit factor based on ratio of the area used and the area needed. Then it predicts the next font size according to the fit factor, and it also adjusts the key model parameter based on previous iterations. Compared with methods that change the font size at fixed amount each time or use predetermined models, the advantages of this algorithm include fast convergence, as well as insensitivity to text placement engine and initial values of parameters. This algorithm has a number of potential applications, such as variable data printing, multimodal publishing, and adaptive graphic presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a dynamic placement technique for annotations of virtual landscapes that is based on efficient view management. Annotations represent textual or symbolic descriptions and provide explanatory or thematic information associated with spatial positions. The technique handles external annotations as 2.5 dimensional objects and adjusts their positions with respect to available space in the view-plane. The approach intends to place labels without occlusions and, if this cannot be achieved, favors those annotations that are close to the observer. This technique solves the visibility problem of annotations in an approximate but user-centric way. It operates in real-time and therefore can be applied to interactive virtual landscapes. Additionally, the approach can be configured to fine tune the trade off between placement quality and processing time with a single parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding music albums in large databases is an inherently difficult problem, especially if users do not know exactly what they are looking for. MusicSpace lays out music albums spatially according to different perspectives and provides a Zoomable User Interface to enable navigation within these perspectives. The choice of perspectives was inspired by the theory of Conceptual Spaces, so similar items regarding each perspective are placed near to each other. We believe that the concept of laying out items according to Conceptual Spaces has the potential to generalize to all kind of real world items like pictures, food, wines or books that can be described by perceptual qualities as time, color, emotion or taste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]