scenario-based interactive intention understanding in pen-based user interfaces

Interactive intention understanding is important for Pen-based User Interface (PUI). Many works on this topic are reported, and focus on handwriting or sketching recognition algorithms at the lexical layer. But these algorithms cannot totally solve the problem of intention understanding and can not provide the pen-based software with high usability. Hence, a scenario-based interactive intention understanding framework is presented in this paper, and is used to simulate human cognitive mechanisms and cognitive habits. By providing the understanding environment supporting the framework, we can apply the framework to the practical PUI system. The evaluation of the Scientific Training Management System for the Chinese National Diving Team shows that the framework is effective in improving the usability and enhancing the intention understanding capacity of this system.

tilt menu: using the 3d orientation information of pen devices to extend the selection capability of pen-based user interfaces

We present a new technique called‘Tilt Menu’ for better extending selection capabilities of pen-based interfaces.The Tilt Menu is implemented by using 3D orientation information of pen devices while performing selection tasks.The Tilt Menu has the potential to aid traditional onehanded techniques as it simultaneously generates the secondary input (e.g., a command or parameter selection) while drawing/interacting with a pen tip without having to use the second hand or another device. We conduct two experiments to explore the performance of the Tilt Menu. In the first experiment, we analyze the effect of parameters of the Tilt Menu, such as the menu size and orientation of the item, on its usability. Results of the first experiment suggest some design guidelines for the Tilt Menu. In the second experiment, the Tilt Menu is compared to two types of techniques while performing connect-the-dot tasks using freeform drawing mechanism. Results of the second experiment show that the Tilt Menu perform better in comparison to the Tool Palette, and is as good as the Toolglass.

research on user-centered design and recognition pen gestures

Pen-based user interface has become a hot research field in recent years. Pen gesture plays an important role in Pen-based user interfaces. But it’s difficult for UI designers to design, and for users to learn and use. In this purpose, we performed a research on user-centered design and recognition pen gestures. We performed a survey of 100 pen gestures in twelve famous pen-bases systems to find problems of pen gestures currently used. And we conducted a questionnaire to evaluate the matching degree between commands and pen gestures to discover the characteristics that a good pen gestures should have. Then cognition theories were applied to analyze the advantages of those characteristics in helping improving the learnability of pen gestures. From these, we analyzed the pen gesture recognition effect and presented some improvements on features selection in recognition algorithm of pen gestures. Finally we used a couple of psychology experiments to evaluate twelve pen gestures designed based on the research. It shows those gestures is better for user to learn and use. Research results of this paper can be used for designer as a primary principle to design pen gestures in pen-based systems.

improving document icon to re-find efficiently what you need

It is common that documents are represented by document icon in graphical user interfaces. The document icon facilitates user to retrieve documents, but it is difficult to distinguish the document from a collection of documents that user have accessed to. Our paper presents a document icon on which the users can add some subjective values and mark. Then we describe a system ex-explorer that users can browser and search the extent document icon. We found that it is easy to re-find the document on which users added some annotation or mark by themselves.

基于混合自动机的Post-WIMP界面的建模

Post- WIMP界面作为继当前的主流界面范式—— WIMP界面后的下一代界面范式 ,它和 WIMP界面有着很大的不同 ,通过使用虚拟现实、语音交互、手势交互等技术 ,它能够提供更加自然高效的交互方式 .然而 ,它却难以构造 .为了有效地构造 Post- WIMP界面 ,在构造之前不考虑实现细节 ,而在一个抽象的层次上描述它是一个较好的方法 .首先 ,分析了 Post- WIMP界面的交互本质 ,交互混合性是 Post- WIMP界面一个最为重要的特点 .从形式化系统的角度分析 Post- WIMP界面 ,通过将 Post- WIMP界面抽象为混合系统能够更为准确和严格地分析Post- WIMP界面的特性 .混合自动机是用于描述混合系统的形式化工具 ,将 Post- WIMP界面建模为一组相互协作的混合自动机 .设计了一基于混合自动机理论的半形式化语言 L EAFF作为 Post- WIMP界面的描述工具 .LEAFF通过结合文本描述和图形描述描述 Post- WIMP界面中的交互行为 ,能够准确地反映交互中的控制关系、时序关系 .给出了对两个典型 Post- WIMP界面——虚拟现实交互和笔式交互的描述实例 ,同时讨论了 Post- WIMP界面中交互并行性的描述、交互实时性的验证和从描述到实际交互系统构造的转换 .

三维用户界面在城市规划系统中的应用

城市规划是城市政府为达到城市发展目标而对城市建设进行的安排。传统的基于物理模型的城市规划存在着修改成本高、效率低等问题。虽然虚拟现实（VR）技术可以为设计人员提供真实的三维呈现，但是当前的城市规划VR系统交互性差，难以实用。为了解决此问题，我们在虚拟现实环境中研究并开发了多通道三维用户界面。 本文先从技术和应用两个层面对三维用户界面进行了综述。在技术层面，分析了三维用户界面的定义和特征、三维交互设备、三维交互任务、三维交互隐喻、三维交互技术、多通道设计方法；在应用层面，调查了国内外有影响力的三维用户界面原型系统。 城市规划交互任务种类繁多，可以从三维用户界面通用交互任务和城市规划系统特有交互任务两个层次进行分析。三维用户界面通用任务包括漫游、选择、操作、系统控制四个交互任务，城市规划特有交互任务包括道路规划、建筑物规划、植物规划、区域规划、地图操作、草地规划、系统状态维护等交互任务。 通过分析，发现用户有大量状态、操作工具的切换，而当前的虚拟现实技术由于缺乏合适的隐喻，操作不便。为了提高交互性，我们提出了个人交互面板PIP(personal interaction panel)隐喻，并从静态交互界面和动态交互方式两个方面对该隐喻进行了介绍。在静态交互界面方面，将WIMP界面元素通过PIP隐喻引入到三维空间中，降低了用户学习负担；在动态交互方式方面，采用基于向导的笔迹交互方式，提高了交互效率。 为了实现城市规划三维交互技术，提出了基于笔的双层多通道融合模型，该模型将笔手势、指点信息、语音等多通道输入信息与会话上下文、交互上下文、场景上下文等信息进行融合，体现了多通道交互在指称归结、二义性消除、容错性方面的优势。此外，提出了基于统计的用户多通道融合模式建模方法，通过在多通道上下文无关文法中引入了表达超时的终结符,实现了自适应时间约束机制。 在PIP隐喻和多通道融合模型的基础上，我们设计并实现了一组三维交互技术以便用户自然、高效地完成城市规划中的各种三维交互任务。

Ab initio pair potentials at metal-ceramic interfaces

A systematic approach is proposed to obtain the interfacial interatomic potentials. By inverting ab initio adhesive energy curves for the metal-MgO ceramic interfaces, We derive interfacial potentials between Ag and O2-, Ag and Mg2+, Al and O2-, Al and Mg2+. The interfacial potentials, obtained from this method, demonstrate general features of bondings between metal atoms and ceramic ions.

Some characteristics of low-speed streaks under sheared air-water interfaces

The characteristics of low-speed fluid streaks occurring under sheared air-water interfaces were examined by means of hydrogen bubble visualization technique. A critical shear condition under which the streaky structure first appears was determined to be u(tau) approximate to 0.19 cm/s. The mean spanwise streak spacing increases with distance from the water surface owing to merging and bursting processes, and a linear relationship describing variation of non-dimensional spacing <(+)over bar> versus y(+) was found essentially independent of shear stress on the interface. Values of <(+)over bar>, however, are remarkably smaller than their counterparts in the near-wall region of turbulent boundary layers. Though low-speed streaks occur randomly in time and space, the streak spacing exhibits a lognormal probability distribution behavior. A tentative explanation concerning the formation of streaky structure is suggested, and the fact that <(+)over bar> takes rather smaller values than that in wall turbulence is briefly discussed.

Effects of Nanostructures on the Fracture Strength of the Interfaces in Nacre

A strengthening mechanism arising from a type of inorganic nanostructure in the organic matrix layers is presented by studying the structural and mechanical properties of the interfaces in nacre. This nanostructural mechanism not only averagely increases the fracture strength of the organic matrix interfaces by about 5 times, but also effectively arrests the cracks in the organic matrix layers and causes the crack deflection in this biomaterial. The present investigation shows that the main mechanism governing the strength of the organic matrix interfaces relies on the inorganic nanostructures rather than the organic matrix. This study provides a guide to the interfacial design of synthetic materials.

Microstructure and mechanical properties at TiCp/Ni-alloy interfaces in laser-synthesized coatings

Titanium carbide particle (TiCp) reinforced Ni alloy composite coatings were synthesized by laser cladding using a cw 3 kW CO2 laser. Two kinds of coatings were present in terms of TiCp origins, i.e. undissolved and in situ reacted TiCp, respectively. The former came from the TiCp pre-coated on the sample, whereas the latter from in situ reaction between titanium and graphite in the molten pool during laser irradiation. Conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscope observations showed the epitaxial growth of TiC, the precipitation of CrB, and the chemical reaction between Ti and B elements around phase interfaces of undissolved TiCp. The hardness, H, and elastic modulus, E, were measured by nanoindentation of the matrix near the TiCp interface. For undissolved TiCp, the loading curve revealed pop-in phenomena caused by the plastic deformation of the crack formation or debounding of TiCp from the matrix. As for in situ generated TiCp, no pop-in mark appears. On the other hand, in situ reacted TiCp led to much higher hardness and modulus than that in the case of undissolved TiCp. The coating reinforced by in situ generated TiCp displayed the highest impact wear resistance at both low and high impact conditions, as compared with coatings with undissolved TiCp and without TiCp. The impact wear resistance of the coating reinforced by undissolved TiCp increases at a low impact work but decreases at a high impact work, as compared with the single Ni alloy coating. The degree of wear for the composite coating depends primarily on the debonding removal of TiCp.

Optimization Of Off-Null Ellipsometry For Air/Solid Interfaces

The optimization of off-null ellipsometry is described with emphasis on the improvement of sample thickness sensitivity. Optimal conditions are dependent on azimuth angle settings of the polarizer, compensator, and analyzer in a polarizer-compensator-sample-analyzer ellipsometer arrangement. Numerical simulation utilized offers an approach to present the dependence of the sensitivity on the azimuth angle settings, from which optimal settings corresponding to the best sensitivity are derived. For a series of samples of SiO2 layer (thickness in the range of 1.8-6.5 nm) on silicon substrate, the theory analysis proves that sensitivity at the optimal settings is increased 20 times compared to that at null settings used in most works, and the relationship between intensity and thickness is simplified as a linear type instead of the original nonlinear type, with the relative error reduced to similar to 1/100 at the optimal settings. Furthermore the discussion has been extended toward other factors affecting the sensitivity of the practical system, such as the linear dynamic range of the detector, the signal-to-noise ratio and the intensity from the light source, etc. Experimental results from the investigation Of SiO2 layer on silicon substrate are chosen to verify the optimization. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.

Toughness Of Ni/Al2O3 Interfaces As Dependent On Micron-Scale Plasticity And Atomistic-Scale Separation

Ceramic/metal interfaces were studied that fail by atomistic separation accompanied by plastic dissipation in the metal. The macroscopic toughness of the specific Ni alloy/Al2O3 interface considered is typically on the order of ten times the atomistic work of separation in mode I and even higher if combinations of mode I and mode II act on the interface. Inputs to the computational model of interface toughness are: (i) strain gradient plasticity applied to the Ni alloy with a length parameter determined by an indentation test, and (ii) a potential characterizing mixed mode separation of the interface fit to atomistic results. The roles of the several length parameters in the strain gradient plasticity are determined for indentation and crack growth. One of the parameters is shown to be of dominant importance, thus establishing that indentation can be used to measure the relevant length parameter. Recent results for separation of Ni/Al2O3 interfaces computed by atomistic methods are reviewed, including a set of results computed for mixed mode separation. An approximate potential fit to these results is characterized by the work of separation, the peak separation stress for normal separation and the traction-displacement relation in pure shearing of the interface. With these inputs, the model for steady-state crack growth is used to compute the toughness of the interface under mode I and under the full range of mode mix. The effect of interface strength and the work of separation on macroscopic toughness is computed. Fundamental implications for plasticity-enhanced toughness emerge.

Large Scale Numerical Simulations For Multi-Phase Fluid Dynamics With Moving Interfaces

This short communication presents our recent studies to implement numerical simulations for multi-phase flows on top-ranked supercomputer systems with distributed memory architecture. The numerical model is designed so as to make full use of the capacity of the hardware. Satisfactory scalability in terms of both the parallel speed-up rate and the size of the problem has been obtained on two high rank systems with massively parallel processors, the Earth Simulator (Earth simulator research center, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan) and the TSUBAME (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan) supercomputers.