Image annotation with Photocopain

Photo annotation is a resource-intensive task, yet is increasingly essential as image archives and personal photo collections grow in size. There is an inherent conflict in the process of describing and archiving personal experiences, because casual users are generally unwilling to expend large amounts of effort on creating the annotations which are required to organise their collections so that they can make best use of them. This paper describes the Photocopain system, a semi-automatic image annotation system which combines information about the context in which a photograph was captured with information from other readily available sources in order to generate outline annotations for that photograph that the user may further extend or amend

Контекстно-управляемый подход к интеллектуальной поддержке принятия решений на основе цифровых следов пользователей

A context-aware approach to intelligent decision support based on user digital traces is proposed. The concept of human digital life with regard to intelligent decision support is discussed. The aims of addressing this concept in diverse domains are clarified and approaches to modelling human digital life are identified. In the proposed approach, digital traces serve as a source of information to reveal user preferences and decision-making behaviour. Perspectives on decision support based on user digital traces are developed. The research outcomes are the specification of requirements to intelligent decision support based on user digital traces, the principles, conceptual framework and information model of such support. The principles form the basis for the conceptual framework of intelligent decision support based on user digital traces. Components of the conceptual model are user profiles; a user digital life model that structures information containing in the digital traces; group patterns that describe preferences and decision-making behavior shared by a user group; and a decision maker ontology. The information model defines information flows between the framework’s components, identifies tasks that require solutions to implement the framework and offers techniques for this. The novelties of the research are applying the concept of human digital life to intelligent decision support and context-dependent ontological inference of the type of user as a decision-maker, which determines a group of users sharing their preferences and behaviours with the active user, to predict a recommended decision. The paper contributes to the areas of modelling human digital life and intelligent decision support.Разрабатывается контекстно-управляемый подход к интеллектуальной поддержке принятия решений на основе цифровых следов пользователей. Рассматриваются вопросы использования концепции жизни человека в цифровой среде при интеллектуальной поддержке принятия решений. Исследуются цели обращения к цифровым следам человека в различных проблемных областях и выявляются подходы к моделированию жизни человека в цифровой среде. Предлагается подход к интеллектуальной поддержке принятия решений, в котором цифровые следы служат источником информации для выявления предпочтений пользователей и их поведения при принятии решений. Развиваются взгляды на поддержку принятия решений на основе учета следов пользователей в цифровой среде. Результатами исследования являются спецификация требований к интеллектуальной поддержке принятия решений на основе цифровых следов пользователя, принципы, концептуальная и информационная модели такой поддержки

Challenges in interface and interaction design for context-aware augmented memory systems

The human long-term memory is astonishingly powerful but fallible at the same time. This makes it very easy to forget information one is sure one actually knows. We propose context-aware augmented memory systems as a solution to this problem. In this paper, we analyse the user interface and interaction design challenges that need to be overcome to build such a system. We hope for fruitful interdisciplinary discussions on how best to address these challenges

Fulfilling the needs of a metadata creator and analyst : An investigation of RDF browsing and visualization tools

The realization of Semantic Web vision is based on the creation and use of semantic web content which needs software tools both for semantic web developers and end users. Over the past few years, semantic web software tools like ontology editors and triple storage systems have emerged and are growing in maturity with time. While working on a large triple dataset during the course of a research aiming at a life-long “semantic” repository of personal information, besides other semantic web tools, we used several RDF browsing and visualization tools for analyzing our data. This analysis included ensuring the correctness of the data, conformance of instance data to the ontology, finding patterns and trails in the data, cross-checking and evaluating inferred data, etc. We found that many of the features needed by a metadata creator and analyst are missing from these tools. This paper presents an investigation of the tools that are used for browsing and visualizing RDF datasets. It first identifies the browsing and visualization features required by a semantic web developer and a metadata creator and analyst and then based on those features evaluates the most common RDF browsing and visualization tools available till date. We conclude this paper with recommendations for requirements to be fulfilled for future semantic web browsing and visualizationThe past and the future of information systems: 1976-2006 and beyondRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A Smartphone-based System for Personal Data Management and Personality Analysis

Abstract— The data from or about an individual, called personal data, is continuously increasing due to popularity of smart phones, wearables and other ubiquitous devices. Such personal data can be used to model a user and even digitally clone a person, e.g., Cyber-I (cyber individual) that aims at creating a unique and comprehensive description for every individual to support various personalized services and applications. Due to heterogeneity and sensitivity of personal data, one important issue is how to effectively collect and manage person data with sufficient security protection. Another important issue is how to figure out an individual’s character, i.e., personality from personal data. Therefore, this research is focused on personal data management and personality analysis in a smartphone based client-server system. The smartphone functions as not only a source of personal data but also a gateway to manage other wearables and communicate with a server that keeps personal data in a larger amount and a longer period. A multi-security mechanism is implemented to ensure data security in collection, transmission and storage. Personality analysis is made from data normalization, feature extraction and clustering, to personality computation based on sociological personality theories. Keywords—personal data; personality; system security; cluster algorithm; smartphone; mong

Fulfilling the needs of a metadata creator and analyst : An investigation of RDF browsing and visualization tools

The realization of Semantic Web vision is based on the creation and use of semantic web content which needs software tools both for semantic web developers and end users. Over the past few years, semantic web software tools like ontology editors and triple storage systems have emerged and are growing in maturity with time. While working on a large triple dataset during the course of a research aiming at a life-long “semantic” repository of personal information, besides other semantic web tools, we used several RDF browsing and visualization tools for analyzing our data. This analysis included ensuring the correctness of the data, conformance of instance data to the ontology, finding patterns and trails in the data, cross-checking and evaluating inferred data, etc. We found that many of the features needed by a metadata creator and analyst are missing from these tools. This paper presents an investigation of the tools that are used for browsing and visualizing RDF datasets. It first identifies the browsing and visualization features required by a semantic web developer and a metadata creator and analyst and then based on those features evaluates the most common RDF browsing and visualization tools available till date. We conclude this paper with recommendations for requirements to be fulfilled for future semantic web browsing and visualizationThe past and the future of information systems: 1976-2006 and beyondRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Augmenting Autobiographical Memory: An Approach Based on Cognitive Psychology

This thesis investigates how an interactive software system can support a person in remembering their past experiences and information related to these experiences. It proposes design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems derived from Cognitive Psychology research into human memory – a perspective missing from prior work. Based on these recommendations, a conceptual design of an augmented autobiographical memory system is developed that aims to support users in retrieving cues and factual information related to experiences as well as in reconstructing those experiences. The retrieval aspects of this design are operationalised in an interactive software system called the Digital Parrot. Three important factors in the design and implementation are the context of an experience, semantic information about items in the system and associations between items. Two user studies evaluated the design and implementation of the Digital Parrot. The first study focused on the system's usability. It showed that the participants could use the Digital Parrot to accurately answer questions about an example memory data set and revealed a number of usability issues in the Digital Parrot's user interface. The second study embodied a novel approach to evaluating systems of this type and tested how an improved version of the Digital Parrot supported the participants in remembering experiences after an extended time period of two years. The study found that the Digital Parrot allowed the participants to answer questions about their own past experiences more completely and more correctly than unaided memory and that it allowed them to answer questions for which the participants' established strategies to counteract memory failures were likely to be unsuccessful. In the studies, associations between items were the most helpful factor for accessing memory-related information. The inclusion of semantic information was found to be promising especially in combination with textual search. Context was used to access information by the participants in both studies less often than expected, which suggests the need for further research. Identifying how to appropriately augment autobiographical memory is an important goal given the increasing volume of information to which users are exposed. This thesis contributes to achievement of this goal by stating the problem in Cognitive Psychology terms and by making design recommendations for augmented autobiographical memory systems. The recommendations are confirmed by the design and implementation of such a system and by empirical evaluations using an evaluation method appropriate for the field

Who Controls the Past Controls the Future - Life Annotation in Principle and Practice

The fields of the Semantic Web and Ubiquitous Computing are both relatively new fields within the discipline of Computer Science. Yet both are growing and have begun to overlap as people demand ever-smaller computers with persistent access to the internet. The Semantic Web has the potential to become a global knowledge store duplicating the information on the Web, albeit in a machine-readable form. Such a knowledge base combined with truly ubiquitous systems could provide a great benefit for humans. But what of personal knowledge? Information is generally of more use when linked to other information. Sometimes this information must be kept private, so integrating personal knowledge with the Semantic Web is not desirable. Instead, it should be possible for a computer system to collect and store private knowledge while also being able to augment it with public knowledge from the Web, all without the need for user effort. This thesis begins with a review of both fields, indicating the points at which they overlap. It describes the need for semantic annotation and various processes through which it may be achieved. A method for annotating a human's life using a combination of personal data collected using an ubiquitous system and public data freely available on the Semantic Web is suggested and conceptually compared to human memory. Context-aware computing is described along with its potential to annotate the life of a human being and the hypothesis that today's technology is able to carry out this task is presented. The work then introduces a portable system for automatically logging contextual data and describes a study which used this system to gather life annotations on one specific individual over the course of two years. The implementation of the system and its use is documented and the data collected is presented and evaluated. Finally the thesis offers the conclusion that one type of contextual data is not enough to answer most questions and that multiple forms of data need to be merged in order to get a useful picture of a person's life. The thesis concludes with a brief look into the future of the Semantic Web and how it has the potential to assist in achieving better results in this field of study