78 research outputs found
An Incremental On-line Parsing Algorithm for Recognizing Sketching Diagrams
International audienceThis paper presents a syntactic recognition approach for on-line drawn graphical symbols. The proposed method consists in an incremental on-line predictive parser based on symbol descriptions by an adjacency grammar. The parser analyzes input strokes as they are drawn by the user and is able to get ahead which symbols are likely to be recognized when a partial subshape is drawn in an intermediate state. In addition, the parser takes into account two issues. First, symbol strokes are drawn in any order by the user and second, since it is an on-line framework, the system requires real-time response. The method has been applied to an on-line sketching interface for architectural symbols
Object-oriented engineering of visual languages
Visual languages are notations that employ graphics (icons, diagrams) to present information in a two or more dimensional space. This work focuses on diagrammatic visual languages, as found in software engineering, and their computer implementations. Implementation means the development of processors to automatically analyze diagrams and the development of graphical editors for constructing the diagrams. We propose a rigorous implementation technique that uses a formal grammar to specify the syntax of a visual language and that uses parsing to automatically analyze the visual sentences generated by the grammar. The theoretical contributions of our work are an original treatment of error handling (error detection, reporting, and recovery) in off-line visual language parsing, and the source-to-source translation of visual languages. We have also substantially extended an existing grammatical model for multidimensional languages, called atomic relational grammars. We have added support for meta-language expressions that denote optional and repetitive right-hand-side elements. We hav
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Formalizing graphical notations
The thesis describes research into graphical notations for software engineering, with a principal interest in ways of formalizing them. The research seeks to provide a theoretical basis that will help in designing both notations and the software tools that process them.
The work starts from a survey of literature on notation, followed by a review of techniques for formal description and for computational handling of notations. The survey concentrates on collecting views of the benefits and the problems attending notation use in software development; the review covers picture description languages, grammars and tools such as generic editors and visual programming environments. The main problem of notation is found to be a lack of any coherent, rigorous description methods. The current approaches to this problem are analysed as lacking in consensus on syntax specification and also lacking a clear focus on a defined concept of notated expression.
To address these deficiencies, the thesis embarks upon an exploration of serniotic, linguistic and logical theory; this culminates in a proposed formalization of serniosis in notations, using categorial model theory as a mathematical foundation. An argument about the structure of sign systems leads to an analysis of notation into a layered system of tractable theories, spanning the gap between expressive pictorial medium and subject domain. This notion of 'tectonic' theory aims to treat both diagrams and formulae together.
The research gives details of how syntactic structure can be sketched in a mathematical sense, with examples applying to software development diagrams, offering a new solution to the problem of notation specification. Based on these methods, the thesis discusses directions for resolving the harder problems of supporting notation design, processing and computer-aided generic editing. A number of future research areas are thereby opened up. For practical trial of the ideas, the work proceeds to the development and partial implementation of a system to aid the design of notations and editors. Finally the thesis is evaluated as a contribution to theory in an area which has not attracted a standard approach
The architecture of information : interpretation and presentation of information in dynamic environments
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-147) and index.Louis Murray Weitzman.Ph.D
New methods, techniques and applications for sketch recognition
2012-2013The use of diagrams is common in various disciplines. Typical examples
include maps, line graphs, bar charts, engineering blueprints, architects’
sketches, hand drawn schematics, etc.. In general, diagrams can be created
either by using pen and paper, or by using specific computer programs. These
programs provide functions to facilitate the creation of the diagram, such as
copy-and-paste, but the classic WIMP interfaces they use are unnatural when
compared to pen and paper. Indeed, it is not rare that a designer prefers
to use pen and paper at the beginning of the design, and then transfer the
diagram to the computer later.
To avoid this double step, a solution is to allow users to sketch directly on
the computer. This requires both specific hardware and sketch recognition
based software. As regards hardware, many pen/touch based devices such as
tablets, smartphones, interactive boards and tables, etc. are available today,
also at reasonable costs. Sketch recognition is needed when the sketch must
be processed and not considered as a simple image and it is crucial to the
success of this new modality of interaction. It is a difficult problem due to the
inherent imprecision and ambiguity of a freehand drawing and to the many
domains of applications. The aim of this thesis is to propose new methods
and applications regarding the sketch recognition. The presentation of the
results is divided into several contributions, facing problems such as corner
detection, sketched symbol recognition and autocompletion, graphical context
detection, sketched Euler diagram interpretation.
The first contribution regards the problem of detecting the corners present
in a stroke. Corner detection is often performed during preprocessing to
segment a stroke in single simple geometric primitives such as lines or curves.
The corner recognizer proposed in this thesis, RankFrag, is inspired by the
method proposed by Ouyang and Davis in 2011 and improves the accuracy
percentages compared to other methods recently proposed in the literature.
The second contribution is a new method to recognize multi-stroke hand
drawn symbols, which is invariant with respect to scaling and supports symbol
recognition independently from the number and order of strokes. The method
is an adaptation of the algorithm proposed by Belongie et al. in 2002 to the
case of sketched images. This is achieved by using stroke related information.
The method has been evaluated on a set of more than 100 symbols from
the Military Course of Action domain and the results show that the new
recognizer outperforms the original one.
The third contribution is a new method for recognizing multi-stroke partially
hand drawn symbols which is invariant with respect to scale, and
supports symbol recognition independently from the number and order of
strokes. The recognition technique is based on subgraph isomorphism and
exploits a novel spatial descriptor, based on polar histograms, to represent
relations between two stroke primitives. The tests show that the approach
gives a satisfactory recognition rate with partially drawn symbols, also with
a very low level of drawing completion, and outperforms the existing approaches
proposed in the literature. Furthermore, as an application, a system
presenting a user interface to draw symbols and implementing the proposed
autocompletion approach has been developed. Moreover a user study aimed
at evaluating the human performance in hand drawn symbol autocompletion
has been presented. Using the set of symbols from the Military Course of
Action domain, the user study evaluates the conditions under which the
users are willing to exploit the autocompletion functionality and those under
which they can use it efficiently. The results show that the autocompletion
functionality can be used in a profitable way, with a drawing time saving of
about 18%.
The fourth contribution regards the detection of the graphical context of
hand drawn symbols, and in particular, the development of an approach for
identifying attachment areas on sketched symbols. In the field of syntactic
recognition of hand drawn visual languages, the recognition of the relations
among graphical symbols is one of the first important tasks to be accomplished
and is usually reduced to recognize the attachment areas of each symbol and
the relations among them. The approach is independent from the method used
to recognize symbols and assumes that the symbol has already been recognized.
The approach is evaluated through a user study aimed at comparing the
attachment areas detected by the system to those devised by the users. The
results show that the system can identify attachment areas with a reasonable
accuracy.
The last contribution is EulerSketch, an interactive system for the sketching
and interpretation of Euler diagrams (EDs). The interpretation of a hand
drawn ED produces two types of text encodings of the ED topology called
static code and ordered Gauss paragraph (OGP) code, and a further encoding
of its regions. Given the topology of an ED expressed through static or OGP
code, EulerSketch automatically generates a new topologically equivalent ED
in its graphical representation. [edited by author]XII n.s
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Negotiated Tutoring: An Approach to Interaction in Intelligent Tutoring Systems
This thesis describes a general approach to tutorial interaction in Intelligent Tutoring Systems, called "Negotiated Tutoring". Some aspects of the approach have been implemented as a computer program in the 'KANT' (Kritical Argument Negotiated Tutoring) system. Negotiated Tutoring synthesises some recent trends in Intelligent Tutoring Systems research, including interaction symmetry, use of explicit negotiation in dialogue, multiple interaction styles, and an emphasis on cognitive and metacognitive skill acquisition in domains characterised by justified belief. This combination of features has not been previously incorporated into models for intelligent tutoring dialogues. Our approach depends on modelling the high-level decision-making processes and memory representations used by a participant in dialogue. Dialogue generation is controlled by reasoning mechanisms which operate on a 'dialogue state', consisting of conversants' beliefs, a set of possible dialogue moves, and a restricted representation of the recent utterances generated by both conversants. The representation for conversants' beliefs is based on Anderson's (1983) model for semantic memory, and includes a model for dialogue focus based on spreading activation. Decisions in dialogue are based on preconditions with respect to the dialogue state, higher level educational preferences which choose between relevant alternative dialogue moves, and negotiation mechanisms designed to ensure cooperativity. The domain model for KANT was based on a cognitive model for perception of musical structures in tonal melodies, which extends the theory of Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983). Our model ('GRAF' - GRouping Analysis with Frames) addresses a number of problems with Lerdahl and Jackendoff's theory, notably in describing how a number of unconscious processes in music cognition interact, including elements of top-down and bottom-up processing. GRAF includes a parser for musical chord functions, a mechanism for performing musical reductions, low-level feature detectors and a frame-system (Minsky 1977) for musical phrase structures
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism)
Superseded: Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches. Second revised and extended edition.
This book is superseded by the third edition, available at http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/255.
This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language.
The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.
The book is a translation of the German book Grammatiktheorie, which was published by Stauffenburg in 2010. The following quotes are taken from reviews:
With this critical yet fair reflection on various grammatical theories, MĂĽller fills what was a major gap in the literature. Karen Lehmann, Zeitschrift fĂĽr RezenÂsioÂnen zur gerÂmanÂisÂtisÂchen SprachÂwisÂsenschaft, 2012
Stefan MĂĽller’s recent introductory textbook, GramÂmatikÂtheÂoÂrie, is an astonishingly comprehensive and insightful survey for beginning students of the present state of syntactic theory. Wolfgang Sternefeld und Frank Richter, Zeitschrift fĂĽr SprachÂwissenÂschaft, 2012
This is the kind of work that has been sought after for a while [...] The impartial and objective discussion offered by the author is particularly refreshing. Werner Abraham, Germanistik, 2012
This book is a new edition of http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/25
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