An interface to retrieve personal memories using an iconic visual language

Relevant past events can be remembered when visualizing related pictures. The main difficulty is how to find these photos in a large personal collection. Query definition and image annotation are key issues to overcome this problem. The former is relevant due to the diversity of the clues provided by our memory when recovering a past moment and the later because images need to be annotated with information regarding those clues to be retrieved. Consequently, tools to recover past memories should deal carefully with these two tasks. This paper describes a user interface designed to explore pictures from personal memories. Users can query the media collection in several ways and for this reason an iconic visual language to define queries is proposed. Automatic and semi-automatic annotation is also performed using the image content and the audio information obtained when users show their images to others. The paper also presents the user interface evaluation based on tests with 58 participants

Storytelling with objects to explore digital archives

Finding media in archives is difficult while storytelling with photos can be fun and supports memory retrieval. Could the search for media become a natural part of the storytelling experience? This study investigates spatial interactions with objects as a means to encode information for retrieval while being embedded in the story flow. An experiment is carried out in which participants watch a short video and re-tell the story using cards each of which shows a character or object occurring in the video. Participants arrange the cards when telling the story. It is analyzed what information interactions with cards carry and how this information relates to the language of storytelling. Most participants align interactions with objects with the sentences of the story while some arrange the cards corresponding to the video scene. Spatial interactions with objects can carry information on their own or complemented by language

Using Visual Scene Displays as Communication Support Options for People with Chronic, Severe Aphasia: A Summary of AAC Research and Future Research Directions

Research about the effectiveness of communicative supports and advances in photographic technology has prompted changes in the way speech-language pathologists design and implement interventions for people with aphasia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of photographic images as a basis for developing communication supports for people with chronic aphasia secondary to sudden-onset events due to cerebrovascular accidents (strokes). Topics include the evolution of AAC-based supports as they relate to people with aphasia, the development and key features of visual scene displays (VSDs), and future directions concerning the incorporation of photographs into communication supports for people with chronic and severe aphasia

Using Visual Scene Displays as Communication Support Options for People with Chronic, Severe Aphasia: A Summary of AAC Research and Future Research Directions

Research about the effectiveness of communicative supports and advances in photographic technology has prompted changes in the way speech-language pathologists design and implement interventions for people with aphasia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of photographic images as a basis for developing communication supports for people with chronic aphasia secondary to sudden-onset events due to cerebrovascular accidents (strokes). Topics include the evolution of AAC-based supports as they relate to people with aphasia, the development and key features of visual scene displays (VSDs), and future directions concerning the incorporation of photographs into communication supports for people with chronic and severe aphasia

User Experience in the Visual Notifications on Smart Devices

Notifications on smart devices have a crucial role for the end-users to help decide their action to the information. Despite the flexible customization of notifications for the intuitive user experience, users feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they receive daily. The nature of notifications is short-lived, but they are extremely intrusive and disengaging. While user experience and user interface are advanced, notifications have remained broken despite their complexity. In fact, the notifications have the poorest usability that users may struggle to customize notifications in their smart devices and choose to ignore them. Irrelevant notifications not only get ignored, but it causes frustration and a false sense of urgency. Notifications must become conversational rather than a default system to feel as a helpful personal assistant. Previous research has identified the positive emotional influence from conversational and relevant signages in the physical space (Kim, 2017). The primary focus of this dissertation is to enrich the current notifications on smart devices, to establish the new concept – the smart notifications with the optimized visual signals that provide intuitive (e.g., helpful, personal, and relevant) user experience, and to propose applicable smart visual notification signals. The System Usability Scale (SUS) (Brooke, 1986) and Nielsen’s Heuristic (Nielsen, 1994) were used to measure the usability and user interface design of notifications on smart devices from participants. The results of this dissertation can be applied in future research as researchers can continue developing smart notifications that are intuitive and designers can use it as a guideline to build better user interfaces

A study of spatial data models and their application to selecting information from pictorial databases

People have always used visual techniques to locate information in the space surrounding them. However with the advent of powerful computer systems and user-friendly interfaces it has become possible to extend such techniques to stored pictorial information. Pictorial database systems have in the past primarily used mathematical or textual search techniques to locate specific pictures contained within such databases. However these techniques have largely relied upon complex combinations of numeric and textual queries in order to find the required pictures. Such techniques restrict users of pictorial databases to expressing what is in essence a visual query in a numeric or character based form. What is required is the ability to express such queries in a form that more closely matches the user's visual memory or perception of the picture required. It is suggested in this thesis that spatial techniques of search are important and that two of the most important attributes of a picture are the spatial positions and the spatial relationships of objects contained within such pictures. It is further suggested that a database management system which allows users to indicate the nature of their query by visually placing iconic representations of objects on an interface in spatially appropriate positions, is a feasible method by which pictures might be found from a pictorial database. This thesis undertakes a detailed study of spatial techniques using a combination of historical evidence, psychological conclusions and practical examples to demonstrate that the spatial metaphor is an important concept and that pictures can be readily found by visually specifying the spatial positions and relationships between objects contained within them

Making memory: techne, technology, and the refashioning of contemporary memory

My dissertation answers two questions: Does the tension between interactive technologies and rhetoric re-shape the nature and relevance of the canon of memory? Do interactive technologies affect the ways we remember and persuade? I argue that my interpretation of techne suggests possibilities for the creation and production of new types of memory in combination with digital media. To interrogate this connection, I suggest three interpretations of the Greek concept, techne: as a process that is inherently productive; as a force that renegotiates contemporary sources of social power; and as a skill that balances expert knowledge with instrumentality. I explore the creative possibilities of making memory in several examples such as digital archives, photo manipulation, and digital collaborative pedagogy. In Chapter One, I begin by reviewing how memory has been employed since its characterization as one of the five canons. Starting with Plato\u27s Phaedrus and ending with Merlin Donald\u27s Origins of the Modern Mind and Collin Gifford Brooke\u27s Lingua Fracta, my thorough treatment of memory illustrates that even though memory has persisted through the centuries, it has not been properly adapted as a foundation of rhetoric for use in connection with information technologies. Chapter Two is a critical exploration of techne as well as an argument that states how techne and memory should be thought of as complimentary forces. New technologies afford users the possibilities to create and replicate memories, thus understanding techne as a characteristic of digital memory is critical for contemporary rhetorical practices. Chapter Three is an exploration of three digital archives: The Wayback Machine, The 9/11 Digital Archive, and The Soweto \u2776 Archive. By looking at digital archives, I argue that visitors are encouraged to participate in memory making, indicating a shift from consumerist trends of memory towards productive memorial spaces. I use the term technemonic to suggest the devices, spaces, or tokens (digital or otherwise) that we make or collect to remember a particular event. In chapter four, I argue that memory is a persuasive construct--it is not a concrete structure, as we tend to think it is, but rather it is extremely fluid and easily subjected to recreation by the slightest suggestive details. I examine two specific vectors of memory manipulation: external photo manipulation and internal cognitive manipulation. Chapter Five questions the implications of technologies used through the process of techne to change the canon of memory. This final chapter will discuss how technologies have always affected memory and why those influences are critical to contemporary rhetoric studies. In particular, Chapter Five will deal with the new sources and boundaries of control individuals have (or do not have) over their digital memories

Family memories in the home: contrasting physical and digital mementos

We carried out fieldwork to characterise and compare physical and digital mementos in the home. Physical mementos are highly valued, heterogeneous and support different types of recollection. Contrary to expectations, we found physical mementos are not purely representational, and can involve appropriating common objects and more idiosyncratic forms. In contrast, digital mementos were initially perceived as less valuable, although participants later reconsidered this. Digital mementos were somewhat limited in function and expression, largely involving representational photos and videos, and infrequently accessed. We explain these digital limitations and conclude with design guidelines for digital mementos, including better techniques for accessing and integrating these into everyday life, allowing them to acquire the symbolic associations and lasting value that characterise their physical counterparts