Generating Explanatory Captions for Information Graphics

Graphical presentations can be used to communicate information in relational data sets succinctly and effectively. However, novel graphical presentations about numerous attributes and their relationships are often difficult to understand completely until explained. Automatically generated graphical presentations must therefore either be limited to simple, conventional ones, or risk incomprehensibility. One way of alleviating this problem is to design graphical presentation systems that can work in conjunction with a natural language generator to produce "explanatory captions." This paper presents three strategies for generating explanatory captions to accompany information graphics based on: (1) a representation of the structure of the graphical presentation (2) a framework for identifyingthe perceptual complexity of graphical elements, and (3) the structure of the data expressed in the graphic. We describe an implemented system and illustrate how it is used to generate explanatory cap..

Generating Visual Arguments: a Media-independent Approach

... In this paper, we take the position that certain types of arguments that can be presented visually in information graphics (e.g., bar charts and scatter plots) can be generated from an underlying media-independent representation of a presentation. In support of this claim, first we briefly describe the architecture we are developing for the generation of integrated text and information graphics presentations. In this architecture, mediaindependent communicative acts are transformed into user task specifications which are the basis for the automatic design of the presentation's graphics. Then we present an example showing correspondences between the media-independent representation of an argument and the tasks that would be used to design a graphic expressing the argument

Generating multimedia briefings: coordinating language and illustration

AbstractCommunication can be more effective when several media (such as text, speech, or graphics) are integrated and coordinated to present information. This changes the nature of media-specific generation (e.g., language or graphics generation), which must take into account the multimedia context in which it occurs. This paper presents work on coordinating and integrating speech, text, static and animated three-dimensional graphics, and stored images, as part of several systems we have developed at Columbia University. A particular focus of our work has been on the generation of presentations that brief a user on information of interes

Interactive Multimedia Explanation for Equipment Maintenance and Repair

COMET (COordinated Multimedia Explanation Testbed) is a research system that we are developing to explore the coordinated generation of multimedia explanations of equipment maintenance and repair procedures. The form and content of all material presented is generated interactively, with an emphasis on coordinating multiple media to allow cross-references between media and to make possible display layout that reflects the fine-grain relationships among the material presented. COMET's architecture includes multiple static and dynamic knowledge sources, a content planner, a media coordinator, media generators (currently text and graphics), and a media layout manager. Examples are given of the kinds of material processed and produced by each of the components

Using interval temporal logic and inference rules for the automatic generation of multimedia presentations

[[abstract]]Proposes a mechanism and a system for the automatic generation of interactive multimedia presentations from their specifications. A presentation specification contains three parts: the resources, the temporal information and the spatial information. We use an icon programming technique and a graphical user interface to allow the presentation designer to quickly specify what he/she wants. Our system takes these requirements and relies on inference rules written in Prolog to generate interactive presentations. These inference rules are based on interval temporal logic and important issues in multimedia presentations, such as the hardware limitations of an ordinary personal computer and the properties of a multimedia resource. Our prototype system run under Microsoft Windows. Early experience of using the system shows that it is feasible to use logical inference rules to assist with the design of good multimedia presentations[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]19960617~19960617[[booktype]]紙本[[conferencelocation]]Hiroshima, Japa

An adaptive tutoring machine based on Web learning assessment

[[abstract]]Student performance is difficult to measure in distance learning. The authors discuss a system which keeps track of the interaction behavior of each student while one is visiting a distance learning Web document. The system also uses a dynamic finite state machine to generate new Web documents based on the interaction behavior. The contribution of such a mechanism benefits both teachers in understanding their instruction achievement and students in realizing their learning progress.[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20000731~20000802[[booktype]]紙本[[conferencelocation]]New York, NY, US

An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions

Automatic design of multimodal presentations

We describe our attempt to integrate multiple AI components such as planning, knowledge representation, natural language generation, and graphics generation into a functioning prototype called WIP that plans and coordinates multimodal presentations in which all material is generated by the system. WIP allows the generation of alternate presentations of the same content taking into account various contextual factors such as the user\u27s degree of expertise and preferences for a particular output medium or mode. The current prototype of WIP generates multimodal explanations and instructions for assembling, using, maintaining or repairing physical devices. This paper introduces the task, the functionality and the architecture of the WIP system. We show that in WIP the design of a multimodal document is viewed as a non-monotonic process that includes various revisions of preliminary results, massive replanning and plan repairs, and many negotiations between design and realization components in order to achieve an optimal division of work between text and graphics. We describe how the plan-based approach to presentation design can be exploited so that graphics generation influences the production of text and vice versa. Finally, we discuss the generation of cross-modal expressions that establish referential relationships between text and graphics elements

Database support for intelligent tutoring software

[[abstract]]Most multimedia presentations produced by many commercial software do not consider the audience's individual background. IMMPS is a multimedia authoring and database system that allows a presenter to plan the audience's reaction in advance. While the audience is watching a presentation, the underlying inference system is learning from his/her response. This mechanism makes a presentation to be done again, act according to the audience's background and knowledge. Thus, the resulting presentation is more diversified.[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]19960703~19960705[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]Melboume, Australi

SEPEC conference proceedings: Hypermedia and Information Reconstruction. Aerospace applications and research directions

Papers presented at the conference on hypermedia and information reconstruction are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: real-world hypermedia projects, aerospace applications, and future directions in hypermedia research and development