User-developer cooperation in software development: building common ground and usable systems

PhDThe topic of this research is direct user participation in the task based development of interactive software systems. Building usable software demands understanding and supporting users and their tasks. Users are a primary source of usability requirements and knowledge, since users can be expected to have intimate and extensive knowledge of themselves, their tasks and their working environment. Task analysis approaches to software development encourage a focus on supporting users and their tasks while participatory design approaches encourage users' direct, active contributions to software development work. However, participatory design approaches often concentrate their efforts on design activities rather than on wider system development activities, while task analysis approaches generally lack active user participation beyond initial data gathering. This research attempts an integration of the strengths of task analysis and user participation within an overall software development process. This thesis also presents detailed empirical and theoretical analyses of what it is for users and developers to cooperate, of the nature of user-developer interaction in participatory settings. Furthennore, it operationalises and assesses the effectiveness of user participation in development and the impact of user-developer cooperation on the resulting software product. The research addressed these issues through the development and application of an approach to task based participatory development in two real world development projects. In this integrated approach, the respective strengths of task analysis and participatory design methods complemented each other's weaker aspects. The participatory design features encouraged active user participation in the development work while the task analysis features extended this participation upstream from software design activities to include analysis of the users' current work situation and design of an envisioned work situation. An inductive analysis of user-developer interaction in the software development projects was combined with a theoretical analysis drawing upon work on common ground in communication. This research generated an account of user-developer interaction in terms of the joint construction of two distinct fonns of common ground between user and developer: common ground about their present joint development activities and common ground about the objects of those joint activities, work situations and software systems. The thesis further extended the concept of common ground, assessing user participation in terms of contributions to common ground developed through the user-developer discourse. The thesis then went on to operationalise and to assess the effectiveness of user participation in tenns of the assimilation of users' contributions into the artefacts of the development work. Finally, the thesis assessed the value of user participation in tenns of the impact of user contributions to the development activities on the usability of the software produced.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Harlequin Software Grou

Developing a methodological generic framework through introducing autonomy and self-adaptation to information systems thinking

There is a requirement for systems methodologies and approaches that can cope with real life information systems that are subject to changing situations and therefore changing requirements. This has not been achieved previously and has seen a gap open up between information systems and information technology. it is recognised that information technology solutions can adapt to changing situations and subsequently changing requirements, however, this has not been possible for information systems thinking. This represents itself in the real world through information systems being used that no longer meet their original objectives and can provide a significant blockage to achieving effective work

Copyright in the Internet with reference to Malaysia

This thesis examines selected legal issues of copyright law in respect of the internet. The thesis focuses on Malaysian and UK Copyright law concerning; accessing web pages; linking; framing and caching. Since the internet is in use globally, law at an international, regional and national level have been examined in order to find solutions to these selective issues. At the regional level, European Union law is analysed. The Information Society Directive covers two of the selected issues (accessing web pages and caching). However there are still gaps in the Information Society Directive regarding the two other issues of framing and linking. In UK Copyright law, since the UK has implemented the Information Society Directive, a new section has been added to the Amendment Act, which covers accessing web pages and caching, but the UK Statutes do not expressly cover framing and linking. However, linking may be allowed under the general rule of implied licence. The Malaysian Copyright (Amendment) Act of 1997 has provided for the internet where a new section has been created that is the right to control the communication of copyright works to the public. However, there is no specific legislative provision on transient copies (accessing web page and caching) under this Act. However, accessing web pages may be covered under another provision which permits copies to be made in any form or version. Caching however is provided for under another provision. In the USA, provision on safe harbour provides the ISP with protection against action of infringement. The US Copyright law covers all the selected issues except framing. The conclusion reached in this thesis is that Malaysian law provides legislative solutions only for some of the selected copyright issues in respect of the internet but, in general, it is still inadequate and needs to be improved

3D inspection of wafer bump quality without explicit 3D reconstruction.

Zhao Yang.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-95).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Objectives of the Thesis --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Wafer bumping inspection by using Biplanar Disparity approach --- p.2Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Outline --- p.4Chapter 2 --- Background --- p.5Chapter 2.1 --- What is wafer bump? --- p.5Chapter 2.1.1 --- Common defects of wafer bump --- p.6Chapter 2.1.2 --- Literature review on exist wafer bump inspection method --- p.11Chapter 3 --- Model 1: the one camera model-Homography approach --- p.21Chapter 3.1 --- The introduction of the theoretical base of model 1 --- p.21Chapter 3.1.1 --- The objective of model 1 --- p.21Chapter 3.1.2 --- Desires --- p.22Chapter 3.1.3 --- Some background knowledge on Homography --- p.22Chapter 3.2 --- "Model 1- ""Pseudo Homography"" Approach" --- p.24Chapter 3.2.1 --- The description of the configuration of model 1 --- p.24Chapter 3.2.2 --- The condition of pseudo Homography --- p.25Chapter 3.2.3 --- The formation of pseudo Homgraphy H --- p.26Chapter 3.3 --- Methodology of treatment of the answer set --- p.32Chapter 3.3.1 --- Singular Value Decomposition-SVD --- p.32Chapter 3.3.2 --- The Robust Estimation --- p.33Chapter 3.3.3 --- Some experimental results by using manmade Ping Pang balls to test SVD[31] and Robust Estimation [24] --- p.35Chapter 3.3.4 --- the measurement of the Homography matrix answer set --- p.37Chapter 3.4 --- Preliminary experiment about model 1 --- p.43Chapter 3.5 --- Problems unsolved --- p.47Chapter 4 --- Model 2: the two camera model-Biplanar Disparity approach --- p.48Chapter 4.1 --- Theoretical Background --- p.48Chapter 4.1.1 --- the linearization of Homography matrix changes --- p.49Chapter 4.1.2 --- Problem Nature --- p.51Chapter 4.1.3 --- Imaging system setup --- p.52Chapter 4.1.4 --- Camera Calibration[13] --- p.52Chapter 4.2 --- Methodology --- p.54Chapter 4.2.1 --- Invariance measure --- p.54Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Geometric meaning of the Biplanar Disparity matrix --- p.58Chapter 4.3 --- RANSAC-Random Sample Consensus --- p.64Chapter 4.3.1 --- finding Homography matrix by using RANSAC[72] [35] --- p.64Chapter 4.3.2 --- finding Fundamental matrix by using RANSAC[73] [34] --- p.65Chapter 4.4 --- Harris Corner detection --- p.65Chapter 5 --- Simulation and experimental results --- p.67Chapter 5.1 --- Simulation experiments --- p.67Chapter 5.1.1 --- Preliminary experiments --- p.67Chapter 5.1.2 --- Specification for the synthetic data system --- p.71Chapter 5.1.3 --- Allowed error in the experiment --- p.71Chapter 5.2 --- Real images experiments --- p.72Chapter 5.2.1 --- Experiment instrument --- p.72Chapter 5.2.2 --- The Inspection Procedure --- p.74Chapter 5.2.3 --- Images grabbed under above system --- p.75Chapter 5.2.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.81Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS --- p.83Chapter 6.1 --- Summary on the contribution of my work --- p.83Chapter 6.2 --- Some Weakness of The Method --- p.84Chapter 6.3 --- Future Works and Further Development --- p.84Chapter 6.3.1 --- About the synthetic experiment --- p.84Chapter 6.3.2 --- About the real image experiment --- p.85Bibliography --- p.8

University of Maine Undergraduate Catalog, 2020-2021, part 2

The second part (of two) of the undergraduate catalog for the 2020-2021 academic year includes an introduction, the academic calendars, general information about the university, and sections on attending, facilities and centers, and colleges and academic programs including the Colleges of Business, Public Policy and Health, Education and Development, Engineering, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture