An experimental display programming language for the PDP-10 computer

technical reportAn experimental language for display programming, called DIAL, has been developed for the PDP-10 and the UNIVAC 1559 display. It is experimental in the sense that it was originally conceived as a means of testing out some ideas, and the best way to test them seemed to be to produce a language that others could use. The language is a subset of ALGOL (hence the name: Display Algol), with additional facilities for graphical input and output. It cannot deal with floating - point numbers and can only handle strings in a limited fashion. Also, it lacks any facilities for rotating pictures or for displaying three-dimensional objects. On the other hand, it does include features which may make it easier to develop display programs. The principal distinguishing feature of Dial is the ability to defined is play procedures. These are identical in almost every respect to ordinary procedures, but serve the additional purpose of defining the structure of the picture on the screen. In this respect they take the place of the traditional structured display file, which in Dial does not exist. The only display file created by Dial programs is a linear list of vectors which is sent to the display. The chief difference between display procedures and other Dial procedures lies in the way they are called. A typical display procedure call might be: CAPAC AT 100, 200 SIZE 20; Display procedures may be defined in terms of basic graphical primitive (lines, points, etc.) or by means of calls to other display procedures. Also included in Dial are statements for defining the interactive processes with in the program. Dial does not permit a very, high degree of graphical interaction: it is not possible to program operations like drawing rubber-band lines or dragging objects around the screen. It i s not clear whether this necessarily means that Dial programs are less efficient interactively; in any case, Dial is designed to function under a time-sharing environment where it is difficult to create continuously changing pictures

Development of Cold Cloud Seeding Technology for Use in Precipitation Management

This is a report of the world accomplished and results obtained under a 2-year contract. The primary objective of the Wasatch Weather Modification Project is to assess the effectiveness of selected procedures for increasing the water supply in the Wasatch Mountains by cloud seeding. As part of this overall objective, an airborne seeding experiment has been conducted for two winter seasons. Preliminary results of this experiment indicate a positive seeding effect within and on the periphery of the designated target area. A summary of project designs, procedures, and problems encountered is also included. Data processing, editing, analysis and display procedures, and computer programs are described. Hydrologic and climatological support studies are described and results presented

Electroencephalographic monitoring of complex mental tasks

Outlined here is the development of neurophysiological procedures to monitor operators during the performance of cognitive tasks. Our approach included the use of electroencepalographic (EEG) and rheoencephalographic (REG) techniques to determine changes in cortical function associated with cognition in the operator's state. A two channel tetrapolar REG, a single channel forearm impedance plethysmograph, a Lead I electrocardiogram (ECG) and a 21 channel EEG were used to measure subject responses to various visual-motor cognitive tasks. Testing, analytical, and display procedures for EEG and REG monitoring were developed that extend the state of the art and provide a valuable tool for the study of cerebral circulatory and neural activity during cognition

A.I. approaches in statistics

The role of pattern recognition and knowledge representation methods from artificial Intelligence with in statistics is considered. Two areas of potential use are identified and one, data exploration, is used to illustrate the possibilities. A method is presented to identify and seperate overlapping groups within cluster analysis, using an A.I. approach. The potential of such 'intelligent' approaches is stressed

Implementing a definitive notation for interactive graphics

This paper describes the application of a definitive (definition-based) programming paradigm to graphics software. The potential merits of using definitive principles for interactive graphics were considered from a theoretical perspective in [Be87]; this paper is complementary, in that it describes the insights gained through practical experience in implementing a prototype system. The main characteristics of the prototype implementation are illustrated by simple examples. Analysis of the abstract machine model underlying this implementation suggests a general purpose programming paradigm based on definitive principles that can be applied to more ambitious applications

A joint motion & disparity motion estimation technique for 3D integral video compression using evolutionary strategy

3D imaging techniques have the potential to establish a future mass-market in the fields of entertainment and communications. Integral imaging, which can capture true 3D color images with only one camera, has been seen as the right technology to offer stress-free viewing to audiences of more than one person. Just like any digital video, 3D video sequences must also be compressed in order to make it suitable for consumer domain applications. However, ordinary compression techniques found in state-of-the-art video coding standards such as H.264, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 are not capable of producing enough compression while preserving the 3D clues. Fortunately, a huge amount of redundancies can be found in an integral video sequence in terms of motion and disparity. This paper discusses a novel approach to use both motion and disparity information to compress 3D integral video sequences. We propose to decompose the integral video sequence down to viewpoint video sequences and jointly exploit motion and disparity redundancies to maximize the compression. We further propose an optimization technique based on evolutionary strategies to minimize the computational complexity of the joint motion disparity estimation. Experimental results demonstrate that Joint Motion and Disparity Estimation can achieve over 1 dB objective quality gain over normal motion estimation. Once combined with Evolutionary strategy, this can achieve up to 94% computational cost saving

Evaluation of Hands-Free Devices for Space Habitat Maintenance Procedures

Currently, International Space Station (ISS) crews use a laptop computer to display procedures for performing onboard maintenance tasks. This approach has been determined to be suboptimal. A heuristic evaluation and two studies have been completed to test commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) "near-eye" heads up displays (HUDs) for support of these types of maintenance tasks. In both studies, subjects worked through electronic procedures to perform simple maintenance tasks. As a result of the Phase I study, three HUDs were down-selected to one. In the Phase II study, the HUD was compared against two other electronic display devices - a laptop computer and an e-book reader. Results suggested that adjustability and stability of the HUD display were the most significant acceptability factors to consider for near-eye displays. The Phase II study uncovered a number of advantages and disadvantages of the HUD relative to the laptop and e-book reader for interacting with electronic procedures