Supporting Tangible User Interaction with Integrated Paper and Electronic Document Management Systems

Although electronic technology has had a significant impact on the way that offices manage documents, in most cases electronic documents have not completely replaced paper documents. As a result, many present-day offices use a combination of paper and electronic documents in their normal work-flow. The problem with this, however, is that it results in information and document management becoming fragmented between the paper and electronic forms. There is, therefore, a need to provide better integration of the management of paper and electronic documents in order to reduce this fragmentation and, where possible, bring the advantages of electronic document management to paper documents. Previous research has investigated methods of incorporating management and tracking of paper documents into electronic document management systems. However, better integration between paper and electronic document management is still needed, and could potentially be achieved by augmenting elements of the physical document management system with electronic circuitry so they can support tangible user interaction with the integrated document management system. Therefore, the aim of this thesis has been to investigate this. The approach that was taken began by identifying the requirements of such integrated systems by studying the document management needs of a number of real-world offices. This was followed by the development of a series of prototype systems designed to function as tangible user interfaces to the integrated document management system. These prototypes were then evaluated against the identified requirements, and a user study was conducted in order to evaluate their usability. The results of these evaluations demonstrate that it is possible to develop systems systems that can utilise tangible user interaction techniques to enhance the integration of paper and electronic document management, and thus better bridge the divide between the physical and virtual worlds of documents

Building Multimedia Proceedings: The Roles of Video in Interactive Electronic Conference Proceedings

Modern computer systems have changed the way that conference proceedings can be presented and archived. No longer are researchers limited by printed text; electronic proceedings allow one to search the proceedings, add and share annotations, and create paths of related concepts through the proceedings. These additional capabilities extend the opportunities and benefit the thought processes of actual conference participants and the new virtual participants who experience the conference through the electronic proceedings. In this paper, we discuss the construction of electronic conference proceedings, highlighting the role of talks and other presentations (and, particularly, the audio and video of these talks and presentations) in electronic proceedings. In particular, we discuss the benefits of incorporating video and audio in proceedings; describe the interface that guides the interaction between the text of a paper, the audio of the conference speaker, the video of the speaker, and the slides the speaker uses; detail experiences using limited video in proceedings; highlight the significance of the interface and careful editing by experts in the field, and recommend strategies and mechanisms for designers of proceedings and other multimedia documents which incorporate and link large amounts of text and video

Electronic governance technologies in the system of providing administrative services

The practice of using the term “electronic governance” does not differentiate the concepts of the subject of management, that is, the three branches of government, with forms, processes and technologies of governance, which is not correct, since the use of information technology in state activities is not a top priority. On the other hand, electronic governance technologies cannot be considered separately from the automated governance processes as well as electronic governance technologies are not a supplement or an analogue of the traditional state, as intended to communicate by means of electronic governance technologies to increase the efficiency of the entire system of public administration, in particular in the system of administrative services

New technology for interactive CAL: The origami project

Origami is a three‐year EPSRC project that forms part of a general research programme on human‐computer interaction. The goal of this research is to investigate and implement new methods for human‐computer interaction, and to apply and evaluate their use. The research centres on the DigitalDesk, an ordinary desk augmented with a computer display using projection television and a video camera to monitor inputs. The DigitalDesk allows electronic and printed documents to be combined to give richer presentation and interaction possibilities than are possible with either separate medium. This paper examines the implications of such a system for CAL, and presents two prototype applications that demonstrate the possibilities

Reading with new tools: An evaluation of Personal Digital Assistants as tools for reading course materials

Lightweight, palmtop devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) can now be used for reading electronic text, opening up their potential as learning tools. This paper reports a study that evaluated the use of PDAs for reading course materials by students on an Open University master's course. The research is grounded in activity theory, which provides a useful framework for examining how the introduction of a new tool changes an existing activity. Student perceptions of the possibilities and constraints of the PDA, as determined by questionnaires and interviews, reveal the impact the new tool had upon reading. The PDA constrained reading with limitations such as the small screen size, new requirements for navigating through the text and awkward methods for taking notes. These conditions made it difficult for students to skim‐read the text, to move back and forth within the document and to interact with the text as easily as they could with paper. Nevertheless, students welcomed the opportunity to have the course materials on a portable, lightweight device that could be used at any time and in any place. This made it easier to fit the reading activity around the various other activities in which students were involved In addition, the PDA was used in conjunction with existing tools, such as the printed version of the course materials and the desktop computer. Therefore, it was not seen to replace paper but rather to extend and complement it. The findings are discussed using concepts from activity theory to interpret how the new tool modified the reading activity

Electronic peer review: a large cohort teaching themselves?

[Abstract]: Electronic peer review can empower lecturers of large courses to produce rapid feedback, promote social interaction and encourage higher order learning for students. But what are the payoffs to educators? Do students recognise the benefits of such a system? Foundation Computing is one of the largest courses at the University of Southern Queensland. A system of electronic submission and peer reviewing with instructor moderation is now being used in this course. This system is innovative and unique and delivers benefits to students, lecturers and the University. This system has been evaluated, proven successful and is being considered for wider use

Design issues in the production of hyper‐books and visual‐books

This paper describes an ongoing research project in the area of electronic books. After a brief overview of the state of the art in this field, two new forms of electronic book are presented: hyper‐books and visual‐books. A flexible environment allows them to be produced in a semi‐automatic way starting from different sources: electronic texts (as input for hyper‐books) and paper books (as input for visual‐books). The translation process is driven by the philosophy of preserving the book metaphor in order to guarantee that electronic information is presented in a familiar way. Another important feature of our research is that hyper‐books and visual‐books are conceived not as isolated objects but as entities within an electronic library, which inherits most of the features of a paper‐based library but introduces a number of new properties resulting from its non‐physical nature

Judging a book by its cover: interface elements that affect reader selection of ebooks

Digital library research has demonstrated the impact of content presentation on both search and reading behaviours. In this paper, we scrutinise the influence of ebook presentation on user behaviour, focussing on document thumbnails and the first page view. We demonstrate that flaws in presentation increase the volume of short time-span reading, and reduce the likelihood of long-span reading when compared to other documents. This reflects other patterns of information seeking behaviour that demonstrate increased short-term reading when information content is uncertain, and suggests an ineffective use of reader time on less useful content

USAge of Groupware in Software Engineering Education at the Cscw Laboratory of University Duisburg-essen: Possibilities and Limitations

This paper analyzes the application level in CSCW laboratory there are Electronic meeting rooms, Video Conferencing, Desktop Conference (Passenger), and BSCW system which conducting in The University Duisburg – Essen Germany. This analysis included short analysis and discussion about possibilities and limitation of each experiment followed by outlook how this lab can be further developed.Multi-user to Multipoint Videoconferences is introduced to cover all of devices join to the conferences. A computer network, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), ISDN Phone, Wireless Infrastructures (accessed by laptop, smart phone, PDA) and videoconferences systems is proposed to be integrate