A Collaborative Multi-Touch UML Design Tool

The design and development of software projects is usually done in teams today. Collaborative systems based on multi-touch walls or large table-top screens could support these highly interactive tasks. We present a novel collaborative design tool which allows several developers to jointly create complex UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams. We have developed new algorithms to recognize the gestures drawn by the users, to create the respective elements of the diagram, to adjust the edges between classes, and to improve the layout of the classes automatically. Auxiliary lines provide the user with means to align classes precisely so a more consistent layout is achieved. Export functionality for XML and Java code skeletons completes the application; the UML diagram can thus be used in further steps of the software design process. User evaluations confirm considerable benefits of our proposed system

Användargränssnitt för participativ interaktion med en multitouch-skärm

Stora skärmar med stöd för multitouch börjar användas i många olika sammanhang, som till exempel museum eller skolor. Participativ design är exempel på en användbar metod för att inkludera medborgare i stadsplanering. Ett gränssnitt för participativ design på touchskärmar behöver vara väldesignat och intuitivt. För att utforska hur ett sådant gränssnitt kan se ut användes en iterativ användarcentrerad designprocess indelad i fyra steg: (1) identifiera krav, (2) utforma alternativ, (3) ta fram prototyp och (4) utvärdera. Principer för naturliga användargränssnitt användes också inom projektet. En mindre prototyp togs fram för att testa en grundläggande interaktion för att manipulera 3d-objekt. Tester visade att interaktionen fungerade bra. Efter insamling av användardata via enkät och en litteraturstudie togs en andra prototyp fram. Denna prototyp hade möjlighet att flytta, skala och rotera hus eller andra objekt. Dessa kunde positioneras på realistisk kartdata och hittades i en sidomeny. Det fanns också möjlighet att skapa positionerade kommentar på kartan. En sekundär skärm användes även för att kunna erbjuda ett markperspektiv. Användartester på prototypen visade att objektmanipulationen och navigationen fungerade väldigt bra, medan vissa andra funktioner fungerade mindre bra. Testerna visade också att det verkar finns ett intresse för att kunna ta del av information och påverka beslut genom denna typ av interaktion. Resultatet av detta projekt kan ge insikt i hur man bör designa liknande interaktion i framtiden.Att få vara med och bestämma eller ta del av information om framtida projekt i ens stad är något som för många är väldigt viktigt. Att för en kommun kunna dela med sig information om nya projekt är inte alltid det lättaste. Det är inte heller alltid lätt att samla in åsikter om vad medborgarna tycker. Men samtidigt är det väldigt viktigt att alla får chans att tycka till om hur deras stad borde se ut. Var olika byggnader borde finnas, hur ett torg bör se ut eller liknande. Touchskärmar är något som de flesta använder dagligen i sina mobiltelefoner eller surfplattor. Men något som också börjar bli populärt är större touchskärmar, där vissa är så stora som 70 tum eller större. Det finns många användningsområ- den för större touchskärmar, där stadsplanering kan vara ett av dem. Att använda touchskärmar för att skapa en dialog mellan medborgare och deras kommun kan låta alla få sin åsikt hörd. Men för detta behövs ett program som kan användas på touchskärmen. Detta arbete undersöker hur ett sådant program borde se ut. För att ta reda på detta skapades en prototyp där det var möjligt att flytta hus eller andra objekt på en karta. Genom denna prototyp kan alltså användare placera ut hus och på så sätt skapa ett område precis så som de tycker att det borde se ut. Efter att prototypen var färdig testades den av En skärmdump som visar det man möts av när man startar prototypen. användare för att se vad de tyckte om den. Resultatet på testerna blev att den överlag fungerade bra. Detta betyder att program som denna prototyp kan vara. Testerna visade också att det finns ett intresse för program som liknar prototypen som skapades. Alla som testade angav att de hade velat använda prototypen eller ett liknande program för att vara med och utveckla en stadsdel eller liknande. För utveckling av framtida program som ska användas på ett liknande sätt kan detta arbete komma till nytta. Det kan hjälpa utvecklare att få en inblick i hur de borde tänka när de skapar sina program. Men det hjälper också att visa att folk är intresserade av teknik som denna

VeLight:A 3D virtual reality tool for CT-based anatomy teaching and training

Abstract: For doctors and other medical professionals, the human body is the focus of their daily practice. A solid understanding of how it is built up, that is, the anatomy of the human body, is essential to ensure safe medical practice. Current anatomy education takes place either using text books or via dissecting human cadavers, with text books being the most traditional way to learn anatomy due to the cost of the alternatives. However, printed media offer only a 2D perception of a part of the human body. Although dissection of human cadavers can give a more direct observation and interaction with human bodies, it is extremely costly because of the need of preserving human bodies and maintaining dissection rooms. To solve this issue, we developed VeLight, a system with which students can learn anatomy based on CT datasets using a 3D Virtual Reality display (zSpace). VeLight offers simple and intuitive interactions, and allows teachers to design their own courses using their own material. The system offers an interactive, depth-perceptive learning experience and improves the learning process. We conducted an informal user study to validate the effectiveness of VeLight. The results show that participants were able to learn and remember how to work with VeLight very quickly. All participants reported enthusiasm for the potential of VeLight in the domain of medical education. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Smartphone Based 3D Navigation Techniques in an Astronomical Observatory Context: Implementation and Evaluation in a Software Platform

International audience3D Virtual Environments (3DVE) come up as a good solution to transmit knowledge in a museum exhibit. In such contexts, providing easy to learn and to use interaction techniques which facilitate the handling inside a 3DVE is crucial to maximize the knowledge transfer. We took the opportunity to design and implement a software platform for explaining the behavior of the Telescope Bernard-Lyot to museum visitors on top of the Pic du Midi. Beyond the popularization of a complex scientific equipment, this platform constitutes an open software environment to easily plug different 3D interaction techniques. Recently, popular use of a smartphones as personal handled computer lets us envision the use of a mobile device as an interaction support with these 3DVE. Accordingly, we design and propose how to use the smartphone as a tangible object to navigate inside a 3DVE. In order to prove the interest in the use of smartphones, we compare our solution with available solutions: keyboard-mouse and 3D mouse. User experiments confirmed our hypothesis and particularly emphasizes that visitors find our solution more attractive and stimulating. Finally, we illustrate the benefits of our software framework by plugging alternative interaction techniques for supporting selection and manipulation task in 3D

Interaction for Immersive Analytics

International audienceIn this chapter, we briefly review the development of natural user interfaces and discuss their role in providing human-computer interaction that is immersive in various ways. Then we examine some opportunities for how these technologies might be used to better support data analysis tasks. Specifically, we review and suggest some interaction design guidelines for immersive analytics. We also review some hardware setups for data visualization that are already archetypal. Finally, we look at some emerging system designs that suggest future directions

Multi-touch For General-purpose Computing An Examination Of Text Entry

In recent years, multi-touch has been heralded as a revolution in humancomputer interaction. Multi-touch provides features such as gestural interaction, tangible interfaces, pen-based computing, and interface customization – features embraced by an increasingly tech-savvy public. However, multi-touch platforms have not been adopted as everyday computer interaction devices; that is, multi-touch has not been applied to general-purpose computing. The questions this thesis seeks to address are: Will the general public adopt these systems as their chief interaction paradigm? Can multi-touch provide such a compelling platform that it displaces the desktop mouse and keyboard? Is multi-touch truly the next revolution in human-computer interaction? As a first step toward answering these questions, we observe that generalpurpose computing relies on text input, and ask: Can multi-touch, without a text entry peripheral, provide a platform for efficient text entry? And, by extension, is such a platform viable for general-purpose computing? We investigate these questions through four user studies that collected objective and subjective data for text entry and word processing tasks. The first of these studies establishes a benchmark for text entry performance on a multi-touch platform, across a variety of input modes. The second study attempts to improve this performance by iv examining an alternate input technique. The third and fourth studies include mousestyle interaction for formatting rich-text on a multi-touch platform, in the context of a word processing task. These studies establish a foundation for future efforts in general-purpose computing on a multi-touch platform. Furthermore, this work details deficiencies in tactile feedback with modern multi-touch platforms, and describes an exploration of audible feedback. Finally, the thesis conveys a vision for a general-purpose multi-touch platform, its design and rationale

The State of the Art of Spatial Interfaces for 3D Visualization

International audienceWe survey the state of the art of spatial interfaces for 3D visualization. Interaction techniques are crucial to data visualization processes and the visualization research community has been calling for more research on interaction for years. Yet, research papers focusing on interaction techniques, in particular for 3D visualization purposes, are not always published in visualization venues, sometimes making it challenging to synthesize the latest interaction and visualization results. We therefore introduce a taxonomy of interaction technique for 3D visualization. The taxonomy is organized along two axes: the primary source of input on the one hand and the visualization task they support on the other hand. Surveying the state of the art allows us to highlight specific challenges and missed opportunities for research in 3D visualization. In particular, we call for additional research in: (1) controlling 3D visualization widgets to help scientists better understand their data, (2) 3D interaction techniques for dissemination, which are under-explored yet show great promise for helping museum and science centers in their mission to share recent knowledge, and (3) developing new measures that move beyond traditional time and errors metrics for evaluating visualizations that include spatial interaction

Characterization of multiphase flows integrating X-ray imaging and virtual reality

Multiphase flows are used in a wide variety of industries, from energy production to pharmaceutical manufacturing. However, because of the complexity of the flows and difficulty measuring them, it is challenging to characterize the phenomena inside a multiphase flow. To help overcome this challenge, researchers have used numerous types of noninvasive measurement techniques to record the phenomena that occur inside the flow. One technique that has shown much success is X-ray imaging. While capable of high spatial resolutions, X-ray imaging generally has poor temporal resolution. This research improves the characterization of multiphase flows in three ways. First, an X-ray image intensifier is modified to use a high-speed camera to push the temporal limits of what is possible with current tube source X-ray imaging technology. Using this system, sample flows were imaged at 1000 frames per second without a reduction in spatial resolution. Next, the sensitivity of X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements to changes in acquisition parameters is analyzed. While in theory CT measurements should be stable over a range of acquisition parameters, previous research has indicated otherwise. The analysis of this sensitivity shows that, while raw CT values are strongly affected by changes to acquisition parameters, if proper calibration techniques are used, acquisition parameters do not significantly influence the results for multiphase flow imaging. Finally, two algorithms are analyzed for their suitability to reconstruct an approximate tomographic slice from only two X-ray projections. These algorithms increase the spatial error in the measurement, as compared to traditional CT; however, they allow for very high temporal resolutions for 3D imaging. The only limit on the speed of this measurement technique is the image intensifier-camera setup, which was shown to be capable of imaging at a rate of at least 1000 FPS. While advances in measurement techniques for multiphase flows are one part of improving multiphase flow characterization, the challenge extends beyond measurement techniques. For improved measurement techniques to be useful, the data must be accessible to scientists in a way that maximizes the comprehension of the phenomena. To this end, this work also presents a system for using the Microsoft Kinect sensor to provide natural, non-contact interaction with multiphase flow data. Furthermore, this system is constructed so that it is trivial to add natural, non-contact interaction to immersive visualization applications. Therefore, multiple visualization applications can be built that are optimized to specific types of data, but all leverage the same natural interaction. Finally, the research is concluded by proposing a system that integrates the improved X-ray measurements, with the Kinect interaction system, and a CAVE automatic virtual environment (CAVE) to present scientists with the multiphase flow measurements in an intuitive and inherently three-dimensional manner

User experience in cross-cultural contexts

This dissertation discusses how interdisciplinary UX teams can consider culturally sensitive design elements during the UX design process. It contributes a state-of-the-art meta review on UX evaluation methods, two software tool artifacts for cross-functional UX teams, and empirical insights in the differing usage behaviors of a website plug-in of French, German and Italian users, website design preferences of Vietnamese and German users, as well as learnings from a field trip that focused on studying privacy and personalization in Mumbai, India. Finally, based on these empirical insights, this work introduces the concept culturally sensitive design that goes beyond traditional cross-cultural design considerations in HCI that do not compare different approaches to consider culturally sensitive product aspects in user research