Using Visualization to Support Data Mining of Large Existing Databases

In this paper. we present ideas how visualization technology can be used to improve the difficult process of querying very large databases. With our VisDB system, we try to provide visual support not only for the query specification process. but also for evaluating query results and. thereafter, refining the query accordingly. The main idea of our system is to represent as many data items as possible by the pixels of the display device. By arranging and coloring the pixels according to the relevance for the query, the user gets a visual impression of the resulting data set and of its relevance for the query. Using an interactive query interface, the user may change the query dynamically and receives immediate feedback by the visual representation of the resulting data set. By using multiple windows for different parts of the query, the user gets visual feedback for each part of the query and, therefore, may easier understand the overall result. To support complex queries, we introduce the notion of approximate joins which allow the user to find data items that only approximately fulfill join conditions. We also present ideas how our technique may be extended to support the interoperation of heterogeneous databases. Finally, we discuss the performance problems that are caused by interfacing to existing database systems and present ideas to solve these problems by using data structures supporting a multidimensional search of the database

The hunt for submarines in classical art: mappings between scientific invention and artistic interpretation

This is a report to the AHRC's ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme. This report stems from a project which aimed to produce a series of mappings between advanced imaging information and communications technologies (ICT) and needs within visual arts research. A secondary aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of a structured approach to establishing such mappings. The project was carried out over 2006, from January to December, by the visual arts centre of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS Visual Arts).1 It was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as one of the Strategy Projects run under the aegis of its ICT in Arts and Humanities Research programme. The programme, which runs from October 2003 until September 2008, aims ‘to develop, promote and monitor the AHRC’s ICT strategy, and to build capacity nation-wide in the use of ICT for arts and humanities research’.2 As part of this, the Strategy Projects were intended to contribute to the programme in two ways: knowledge-gathering projects would inform the programme’s Fundamental Strategic Review of ICT, conducted for the AHRC in the second half of 2006, focusing ‘on critical strategic issues such as e-science and peer-review of digital resources’. Resource-development projects would ‘build tools and resources of broad relevance across the range of the AHRC’s academic subject disciplines’.3 This project fell into the knowledge-gathering strand. The project ran under the leadership of Dr Mike Pringle, Director, AHDS Visual Arts, and the day-to-day management of Polly Christie, Projects Manager, AHDS Visual Arts. The research was carried out by Dr Rupert Shepherd

Físchlár on a PDA: handheld user interface design to a video indexing, browsing and playback system

The Físchlár digital video system is a web-based system for recording, analysis, browsing and playback of TV programmes which currently has about 350 users. Although the user interface to the system is designed for desktop PCs with a large screen and a mouse, we are developing versions to allow the use of mobile devices to access the system to record and browse the video content. In this paper, the design of a PDA user interface to video content browsing is considered. We use a design framework we have developed previously to be able to specify various video browsing interface styles thus making it possible to design for all potential users and their various environments. We can then apply this to the particulars of the PDA's small, touch-sensitive screen and the mobile environment where it will be used. The resultant video browsing interfaces have highly interactive interfaces yet are simple, which requires relatively less visual attention and focusing, and can be comfortably used in a mobile situation to browse the available video contents. To date we have developed and tested such interfaces on a Revo PDA, and are in the process of developing others

AXES at TRECVID 2012: KIS, INS, and MED

The AXES project participated in the interactive instance search task (INS), the known-item search task (KIS), and the multimedia event detection task (MED) for TRECVid 2012. As in our TRECVid 2011 system, we used nearly identical search systems and user interfaces for both INS and KIS. Our interactive INS and KIS systems focused this year on using classifiers trained at query time with positive examples collected from external search engines. Participants in our KIS experiments were media professionals from the BBC; our INS experiments were carried out by students and researchers at Dublin City University. We performed comparatively well in both experiments. Our best KIS run found 13 of the 25 topics, and our best INS runs outperformed all other submitted runs in terms of P@100. For MED, the system presented was based on a minimal number of low-level descriptors, which we chose to be as large as computationally feasible. These descriptors are aggregated to produce high-dimensional video-level signatures, which are used to train a set of linear classifiers. Our MED system achieved the second-best score of all submitted runs in the main track, and best score in the ad-hoc track, suggesting that a simple system based on state-of-the-art low-level descriptors can give relatively high performance. This paper describes in detail our KIS, INS, and MED systems and the results and findings of our experiments

NITELIGHT: A Graphical Tool for Semantic Query Construction

Query formulation is a key aspect of information retrieval, contributing to both the efficiency and usability of many semantic applications. A number of query languages, such as SPARQL, have been developed for the Semantic Web; however, there are, as yet, few tools to support end users with respect to the creation and editing of semantic queries. In this paper we introduce a graphical tool for semantic query construction (NITELIGHT) that is based on the SPARQL query language specification. The tool supports end users by providing a set of graphical notations that represent semantic query language constructs. This language provides a visual query language counterpart to SPARQL that we call vSPARQL. NITELIGHT also provides an interactive graphical editing environment that combines ontology navigation capabilities with graphical query visualization techniques. This paper describes the functionality and user interaction features of the NITELIGHT tool based on our work to date. We also present details of the vSPARQL constructs used to support the graphical representation of SPARQL queries

Factors influencing visual attention switch in multi-display user interfaces: a survey

Multi-display User Interfaces (MDUIs) enable people to take advantage of the different characteristics of different display categories. For example, combining mobile and large displays within the same system enables users to interact with user interface elements locally while simultaneously having a large display space to show data. Although there is a large potential gain in performance and comfort, there is at least one main drawback that can override the benefits of MDUIs: the visual and physical separation between displays requires that users perform visual attention switches between displays. In this paper, we present a survey and analysis of existing data and classifications to identify factors that can affect visual attention switch in MDUIs. Our analysis and taxonomy bring attention to the often ignored implications of visual attention switch and collect existing evidence to facilitate research and implementation of effective MDUIs.Postprin