Evaluating a workspace's usefulness for image retrieval

Image searching is a creative process. We have proposed a novel image retrieval system that supports creative search sessions by allowing the user to organise their search results on a workspace. The workspace’s usefulness is evaluated in a task-oriented and user-centred comparative experiment, involving design professionals and several types of realistic search tasks. In particular, we focus on its effect on task conceptualisation and query formulation. A traditional relevance feedback system serves as a baseline. The results of this study show that the workspace is more useful in terms of both of the above aspects and that the proposed approach leads to a more effective and enjoyable search experience. This paper also highlights the influence of tasks on the users’ search and organisation strategy

The development of a natural language interface to a geographical information system

This paper will discuss a two and a half year long project undertaken to develop an English-language interface for the geographical information system GRASS. The work was carried out for NASA by a small business, Netrologic, based in San Diego, California, under Phase 1 and 2 Small Business Innovative Research contracts. We consider here the potential value of this system whose current functionality addresses numerical, categorical and boolean raster layers and includes the display of point sets defined by constraints on one or more layers, answers yes/no and numerical questions, and creates statistical reports. It also handles complex queries and lexical ambiguities, and allows temporarily switching to UNIX or GRASS

"More of an art than a science": Supporting the creation of playlists and mixes

This paper presents an analysis of how people construct playlists and mixes. Interviews with practitioners and postings made to a web site are analyzed using a grounded theory approach to extract themes and categorizations. The information sought is often encapsulated as music information retrieval tasks, albeit not as the traditional "known item search" paradigm. The collated data is analyzed and trends identified and discussed in relation to music information retrieval algorithms that could help support such activity

Understanding Mobile Search Task Relevance and User Behaviour in Context

Improvements in mobile technologies have led to a dramatic change in how and when people access and use information, and is having a profound impact on how users address their daily information needs. Smart phones are rapidly becoming our main method of accessing information and are frequently used to perform `on-the-go' search tasks. As research into information retrieval continues to evolve, evaluating search behaviour in context is relatively new. Previous research has studied the effects of context through either self-reported diary studies or quantitative log analysis; however, neither approach is able to accurately capture context of use at the time of searching. In this study, we aim to gain a better understanding of task relevance and search behaviour via a task-based user study (n=31) employing a bespoke Android app. The app allowed us to accurately capture the user's context when completing tasks at different times of the day over the period of a week. Through analysis of the collected data, we gain a better understanding of how using smart phones on the go impacts search behaviour, search performance and task relevance and whether or not the actual context is an important factor.Comment: To appear in CHIIR 2019 in Glasgow, U

An explorative study of interface support for image searching

In this paper we study interfaces for image retrieval systems. Current image retrieval interfaces are limited to providing query facilities and result presentation. The user can inspect the results and possibly provide feedback on their relevance for the current query. Our approach, in contrast, encourages the user to group and organise their search results and thus provide more fine-grained feedback for the system. It combines the search and management process, which - according to our hypothesis - helps the user to onceptualise their search tasks and to overcome the query formulation problem. An evaluation, involving young design-professionals and di®erent types of information seeking scenarios, shows that the proposed approach succeeds in encouraging the user to conceptualise their tasks and that it leads to increased user satisfaction. However, it could not be shown to increase performance. We identify the problems in the current setup, which when eliminated should lead to more effective searching overall

A Casual Tour Around a Circuit Complexity Bound

I will discuss the recent proof that the complexity class NEXP (nondeterministic exponential time) lacks nonuniform ACC circuits of polynomial size. The proof will be described from the perspective of someone trying to discover it.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. An earlier version appeared in SIGACT News, September 201

Geoportals: an internet marketing perspective

A geoportal is a web site that presents an entry point to geo-products (including geo-data) on the web. Despite their importance in (spatial) data infrastructures, literature suggest stagnating or even declining trends in visitor numbers. In this paper relevant ideas and techniques for improving performance are derived from internet marketing literature. We tested the extent to which these ideas are already applied in practice through a survey among 48 geoportals worldwide. Results show in many cases positive correlation with trends in visitor numbers. The ideas can be useful for geoportal managers developing their marketing strateg