Improving Usability of Interactive Graphics Specification and Implementation with Picking Views and Inverse Transformations

Specifying and programming graphical interactions are difficult tasks, notably because designers have difficulties to express the dynamics of the interaction. This paper shows how the MDPC architecture improves the usability of the specification and the implementation of graphical interaction. The architecture is based on the use of picking views and inverse transforms from the graphics to the data. With three examples of graphical interaction, we show how to express them with the architecture, how to implement them, and how this improves programming usability. Moreover, we show that it enables implementing graphical interaction without a scene graph. This kind of code prevents from errors due to cache consistency management

Levitating Particle Displays with Interactive Voxels

Levitating objects can be used as the primitives in a new type of display. We present levitating particle displays and show how research into object levitation is enabling a new way of presenting and interacting with information. We identify novel properties of levitating particle displays and give examples of the interaction techniques and applications they allow. We then discuss design challenges for these displays, potential solutions, and promising areas for future research

Subjective information visualizations

Information Visualizations (InfoViz) are systems that require high levels of cognitive processing. They revolve around the notion of decoding and interpreting visual patterns in order to achieve certain goals. We argue that purely designing for the visual will not allow for optimum experiences since there is more to InfoViz than just the visual. Interaction is a key to achieving higher levels of knowledge. In this position paper we present a different perspective on the underlying meaning of interaction, where we describe it as incorporating both the visual and the physical activities. By physical activities we mean the physical actions upon the physical input device/s. We argue that interaction is the key element for supporting users’ subjective experiences hence these experiences should first be understood. All the discussions in this paper are based upon on going work in the field of visualizing the literature knowledge domain (LKDViz)

Resolving Combinatorial Ambiguities in Dilepton ttˉt\bar t Event Topologies with Constrained M2M_2 Variables

We advocate the use of on-shell constrained $M_2$ variables in order to mitigate the combinatorial problem in SUSY-like events with two invisible particles at the LHC. We show that in comparison to other approaches in the literature, the constrained $M_2$ variables provide superior ansatze for the unmeasured invisible momenta and therefore can be usefully applied to discriminate combinatorial ambiguities. We illustrate our procedure with the example of dilepton $t\bar{t}$ events. We critically review the existing methods based on the Cambridge $M_{T2}$ variable and MAOS-reconstruction of invisible momenta, and show that their algorithm can be simplified without loss of sensitivity, due to a perfect correlation between events with complex solutions for the invisible momenta and events exhibiting a kinematic endpoint violation. Then we demonstrate that the efficiency for selecting the correct partition is further improved by utilizing the $M_2$ variables instead. Finally, we also consider the general case when the underlying mass spectrum is unknown, and no kinematic endpoint information is available

Hidden Pursuits: Evaluating Gaze-selection via Pursuits when the Stimuli's Trajectory is Partially Hidden

The idea behind gaze interaction using Pursuits is to leverage the human's smooth pursuit eye movements performed when following moving targets. However, humans can also anticipate where a moving target would reappear if it temporarily hides from their view. In this work, we investigate how well users can select targets using Pursuits in cases where the target's trajectory is partially invisible (HiddenPursuits): e.g., can users select a moving target that temporarily hides behind another object? Although HiddenPursuits was not studied in the context of interaction before, understanding how well users can perform HiddenPursuits presents numerous opportunities, particularly for small interfaces where a target's trajectory can cover area outside of the screen. We found that users can still select targets quickly via Pursuits even if their trajectory is up to 50% hidden, and at the expense of longer selection times when the hidden portion is larger. We discuss how gaze-based interfaces can leverage HiddenPursuits for an improved user experience

SIW cavity-backed slot (multi-)antenna systems for the next generation IoT applications

Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed slot antenna topologies are promising candidates to adress the specific design challenges posed by the Internet of Things (IoT). In this contribution, we demonstrate their potential by discussing two designs on two different, application-specific, innovative substrate materials. First, a compact, ultra-wideband three-element array with very low mutual coupling is presented for integration into furniture. In the second design, the half-mode SIW technique is applied to obtain a miniaturized ultra-wideband design, enabling invisible integration into cork floor and wall tiles. The compactness, integrability, and stable, high performance of both designs in different operating conditions, make them ideal candidates for IoT applications

Sparticles in Motion - getting to the line in compressed scenarios with the Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction

The observation of light super-partners from a supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model is an intensely sought-after experimental outcome, providing an explanation for the stabilization of the electroweak scale and indicating the existence of new particles which could be consistent with dark matter phenomenology. For compressed scenarios, where sparticle spectra mass-splittings are small and decay products carry low momenta, dedicated techniques are required in all searches for supersymmetry. In this paper we suggest an approach for these analyses based on the concept of Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction, decomposing each event into a basis of complementary observables, for cases where strong initial state radiation has sufficient transverse momentum to elicit the recoil of any final state sparticles. We introduce a collection of kinematic observables which can be used to probe compressed scenarios, in particular exploiting the correlation between missing momentum and that of radiative jets. As an example, we study squark and gluino production, focusing on mass-splittings between parent super-particles and their lightest decay products between 25 and 200 GeV, in hadronic final states where there is an ambiguity in the provenance of reconstructed jets