Dynamics of tilt-based browsing on mobile devices

A tilt-controlled photo browsing method for small mobile devices is presented. The implementation uses continuous inputs from an accelerometer, and a multimodal (visual, audio and vibrotactile) display coupled with the states of this model. The model is based on a simple physical model, with its characteristics shaped to enhance usability. We show how the dynamics of the physical model can be shaped to make the handling qualities of the mobile device fit the browsing task. We implemented the proposed algorithm on Samsung MITs PDA with tri-axis accelerometer and a vibrotactile motor. The experiment used seven novice users browsing from 100 photos. We compare a tilt-based interaction method with a button-based browser and an iPod wheel. We discuss the usability performance and contrast this with subjective experience from the users. The iPod wheel has significantly poorer performance than button pushing or tilt interaction, despite its commercial popularity

Adaptive content mapping for internet navigation

The Internet as the biggest human library ever assembled keeps on growing. Although all kinds of information carriers (e.g. audio/video/hybrid file formats) are available, text based documents dominate. It is estimated that about 80% of all information worldwide stored electronically exists in (or can be converted into) text form. More and more, all kinds of documents are generated by means of a text processing system and are therefore available electronically. Nowadays, many printed journals are also published online and may even discontinue to appear in print form tomorrow. This development has many convincing advantages: the documents are both available faster (cf. prepress services) and cheaper, they can be searched more easily, the physical storage only needs a fraction of the space previously necessary and the medium will not age. For most people, fast and easy access is the most interesting feature of the new age; computer-aided search for specific documents or Web pages becomes the basic tool for information-oriented work. But this tool has problems. The current keyword based search machines available on the Internet are not really appropriate for such a task; either there are (way) too many documents matching the specified keywords are presented or none at all. The problem lies in the fact that it is often very difficult to choose appropriate terms describing the desired topic in the first place. This contribution discusses the current state-of-the-art techniques in content-based searching (along with common visualization/browsing approaches) and proposes a particular adaptive solution for intuitive Internet document navigation, which not only enables the user to provide full texts instead of manually selected keywords (if available), but also allows him/her to explore the whole database

Indexing, browsing and searching of digital video

Video is a communications medium that normally brings together moving pictures with a synchronised audio track into a discrete piece or pieces of information. The size of a “piece ” of video can variously be referred to as a frame, a shot, a scene, a clip, a programme or an episode, and these are distinguished by their lengths and by their composition. We shall return to the definition of each of these in section 4 this chapter. In modern society, video is ver

The calibration and evaluation of speed-dependent automatic zooming interfaces.

Speed-Dependent Automatic Zooming (SDAZ) is an exciting new navigation technique that couples the user's rate of motion through an information space with the zoom level. The faster a user scrolls in the document, the 'higher' they fly above the work surface. At present, there are few guidelines for the calibration of SDAZ. Previous work by Igarashi & Hinckley (2000) and Cockburn & Savage (2003) fails to give values for predefined constants governing their automatic zooming behaviour. The absence of formal guidelines means that SDAZ implementers are forced to adjust the properties of the automatic zooming by trial and error. This thesis aids calibration by identifying the low-level components of SDAZ. Base calibration settings for these components are then established using a formal evaluation recording participants' comfortable scrolling rates at different magnification levels. To ease our experiments with SDAZ calibration, we implemented a new system that provides a comprehensive graphical user interface for customising SDAZ behaviour. The system was designed to simplify future extensions---for example new components such as interaction techniques and methods to render information can easily be added with little modification to existing code. This system was used to configure three SDAZ interfaces: a text document browser, a flat map browser and a multi-scale globe browser. The three calibrated SDAZ interfaces were evaluated against three equivalent interfaces with rate-based scrolling and manual zooming. The evaluation showed that SDAZ is 10% faster for acquiring targets in a map than rate-based scrolling with manual zooming, and SDAZ is 4% faster for acquiring targets in a text document. Participants also preferred using automatic zooming over manual zooming. No difference was found for the globe browser for acquisition time or preference. However, in all interfaces participants commented that automatic zooming was less physically and mentally draining than manual zooming

An Evaluation of Techniques for Browsing Photograph Collections on Small Displays

In this paper we evaluate techniques for browsing photographs on small displays. We present two new interaction techniques that replace conventional scrolling and zooming controls. Via a single user action, scrolling and zooming are inter-dependently controlled with AutoZoom and independently controlled with GestureZoom. Both techniques were evaluated in a large-scale, 72-subject usability experiment alongside a conventional thumbnail grid image browser. Performance with the new techniques was at least as good as that with the standard thumbnail grid, even though none of the subjects had prior experience with such systems. In a number of cases – such as finding small groups of photos or when seeking for images containing small details – the new techniques were significantly faster than the conventional approach. In addition, AutoZoom and GestureZoom supported significantly more accurate identification of subsets of photographs. Subjects also reported lower levels of physical and cognitive effort and frustration with the new techniques in comparison to the thumbnail grid browser

Spatially Aware Computing for Natural Interaction

Spatial information refers to the location of an object in a physical or digital world. Besides, it also includes the relative position of an object related to other objects around it. In this dissertation, three systems are designed and developed. All of them apply spatial information in different fields. The ultimate goal is to increase the user friendliness and efficiency in those applications by utilizing spatial information. The first system is a novel Web page data extraction application, which takes advantage of 2D spatial information to discover structured records from a Web page. The extracted information is useful to re-organize the layout of a Web page to fit mobile browsing. The second application utilizes the 3D spatial information of a mobile device within a large paper-based workspace to implement interactive paper that combines the merits of paper documents and mobile devices. This application can overlay digital information on top of a paper document based on the location of a mobile device within a workspace. The third application further integrates 3D space information with sound detection to realize an automatic camera management system. This application automatically controls multiple cameras in a conference room, and creates an engaging video by intelligently switching camera shots among meeting participants based on their activities. Evaluations have been made on all three applications, and the results are promising. In summary, this dissertation comprehensively explores the usage of spatial information in various applications to improve the usability