A Theory Of Small Program Complexity

Small programs are those which are written and understood by one. person. Large software systems usually consist of many small programs. The complexity of a small program is a prediction of how difficult it would be for someone to understand the program. This complexity depends of three factors: (1) the size and interelationships of the program itself; (2) the size and interelationships of the internal model of the program\u27s purpose held by the person trying to understand the program; and (3) the complexity of the mapping between the model and the program. A theory of small program complexity based on these three factors is presented. The theory leads to several testable predictions. Experiments are described which test these predictions and whose results could verify or destroy the theory. © 1982, ACM. All rights reserved

Three Dimensional Cartography for a Theater Production

This report documents the planning, design, and implementation of the Three Dimensional Cartography for a Theater Production project. This project’s client was Professor Chris Beach, a professor of Theater Arts at the University of Redlands. Professor Beach was interested in implementing 3D cartographic geovisualizations into a theater production he was co-writing. These geovisualizations were meant to be presented alongside actors on stage to a live audience. The datasets visualized include antique USGS topographic maps, National Park Service maps, orthographic photos and prehistoric petroglyphic cartographic representations. The process of implementing this project involved gathering raw data from internet sources, formatting them so they could be utilized on a 3D platform, and exporting animation tracks created from the data as videos. This project used ArcGIS software to create dynamic 3D cartographic representations that were visually appealing and engaging to an audience

Instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school

This article offers an examination of instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school. We distinguish the Expert, Spiral and Reading approach as groups of instructional strategies that mainly differ in their general design plan to control students' processing load. In order, they emphasize topdown program design, incremental learning, and program modification and amplification. In contrast, tactics are specific design plans that prescribe methods to reach desired learning outcomes under given circumstances. Based on ACT* (Anderson, 1983) and relevant research, we distinguish between declarative and procedural instruction and present six tactics which can be used both to design courses and to evaluate strategies. Three tactics for declarative instruction involve concrete computer models, programming plans and design diagrams; three tactics for procedural instruction involve worked-out examples, practice of basic cognitive skills and task variation. In our evaluation of groups of instructional strategies, the Reading approach has been found to be superior to the Expert and Spiral approaches

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 369)

This bibliography lists 209 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Nov. 1992. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance

Human operator performance of remotely controlled tasks: Teleoperator research conducted at NASA's George C. Marshal Space Flight Center

The capabilities within the teleoperator laboratories to perform remote and teleoperated investigations for a wide variety of applications are described. Three major teleoperator issues are addressed: the human operator, the remote control and effecting subsystems, and the human/machine system performance results for specific teleoperated tasks

Cartographies of Heritage : Mapping the Interpretation of Landscape

Ph. D. Thesis.This thesis critically assesses the capabilities of data visualisation as a medium for effectively presenting and communicating fuzzy data, exploring cartographic methods as an effective form of knowledge communication. It considers how data visualisation can be used to explore landscape themes, specifically by integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to represent and analyse qualitative data for understanding cultural heritage landscapes. Using heritage as a key geographical theme, the thesis considers how individuals place ‘value’ onto locations by reviewing theories of landscape aesthetics as a way of conceptualising landscape recognition. By utilising GIS, the thesis devises a mixed-methods approach to map interpretations and responses to heritage landscapes, developing techniques to enable the visualisation of landscape responses through forms of digital cartography. The methodology is designed to be completed in two separate stages. The first stage involves the collection of categorical and quantifiable data through identified research methods. The second stage requires utilising the empirical data collection to create data visualisation and subsequent maps as evidence of the possibility to deploy qualitative cartographies. Consequently, this thesis shows that cartographic representations can interrogate the relationships between people and place using mixed methods through a qualitative GIS approach. Whether these are part of a series of ongoing innovations, as unique stand-alone maps or as complimentary and supplementary methods of visualisation, data representations can effectively communicate people's experiences with or interpretations of landscapes. Data graphics and cartographic representations can be used alongside or in tandem to one another as part of the same visualisation, to create new innovative forms of data visualisation for interrogating and deciphering the complexities between people and place.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), North East Doctoral Training Centre (NEDTC

Directing Attention in an Augmented Reality Environment: An Attentional Tunneling Evaluation

Augmented Reality applications use explicit cuing to support visual search. Explicit cues can help improve visual search performance but they can also cause perceptual issues such as attentional tunneling. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the relationship between directing attention and attentional tunneling, in a dual task structure. One task was tracking a target in motion and the other was detection of non-target elements. Three conditions were tested: baseline without cuing the target, cuing the target with the average scene color, and using a red cue. A different color for the cue was used to vary the attentional tunneling level. The results show that directing attention induced attentional tunneling only the in red condition and that effect is attributable to the color used for the cue

US Army Weapon Systems Human-Computer Interface (WSHCI) style guide, Version 1

A stated goal of the U.S. Army has been the standardization of the human computer interfaces (HCIS) of its system. Some of the tools being used to accomplish this standardization are HCI design guidelines and style guides. Currently, the Army is employing a number of style guides. While these style guides provide good guidance for the command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) domain, they do not necessarily represent the more unique requirements of the Army`s real time and near-real time (RT/NRT) weapon systems. The Office of the Director of Information for Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (DISC4), in conjunction with the Weapon Systems Technical Architecture Working Group (WSTAWG), recognized this need as part of their activities to revise the Army Technical Architecture (ATA). To address this need, DISC4 tasked the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop an Army weapon systems unique HCI style guide. This document, the U.S. Army Weapon Systems Human-Computer Interface (WSHCI) Style Guide, represents the first version of that style guide. The purpose of this document is to provide HCI design guidance for RT/NRT Army systems across the weapon systems domains of ground, aviation, missile, and soldier systems. Each domain should customize and extend this guidance by developing their domain-specific style guides, which will be used to guide the development of future systems within their domains

Advanced techniques for the management of geological mapping

This research is deemed of importance in the solution of one of the main complex problems in geological map production, the transfer from the 1:25.000 geologic data base, that has a resolution corresponding to that at which data are gathered in the field, to the printing of 1:50.000 geological maps. The problems relate mainly to the greater detail of information contained in the database and the smaller printing scale. They can be classified into the design of a geological database scheme that allows the generalization process based on the rules relating the geological objects to one another, symbol overcrowding, and symbol overlapping. The challenge is to specify and implement a digital version of the decision rules used by geologists and cartographers to generate the final map. Often in practice these rules tend to be highly ambiguous, subjective, and inadequate in view of the modern need of automated generalization of geological information for land-use planning. The proposed system is based on the application of conventional and artificial intelligence computer techniques to the production of digital geological cartography, from the gathering of geologic data in the field to some printed product of wide usability. The objectives can be summarised as follows: 1 A support system for the iterative identification and characterization of geological objects based on an ad hoc geological and stratigraphic dictionary; 2 The identification and implementation of a hierarchical geological database schema for the automated reclassification or generalization of a geological database; 3 A hierarchical expert system for the automated revision and multiple representation of a geological database in view of new interpretation criteria of the geological information or for the production of maps on demand; 4 A system for avoiding symbol overcrowding or overlapping during the production of a geological map, which identifies the geological rules interacting between the geological objects represented in a map