A grammatical specification of human-computer dialogue

The Seeheim Model of human-computer interaction partitions an interactive application into a user-interface, a dialogue controller and the application itself. One of the formal techniques of implementing the dialogue controller is based on context-free grammars and automata. In this work, we modify an off-the-shelf compiler generator (YACC) to generate the dialogue controller. The dialogue controller is then integrated into the popular X-window system, to create an interactive-application generator. The actions of the user drive the automaton, which in turn controls the application

TAE Plus: Transportable Applications Environment Plus tools for building graphic-oriented applications

The Transportable Applications Environment Plus (TAE Plus), developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is a portable User Interface Management System (UIMS), which provides an intuitive WYSIWYG WorkBench for prototyping and designing an application's user interface, integrated with tools for efficiently implementing the designed user interface and effective management of the user interface during an application's active domain. During the development of TAE Plus, many design and implementation decisions were based on the state-of-the-art within graphics workstations, windowing system and object-oriented programming languages. Some of the problems and issues experienced during implementation are discussed. A description of the next development steps planned for TAE Plus is also given

Sixth Annual Users' Conference

Conference papers and presentation outlines which address the use of the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE) and its various applications programs are compiled. Emphasis is given to the design of the user interface and image processing workstation in general. Alternate ports of TAE and TAE subsystems are also covered

User Interface Management Systems: A Survey and a Proposed Design

The growth of interactive computing has resulted in increasingly more complex styles of interaction between user and computer. To facilitate the creation of highly interactive systems, the concept of the User Interface Management System (UIMS) has been developed. Following the definition of the term 'UIMS' and a consideration of the putative advantages of the UIMS approach, a number of User Interface Management Systems are examined. This examination focuses in turn on the run-time execution system, the specification notation and the design environment, with a view to establishing the features which an "ideal" UIMS should possess. On the basis of this examination, a proposal for the design of a new UIMS is presented, and progress reported towards the implementation of a prototype based on this design

A user interface management system for voice I/O applications

With the use of voice technology increasing, a need for proper end-user interfacing is necessary. To deal with voice I/O applications, a user interface management system (UIMS) is suggested. This will alleviate the frustrations of poorly designed interfacing. It will also remove the burden from the systems designer of implementing the end-user interface and allow him/her to concentrate on the application. The end-user interface will then be designed by an expert in dialogue design with the assistance from the UIMS. This thesis presents a UIMS model to be used with voice applications

Display of Multi-Attribute Data Using a Presentation Description Language

In order to make large applications that manage multi-attribute data usable, they must have an effective user interface. Application data and data relationships must be displayed in a manner that is useful for a particular user while still following principles of user interface design. A User Interface Management System (UIMS) is an application independent data presentation system which isolates the interface portion of the application and can allow a high level of customization. A presentation description language can be used to control the UIMS and allow maximum flexibility. This thesis investigates a UIMS controlled by a language that allows a user to easily describe the application data and data relationships at a high level of abstraction. The UIMS uses this language to structure application data and augment it with properties. A rule-based system then uses the augmented data along with graphical design knowledge to determine the content, layout and details of the interface used to display the data. Finally, a graphical interface is generated to present the data. A system to provide this functionality was designed and implemented. Experiences with the system showed this approach to be valid and provided ideas for future work

Human Factors in Automated and Robotic Space Systems: Proceedings of a symposium. Part 1

Human factors research likely to produce results applicable to the development of a NASA space station is discussed. The particular sessions covered in Part 1 include: (1) system productivity -- people and machines; (2) expert systems and their use; (3) language and displays for human-computer communication; and (4) computer aided monitoring and decision making. Papers from each subject area are reproduced and the discussions from each area are summarized

A User Interface Management System Generator

Much recent research has been focused on user interfaces. A major advance in interface design is the User Interface Management System (UIMS), which mediates between the application and the user. Our research has resulted in a conceptual framework for interaction which permits the design and implementation of a UIMS generator system. This system, called Graphical User Interface Development Environment or GUIDE, allows an interface designer to specify interactively the user interface for an application. The major issues addressed by this methodology are making interfaces implementable, modifiable and flexible, allowing for user variability, making interfaces consistent and allowing for application diversity within a user community. The underlying goal of GUIDE is that interface designers should be able to specify interfaces as broadly as is possible with a manually-coded system. The specific goals of GUIDE are: The designer need not write any interface code. Action routines are provided by the designer or application implementator which implement the actions or operations of the application system. Action routines may have parameters. The designer is able to specify multiple control paths based on the state of the system and a profile of the user. Inclusion of help and prompt messages is as easy as possible. GUIDE\u27s own interface may be generated with GUIDE. GUIDE goes beyond previous efforts in UIMS design in the full parameter specification provided in the interface for application actions, in the ability to reference application global items in the interface, and in the pervasiveness of conditions throughout the system. A parser is built into GUIDE to parse conditions and provide type-checking. The GUIDE framework describes interfaces in terms of three components: what the user sees of the application world (user-defined pictures and user-defined picture classes) what the user can do (tasks and tools) what happens when the user does something (actions and decisions) These three are combined to form contexts which describe the state of the interface at any time