Exploring the usage of a video application tool: Experiences in film studies

This paper explores our experiences in deploying a video application tool in film studies, and its evaluation in terms of realistic contextual end-users who have real tasks to perform in a real environment. We demonstrate our experiences and core lesson learnt in deploying our novel movie browser application with undergraduate and graduate students completing a Film Studies course in Dublin City University over a semester. We developed a system called MOVIEBROWSER2 that has two types of browsing modes: Advanced and Basic. In general, students found that the features we provided were beneficial for their studies. Some issues or mismatches arose during the trial. A ‘wish-list’ was drawn up that might be useful for the future system developer. The contribution and achievements reported in this article are on the demonstration and exploration of how advances in technology can be deployed, and media can be accessed in the context of a real user community. Exploring the usage indicates a positive acceptance among students, besides lessons learned that are important for further investigation

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

On the reach of digital language archives

The aim of this chapter is to extend previous work on archival ‘access and accessibility’ (Nathan 2013) in order to make initial suggestions towards a set of criteria for thinking about archives’ ‘reach’ – their multifaceted capacity to successfully provide language resources to those who can gain value from them. Several of our archives now think of themselves as publishers (Holton 2013; Nathan 2011b), which leads naturally to thinking about intended audiences and the appropriateness and usability of the archives’ materials and services

Relational navigation and archiving of multimedia information for contemporary dance

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaTechnology continues to evolve at an incredible rate and with it, the number of people adhering to new digital trends. As the production of multimedia content such as photographs and videos becomes accessible to more people every year, so does the amount of digital content increase exponentially. Consequently, it becomes a hard task to create systems in order to provide efficient storing and browsing of multimedia content. Multimedia Web archives are one of the most popular solutions found for these issues. By providing organized and connected information storage with efficient browsing and social networking features, these systems become the main platforms used to store and share photographs and videos in the internet. This work is done in the scope of the TKB project: Transmedia Knowledge Base for Contemporary Dance and the goal of this thesis is to develop a system for multimedia information storage and relational content navigation. The analysis of multimedia archiving systems done throughout this thesis extends to those specific for Contemporary dance as it is one of the main focus of the work. The contents which will be integrated in the archive include typical multimedia information such as images and videos, as well as annotated videos exported from specific platforms. Connecting all the information within the archive through taxonomy and content hierarchy allows the definition of the intended relational approach. Setting connections between content and users allow the creation of graphs, which will serve as a basis for all the browsing, navigation and searching done throughout the system.TKB project- A Transmedia Knowledge Base for contemporary dance(PTDC/EAT-AVP/098220/2008

A Generic Software Library for Creating Multimedia Browse/Search Applications

PhDThis thesis surveys the field of browse/search interactions. The results of this study form the basis of a specification of a representation scheme and a library of access functions which facilitate the creation of information-rich multimedia applications. Evidence is provided for the hypothesis that browsing and searching are the extreme ends of a continuum of data access methods and that many browse/search interactions contain a mixture of both with the ratio varying as the interaction proceeds. These observations motivate the integration of browsing and search facilities so that applications can be built which exhibit both types of information access. This work is tailored to the area of consumer multimedia with a review of the constraints that this imposes on the authoring process and the applications themselves forming part of this work. The specification of the functionality of the function library, together with its implementation and testing are described in detail. The library has been evaluated by constructing a number of prototype applications which demonstrate the utility and scope of the library

Strategies for image visualisation and browsing

PhDThe exploration of large information spaces has remained a challenging task even though the proliferation of database management systems and the state-of-the art retrieval algorithms is becoming pervasive. Signi cant research attention in the multimedia domain is focused on nding automatic algorithms for organising digital image collections into meaningful structures and providing high-semantic image indices. On the other hand, utilisation of graphical and interactive methods from information visualisation domain, provide promising direction for creating e cient user-oriented systems for image management. Methods such as exploratory browsing and query, as well as intuitive visual overviews of image collection, can assist the users in nding patterns and developing the understanding of structures and content in complex image data-sets. The focus of the thesis is combining the features of automatic data processing algorithms with information visualisation. The rst part of this thesis focuses on the layout method for displaying the collection of images indexed by low-level visual descriptors. The proposed solution generates graphical overview of the data-set as a combination of similarity based visualisation and random layout approach. Second part of the thesis deals with problem of visualisation and exploration for hierarchical organisation of images. Due to the absence of the semantic information, images are considered the only source of high-level information. The content preview and display of hierarchical structure are combined in order to support image retrieval. In addition to this, novel exploration and navigation methods are proposed to enable the user to nd the way through database structure and retrieve the content. On the other hand, semantic information is available in cases where automatic or semi-automatic image classi ers are employed. The automatic annotation of image items provides what is referred to as higher-level information. This type of information is a cornerstone of multi-concept visualisation framework which is developed as a third part of this thesis. This solution enables dynamic generation of user-queries by combining semantic concepts, supported by content overview and information ltering. Comparative analysis and user tests, performed for the evaluation of the proposed solutions, focus on the ways information visualisation a ects the image content exploration and retrieval; how e cient and comfortable are the users when using di erent interaction methods and the ways users seek for information through di erent types of database organisation

From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

A key to the Web's success is the power of search. The elegant way in which search results are returned is usually remarkably effective. However, for exploratory search in which users need to learn, discover, and understand novel or complex topics, there is substantial room for improvement. Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results. This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney). We also consider the both traditional and novel ways in which these strategies have been evaluated. From our review of cognitive processes, browser design, and evaluations, we reflect on the future opportunities and new paradigms for exploring and interacting with Web search results

The guiding process in discovery hypertext learning environments for the Internet

Hypertext is the dominant method to navigate the Internet, providing user freedom and control over navigational behaviour. There has been an increase in converting existing educational material into Internet web pages but weaknesses have been identified in current WWW learning systems. There is a lack of conceptual support for learning from hypertext, navigational disorientation and cognitive overload. This implies the need for an established pedagogical approach to developing the web as a teaching and learning medium. Guided Discovery Learning is proposed as an educational pedagogy suitable for supporting WWW learning. The hypothesis is that a guided discovery environment will produce greater gains in learning and satisfaction, than a non-adaptive hypertext environment. A second hypothesis is that combining concept maps with this specific educational paradigm will provide cognitive support. The third hypothesis is that student learning styles will not influence learning outcome or user satisfaction. Thus, providing evidence that the guided discovery learning paradigm can be used for many types of learning styles. This was investigated by the building of a guided discovery system and a framework devised for assessing teaching styles. The system provided varying discovery steps, guided advice, individualistic system instruction and navigational control. An 84 subject experiment compared a Guided discovery condition, a Map-only condition and an Unguided condition. Subjects were subdivided according to learning styles, with measures for learning outcome and user satisfaction. The results indicate that providing guidance will result in a significant increase in level of learning. Guided discovery condition subjects, regardless of learning styles, experienced levels of satisfaction comparable to those in the other conditions. The concept mapping tool did not appear to affect learning outcome or user satisfaction. The conclusion was that using a particular approach to guidance would result in a more supportive environment for learning. This research contributes to the need for a better understanding of the pedagogic design that should be incorporated into WWW learning environments, with a recommendation for a guided discovery approach to alleviate major hypertext and WWW issues for distance learning