Vision systems with the human in the loop

The emerging cognitive vision paradigm deals with vision systems that apply machine learning and automatic reasoning in order to learn from what they perceive. Cognitive vision systems can rate the relevance and consistency of newly acquired knowledge, they can adapt to their environment and thus will exhibit high robustness. This contribution presents vision systems that aim at flexibility and robustness. One is tailored for content-based image retrieval, the others are cognitive vision systems that constitute prototypes of visual active memories which evaluate, gather, and integrate contextual knowledge for visual analysis. All three systems are designed to interact with human users. After we will have discussed adaptive content-based image retrieval and object and action recognition in an office environment, the issue of assessing cognitive systems will be raised. Experiences from psychologically evaluated human-machine interactions will be reported and the promising potential of psychologically-based usability experiments will be stressed

3DTouch: A wearable 3D input device with an optical sensor and a 9-DOF inertial measurement unit

We present 3DTouch, a novel 3D wearable input device worn on the fingertip for 3D manipulation tasks. 3DTouch is designed to fill the missing gap of a 3D input device that is self-contained, mobile, and universally working across various 3D platforms. This paper presents a low-cost solution to designing and implementing such a device. Our approach relies on relative positioning technique using an optical laser sensor and a 9-DOF inertial measurement unit. 3DTouch is self-contained, and designed to universally work on various 3D platforms. The device employs touch input for the benefits of passive haptic feedback, and movement stability. On the other hand, with touch interaction, 3DTouch is conceptually less fatiguing to use over many hours than 3D spatial input devices. We propose a set of 3D interaction techniques including selection, translation, and rotation using 3DTouch. An evaluation also demonstrates the device's tracking accuracy of 1.10 mm and 2.33 degrees for subtle touch interaction in 3D space. Modular solutions like 3DTouch opens up a whole new design space for interaction techniques to further develop on.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Kiosks in retailing: the quiet revolution

Kiosks have the potential to be a significant application of IT in retailing, information provision and service delivery. This article discusses and analyses the application of kiosks as a channel for in-store service delivery. For these kiosks a taxonomy that characterises kiosks by their function: inform, interact, transact and relate is proposed. Eight case study examples of in store kiosks are analysed in using a framework that includes environment, task, audience, and technology. Included are: kiosks used by Halifax, Daewoo, Argos, Ikea, Debenhams, GNER, Sainsbury’s. and Boots. Both the taxonomy and the framework provide a basis for further analysis of the role of kiosks in service delivery, by allowing analysis and discussion of individual kiosks to be contextualised within a wider framework. </p

Físchlár-DiamondTouch: collaborative video searching on a table

In this paper we present the system we have developed for our participation in the annual TRECVid benchmarking activity, specically the system we have developed, Físchlár-DT, for participation in the interactive search task of TRECVid 2005. Our back-end search engine uses a combination of a text search which operates over the automatic speech recognised text, and an image search which uses low-level image features matched against video keyframes. The two novel aspects of our work are the fact that we are evaluating collaborative, team-based search among groups of users working together, and that we are using a novel touch-sensitive tabletop interface and interaction device known as the DiamondTouch to support this collaborative search. The paper summarises the backend search systems as well as presenting the interface we have developed, in detail

The VITI program: Final Report

In this report we present our findings and results from the VITI program in 2000. The focus of the research work undertaken by VITI has been to provide electronic meeting environments that are easy to use and afford as natural a collaboration experience as possible. This final report is structured into three parts. Part one concerns the VITI infrastructure and consists of two sections. The first section describes the process of establishing the infrastructure, concentrating on how the work was done. The second section presents the actual infrastructure that is in place today, concentrating on what has been put in place. Part two examines the use the VITI infrastructure has been put to, giving examples of activities it has supported and discussing strengths and weaknesses that have emerged through this use. Finally part three considers the future of distributed electronic meeting environments. It is recommended that the report be read in the order in which it is presented. However, each section has been written as a standalone document and can be read independently of the others