Identification of Design Principles

This report identifies those design principles for a (possibly new) query and transformation language for the Web supporting inference that are considered essential. Based upon these design principles an initial strawman is selected. Scenarios for querying the Semantic Web illustrate the design principles and their reflection in the initial strawman, i.e., a first draft of the query language to be designed and implemented by the REWERSE working group I4

Information Compression, Intelligence, Computing, and Mathematics

This paper presents evidence for the idea that much of artificial intelligence, human perception and cognition, mainstream computing, and mathematics, may be understood as compression of information via the matching and unification of patterns. This is the basis for the "SP theory of intelligence", outlined in the paper and fully described elsewhere. Relevant evidence may be seen: in empirical support for the SP theory; in some advantages of information compression (IC) in terms of biology and engineering; in our use of shorthands and ordinary words in language; in how we merge successive views of any one thing; in visual recognition; in binocular vision; in visual adaptation; in how we learn lexical and grammatical structures in language; and in perceptual constancies. IC via the matching and unification of patterns may be seen in both computing and mathematics: in IC via equations; in the matching and unification of names; in the reduction or removal of redundancy from unary numbers; in the workings of Post's Canonical System and the transition function in the Universal Turing Machine; in the way computers retrieve information from memory; in systems like Prolog; and in the query-by-example technique for information retrieval. The chunking-with-codes technique for IC may be seen in the use of named functions to avoid repetition of computer code. The schema-plus-correction technique may be seen in functions with parameters and in the use of classes in object-oriented programming. And the run-length coding technique may be seen in multiplication, in division, and in several other devices in mathematics and computing. The SP theory resolves the apparent paradox of "decompression by compression". And computing and cognition as IC is compatible with the uses of redundancy in such things as backup copies to safeguard data and understanding speech in a noisy environment

Spatial approaches to information search

Searching for information is a ubiquitous activity, performed in a variety of contexts and supported by rapidly evolving technologies. As a process, information search often has a spatial aspect: spatial metaphors help users refer to abstract contents, and geo-referenced information grounds entities in physical space. While information search is a major research topic in computer science, GIScience and cognitive psychology, this intrinsic spatiality has not received enough attention. This article reviews research opportunities at the crossroad of three research strands, which are (1) computational, (2) geospatial, and (3) cognitive. The articles in this special issue focus on interface design for spatio-temporal information, on the search for qualitative spatial configurations, and on a big-data analysis of the spatial relation “near”

Multimedia and Decision-Making Process

Multimedia technology has changed the way we use computers. Multimedia transforms com-puters into a second person. Multimedia technology has made it possible for us to see, hear, read, feel, and talk to computers. Multimedia technology has transformed our use and understanding of computers. On the other hand, multimedia presentation is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the computer industry. Applications have appeared in many areas, such as training, education, business presentation, merchandising, and communications.multimedia, decision, studies, mining, architecture

Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio