15 research outputs found
Activity-Centric Computing Systems
⢠Activity-Centric Computing (ACC) addresses deep-rooted information management problems in traditional application centric computing by providing a unifying computational model for human goal-oriented âactivity,â cutting across system boundaries. ⢠We provide a historical review of the motivation for and development of ACC systems, and highlight the need for broadening up this research topic to also include low-level system research and development. ⢠ACC concepts and technology relate to many facets of computing; they are relevant for researchers working on new computing models and operating systems, as well as for application designers seeking to incorporate these technologies in domain-specific applications
Activity-based computing: computational management of activities reflecting human intention
An important research topic in artificial intelligence is automatic sensing and inferencing of contextual information, which is used to build computer models of the userâs activity. One approach to build such activity-aware systems is the notion of activity-based computing (ABC). ABC is a computing paradigm that has been applied in personal information management applications as well as in ubiquitous, multidevice, and interactive surface computing. ABC has emerged as a response to the traditional application- and file-centered computing paradigm, which is oblivious to a notion of a userâs activity context spanning heterogeneous devices, multiple applications, services, and information sources. In this article, we present ABC as an approach to contextualize information, and present our research into designing activity-centric computing technologies
The Hidden Cost of Window Management
Most window management systems support multitasking by allowing users to
open, resize, position, and switch between application windows. Although
multitasking has become a way of life for most knowledge workers, our current
understanding of how users use window management features to switch between
multiple tasks---which may comprise multiple application windows---is limited.
In this paper, we present a study providing an in-depth analysis of how task
switching is supported in Windows 7. As part of analysis, we developed an
interface-agnostic classification of common task switching operations supported
by window managers which can be used to quantify the time spent on each
constituting action. Our study shows that task switching is a time intensive
activity and highlights the dominant actions that contribute to task switch
time. Furthermore, our classification highlights the specific operations that
are optimized by more recent and experimental window managers and allows
identifying opportunities for design that could further reduce the overhead of
switching between tasks.Comment: Includes an ancillary video figure detailing a task switch during the
experiment: 'Example_task_switch.mp4