methods and tools for the development of adaptive applications

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APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EXPLORING GRAPHICAL OBJECTS FOR USERS

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for exploring a graphical object (2) on a screen (3) of a graphics interface (4) through the movement of a pointing device (5A) for a user. Particularly, the apparatus (1) comprises an electronic device (6) having a buffer (7) for storage of information to be presented to said user; the pointing device (5A) is operatively associated to said electronic device (6) to generate an input signal for addressing said buffer (7) and is characterized in that the pointing device (5A) can define a one-to-one correspondence between the position of the pointing device (5A) and the position of at least one portion of said graphical object (2) for a given movement of the pointing device (5A) controlled by said user and in that it comprises programmed means (11) operating in said electronic device (6) for producing a signal perceptible by said user, as a function of said correspondence between the position of the pointing device (5A) and the position of at least one portion of said graphical object (2)

A novel Semantic Information Retrieval system based on a three-level model

This paper presents a methodology and a prototype for extracting and indexing knowledge from natural language documents. The underlying domain model relies on a conceptual level (described by means of a domain ontology), which represents the domain knowledge, and a lexical level (based on WordNet), which represents the domain vocabulary. A stochastic model (the ME-2L-HMM2, which mixes – in a novel way – HMM and maximum entropy models) stores the mapping between such levels, taking into account the linguistic context of words. Not only does such a context contain the surrounding words; it also contains morphologic and syntactic information extracted using natural language processing tools. The stochastic model is then used, during the document indexing phase, to disambiguate word meanings. The semantic information retrieval engine we developed supports simple keyword-based queries, as well as natural language-based queries. The engine is also able to extend the domain knowledge, discovering new and relevant concepts to add to the domain model. The validation tests indicate that the system is able to disambiguate and extract concepts with good accuracy. A comparison between our prototype and a classic search engine shows that the proposed approach is effective in providing better accuracy

Syntactic query processing: dealing with structure and time

The present paper proposes new syntactical simplification opportuni­ties deriving from the presence in a query Language of constructa ex­plicitely referring to structural and temporal information. The paper refers to the more general aspects of the Knowledge Representation Language Telos and treats the associated Query Language using an extension of the Predicate Calculus. The Extended Predicate Calculus supports references to the modeling aapectll which make Telos particularly expressive and extensible: structured and temporal information, attribute categories and user-defined meta attributes

Virtual Sounds and Virtual Spaces to support persons with cognitive and physical disabilities during Information Retrieval, Rehabilitation and Learning

People with physical, cognitive or relational impairments may experience great benefit from using advanced computerbased technologies. The paper presents the first results of studies in using sound, vocal, and musical cues within virtual digital environments, designed to enhance the cognitive functions of participants or to provide better opportunities in rehabilitation and learning. Three different areas of research have been pursued: a) the use of research and hierarchical navigation strategies, in combination with text -to-speech and voice recognition echnologies, to allow Internet access via a telephone network to physically or hearing impaired subjects; b) the use of voice recognition and threedimensional spatial sound clues to support rehabilitation activities of cognitively impaired subjects (with mental retardation, autism or other pathologies); c) the use of multimedia and three-dimensional virtual environments, with spatialized sounds and music, to create musical and interactive stories with children with difficulties in verbal communication and social relationships