Virtual Ambient Lighting for User-Interface Elements

This publication describes systems and techniques to adaptively apply virtual ambient lighting to user-interface (UI) elements on a portable electronic device. Portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, include a UI with passive elements and interactive elements. The UI generally presents elements, including interactive elements, as flat, two-dimensional objects. Because the UI does not intuitively differentiate interactive elements from passive elements, a user must rely on prior experience or trial-and-error to identify the interactive elements. This publication discloses a portable electronic device that captures and analyzes the lighting environment around the user of the device and displays onscreen elements as part of a virtual UI environment. For example, the portable electronic device can provide depth, lighting, and shadowing to interactive elements based on the positioning of light sources in the user’s environment. The virtual ambient lighting improves the discoverability of interactive elements, provides depth to the UI, and may reduce eye fatigue

Using Sound to Represent Uncertainty in Future Climate Projections for the United Kingdom

Presented at the 17th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2011), 20-23 June, 2011 in Budapest, Hungary.This paper compares different visual and sonic methods of representing uncertainty in spatial data. When handling large volumes of spatial data, users can be limited in the amount that can be displayed at once due to visual saturation (when no more data can be shown visually without obscuring existing data). Using sound in combination with visual methods may help to represent uncertainty in spatial data and this example uses the UK Climate Predictions 2009 (UKCP09) dataset; where uncertainty has been included for the first time. Participants took part in the evaluation via a web-based interface which used the Google Maps API to show the spatial data and capture user inputs. Using sound and vision together to show the same variable may be useful to colour blind users. Previous awareness of the data set appears to have a significant impact (p < 0.001) on participants ability to utilise the sonification. Using sound to reinforce data shown visually results in increased scores (p = 0.005) and using sound to show some data instead of vision showed a significant increase in speed without reducing effectiveness (p = 0.033) with repeated use of the sonification

The future role of GIS education in creating critical spatial thinkers

Teaching of critical spatial thinking in higher education empowers graduates to effectively engage with spatial data. Geographic information systems (GIS) and science are taught to undergraduates across many disciplines; we evaluate how this contributes to critical spatial thinking. The discipline of GIS covers the whole process of spatial decision-making, but GIS modules often ignore the context setting of spatial problems, and just cover the technical aspects of how to use GIS software. We outline how some existing GIS practicals could be improved to focus on the development of critical spatial thinking skills, competences and abilities that are valuable to graduates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Developing Capacitated p-median Location-allocation Model in the spopt Library to Allow UCL Student Teacher Placements Using Public Transport

Location-allocation is a key tool within the GIS and network analysis toolbox. In this paper we discuss the real world application of a location-allocation case study (approx 800 students, 500 schools) from UCL using public transport. The use of public transportation is key for this case study, as many location-allocation approaches only make use of drive-time or walking-time distances, but the location of UCL in Greater London, UK makes the inclusion of public transport vital for this case study. The location-allocation is implemented as a capacitated p-median location-allocation model, using the spopt library, part of the Python Spatial Analysis Library (PySAL). The capacitated variation of the p-median location-allocation problem is a new addition to the spopt library, which this work will present. The results from the initial version of the capacitated p-median location-allocation problem has shown a marked improvement on public transport travel time, with public transport travel time reduced by 891 minutes overall for an initial sample of 93 students (9.58 minutes per student). Results will be presented below and plans for further improvement shared

Hospital admissions due to diseases of arteries and veins peaked at physiological equivalent temperature −10 to 10 °C in Germany in 2009–2011

We aimed to understand relationships of the weather as biometeorological and hospital admissions due to diseases of arteries and veins by subtypes, which have been scarcely studied, in a national setting in recent years. This is an ecological study. Ten percent of daily hospital admissions from the included hospitals (n = 1,618) across Germany that were available between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 (n = 5,235,600) were extracted from Statistisches Bundesamt, Germany. We identified I70-I79 Diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries and I80-I89 Diseases of veins, lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes by International Classification of Diseases version 10 as the study outcomes. Daily weather data from 64 weather stations that covered 13 German states including air temperature, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, radiation flux and vapour pressure were obtained and generated into physiologically equivalent temperature (PET). Two-way fractional-polynomial prediction was plotted with 95 % confidence intervals. For most of the subtypes from diseases of arteries and veins, hospital admissions slightly peaked in spring and dropped when PET was at 10 °C. There were no other large differences across 12 months. Admissions of peripheral vascular diseases, arterial embolism and thrombosis, phlebitis and thrombophlebitis, oesophageal varices and nonspecific lymphadenitis peaked when PET was between 0 and −10 °C, while others peaked when PET was between 0 and 10 °C. More medical resources could have been needed on days when PETs were at −10 to 10 °C than on other days. Adaptation to such weather change for health professionals and the general public would seem to be imperative

Relationships of physiologically equivalent temperature and hospital admissions due to I30-I51 other forms of heart disease in Germany in 2009-2011

We aimed to understand relationships of the weather as biometeorological and hospital admissions due to other forms of heart disease by subtypes, which have been paid less attention, in a national setting in recent years. This is an ecological study. Ten percent of daily hospital admissions of the included hospitals (n = 1618) across Germany that were available between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 (n = 5,235,600) were extracted from Statistisches Bundesamt, Germany. We identified I30-I51 other forms of heart disease by the International Classification of Diseases version 10 as the study outcomes. Daily weather data from 64 weather stations that have covered 13 German states, including air temperature, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, radiation flux and vapour pressure, were obtained and generated into physiologically equivalent temperature (PET). Admissions due to other diseases of pericardium, nonrheumatic mitral valve disorders, nonrheumatic aortic valve disorders, cardiomyopathy, atrioventricular and left bundle-branch block, other conduction disorders, atrial fibrillation and flutter, and other cardiac arrhythmias peaked when PET was between 0 and 10 °C. Complications and ill-defined descriptions of heart disease admissions peaked at PET 0 °C. Cardiac arrest and heart failure admissions peaked when PET was between 0 and -10 °C while the rest did not vary significantly. A common drop of admissions was found when PET was above 10 °C. More medical resources could have been needed for heart health on days when PETs were <10 °C than on other days. Adaptation to such weather change for medical professionals and the general public would seem to be imperative

GIS

This book provides a non-technical overview of the science and tools behind geographic information systems and geographic information science for researchers, students and academics who do not have a GIS or Geography background. The book covers the history of GIS, from John Snow's Cholera map (1854) right up to today's software and data and cutting-edge analysis techniques. Bearman goes on to cover how to find, use and evaluate the latest data sets to critiquing existing maps, highlighting limitations and common mistakes. A variety of different GIS methods including Google Maps, GPS, big data, context and choropleth maps are discussed and the pros and cons of each are highlighted allowing you to choose the appropriate method or piece of software for your own research. This is the ideal book for anyone thinking about using GIS in their own research. This book is part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series, which is produced by Bloomsbury and the National Centre for Research Methods

Who's sonifying data and how are they doing it? A comparison of ICAD and other venues since 2009

Presented at the 18th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2012) on June 18-21, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.Reprinted by permission of the International Community for Auditory Display, http://www.icad.org.What disciplines are applying data sonification, and what synthesis tools are they using to make the sounds? These questions are basic to understanding the state of sonification today, but they are surprisingly difficult to answer. This short review attempts to fill this gap by distilling common patterns of data sonification research. We hope that this will complement other literature reviews and give potential and current sonification researchers a sense of what is happening in the ICAD community, show where there is room for new ventures, and where there is already a lot of active research to connect with. Additionally, we put ICAD in context of other academic publications