Exploring how a tangible tool enables collaboration in a multi-touch tabletop game

Abstract. Digital tabletop surfaces afford multiple user interaction and collaboration. Hybrid tabletops that include both tangible and multi-touch elements are increasingly being deployed in public settings (e.g. Microsoft Surface, reacTable). Designers need to understand how the different characteristics of tangible and multi-touch interface elements affect collaborative activity on tabletops. In this paper, we report on a mixed methods exploratory study of a collaborative tabletop game about sustainable development. We explore the effects of tangible and multi-touch tools on collaborative activity. Forty-five participants, in trios, played the game using both versions of the tools. Our analysis includes quantitative performance measures, qualitative themes and behavioral measures. Findings suggest that both tangible and multi-touch tools enabled effective tool use and that collaborative activity was more influenced by group dynamics than tool modality. However, we observed that the physicality of the tangible tools facilitated individual ownership and announcement of tool use, which in turn supported group and tool awareness

Sframe: An Efficient System for Detailed DC Simulation of Bipolar Analog Integrated Circuits Using Continuation Methods

In this paper we describe an experimental system called sframe which is being incorporated into the design for manufacturability initiative at the Reading Works of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Our system is able to perform detailed and accurate DC analyses of integrated circuits containing several hundred transistors to be fabricated in a relatively complex junction isolated complementary technology

Compiling fast partial derivatives of functions given by algorithms

If the gradient of the function y = f(x/sub 1/,..., x/sub n/) is desired, where f is given by an algoritym Af(x, n, y), most numerical analysts will use numerical differencing. This is a sampling scheme that approximates derivatives by the slope of secants in closely spaced points. Symbolic methods that make full use of the program text of Af should be able to come up with a better way to evaluate the gradient of F. The system Jake described produces gradients significantly faster than numerical differencing. Jake can handle algorithms Af with arbitrary flow of control. Measurements performed on one particular machine suggest that Jake is faster than numerical differencing for n > 8. Somewhat weaker results were obtained for the problem of computing Jacobians of arbitrary shape

Compiling Fast Partial Derivatives of Functions Given by Algorithms

80 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980.If the gradient of the function y = f(x(,1),...,x(,n)) is desired where f is given by an algorithm Af(x,n,y), most numerical analysts will use numerical differencing. This is a sampling scheme that approximates derivatives by the slope of secants in closely spaced points. Symbolic methods that make full use of the program text of Af should be able to come up with a better way to evaluate the gradient of f. The system "Jake" described in this thesis produces gradients significantly faster than numerical differencing. A system sketch of Jake is presented below:Jake can handle algorithms Af with arbitrary flow of control. If algorithm Af requires T time to evaluate y for given values of x(,1),...,x(,n), the algorithm Af' produced by Jake will evaluate the gradient (PAR-DIFF)y/(PAR-DIFF)x(,1),...,(PAR-DIFF)y/(PAR-DIFF)x(,n) in time O(T). In contrast, numerical differencing requires O(nT). The space requirements of Af' are modest. Measurements performed on one particular machine suggest that Jake is faster than numerical differencing for n > 8. Somewhat weaker results have been obtained for the problem of computing Jacobians of arbitrary shape.Jake is based on a view of an execution of the algorithm Af as a sequence of transformations in a state space. The Jacobian of the entire execution of the algorithm is the matrix product of the Jacobians for each individual transformation. The optimal multiplication order of these Jacobians leads to substantial savings over numerical differencing. In case of gradients (y being a scalar) these savings can be shown to be O(n). The algorithms Af and Af' in this approach are sufficiently close so that Af can be transformed into Af' by automatic means. Current compiler technology can be used to build a practical translator; no automatic theorem proving or heuristic search procedures are required.Numerical analysts currently hesitant to use methods of functional iteration requiring a knowledge of derivatives may find in Jake a tool making such methods the preferred ones.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Toepassing van de Bayesstrategie bij vereffeningsproblemen

Civil Engineering and Geoscience

Exploring how a tangible tool enables collaboration in a multi-touch tabletop game

Abstract. Digital tabletop surfaces afford multiple user interaction and collaboration. Hybrid tabletops that include both tangible and multi-touch elements are increasingly being deployed in public settings (e.g. Microsoft Surface, reacTable). Designers need to understand how the different characteristics of tangible and multi-touch interface elements affect collaborative activity on tabletops. In this paper, we report on a mixed methods exploratory study of a collaborative tabletop game about sustainable development. We explore the effects of tangible and multi-touch tools on collaborative activity. Forty-five participants, in trios, played the game using both versions of the tools. Our analysis includes quantitative performance measures, qualitative themes and behavioral measures. Findings suggest that both tangible and multi-touch tools enabled effective tool use and that collaborative activity was more influenced by group dynamics than tool modality. However, we observed that the physicality of the tangible tools facilitated individual ownership and announcement of tool use, which in turn supported group and tool awareness