Ad-hoc synthesis of auditory icons

This article introduces ad-hoc synthesis, an approach to designing auditory icons and synthesis algorithms that emphasizes the perception of the sounds by users instead of the analysis of actual sources and sound. We describe two substractive synthesis algorithms for generating and controlling wind and wave sounds in real-time by means of high-level parameters. Even though these sounds are not audiorealistic, they convey information in a non-intrusive way and therefore are suitable for monitoring background activities. These sounds capture the main invariants of the sounds they imitate, enabling users to recognize and understand them easily. We then push the approach further by showing how an auditory illusion, i.e. a sound that does not exist in the real world, can be used to convey the notion of speed in a natural and non-intrusive way

Human On-line Response to Target Expansion

McGuffin and Balakrishnan (M&B) have recently reported evidence that target expansion during a reaching movement reduces pointing time even if the expansion occurs as late as in the last 10% of the distance to be covered by the cursor. While M&B massed their static and expanding targets in separate blocks of trials, thus making expansion predictable for participants, we replicated their experiment with one new condition in which the target could unpredictably expand, shrink, or stay unchanged. Our results show that target expansion occurring as late as in M&B's experiment enhances pointing performance in the absence of expectation. We discuss these findings in terms of the basic human processes that underlie target-acquisition movements, and we address the implications for user interface design by introducing a revised design for the Mac OS X Dock

The svgl toolkit: enabling fast rendering of rich 2D graphics

As more and more powerful graphical processors become available on mainstream computers, it becomes possible to investigate the design of visually rich and fast interactive applications. In this article, we present SVGL , a graphical toolkit that enables programmers and designers of interactive applications to benefit from this power. The toolkit is based on a scene graph which is translated into an optimized display graph. After describing the algorithms used to display the scene, we show that the toolkit is two to fifty times faster than similar toolkits

A Cyber-physical system to improve the management of a large suite of operating rooms

© 2018 ACM Cyber-physical systems have been deployed with considerable success in many industries. However, the implementation of cyber-physical systems in hospitals has been limited. By nature, in clinical operations, patient safety and consideration for health outcomes are of the utmost importance, thus possibly slowing the implementation of innovative solutions with limited history. Revenues from operating room (OR) time and surgery account for about 50% of the income of major hospitals (Erdogan et al. 2011; Cuschieri 2006), but the efficiency of OR utilization is often reported to be relatively low. Therefore, improving OR management with a cyber-physical system should be a priority. In this article, we will report on our experience implementing a cyber-physical system at Houston Methodist Hospital and discuss some of the difficulties and potential drivers for success. Our pilot study was done in the context of the management of a large suite of ORs. It uses the agile codevelopment of a cyber-physical system through an intense collaboration of clinicians and computational scientists. While technology remains the foundation of a cyber-physical system, this experience reinforced that the human factor is an important driving force behind the design that promotes user acceptance