TE 2006 (TE)
FLUIDS Bulletin - 3rd Issue

  
  
Deliverable No: D02.3-3
  
Author: Gerd Herzog (DFKI )
  
29/11/96

FLUIDS Project Partners:

MIZAR Automazione S.p.A. (Co-ordinator)
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
DFKI German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH
Consorzio 5T

Contents

• Contents
• 1 New Achievements in Research
• 2 Latest Commercial Developments
• 3 Research and Market Trends in Europe
• 4 Research and Market Trends in Japan and USA
• 5 Workshops and Conferences
• 6 Related Information Sources
• References

1 New Achievements in Research

CHI-96, the Annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, included several technical papers that are highly relevant to the field of intelligent graphics generation. Levy et al. as well as Schumann et al. discuss empirical studies related to graphics and visual design. Oviatt presents her empirical findings concerning the advantage of using a multimodal interface for human-machine interaction with map displays.

The contribution by Ishizaki introduces a conceptual framework to support dynamic design of visual presentations, which is based on a multiagent model. This framework aims to provide designers with an approach towards creating design solutions that are responsive to dynamic changes in information and the user's intention.

2 Latest Commercial Developments

A new product from Microsoft Corp. provides support for more advanced user interfaces relying on interface agents. Microsoft Agent is a set of software services that supports the presentation of user controlled applications as interactive personalities within the Microsoft Windows interface. These interface agents are meant as an extension and enhancement of the existing interactive modalities of an application's conventional graphical user interface. Character-based interaction can be blended with the conventional interface components such as windows, menus, and controls. In addition to providing animation services for the cartoon-style drawings, Microsoft Agent supports input using keyboard and mouse as well as speech interfaces.

3 Research and Market Trends in Europe

A new interesting area for applying sophisticated user modeling techniques is the slow-starting but potentially huge market of companies that want to sell goods and services on the World Wide Web. The flexible generation of customer profiles constitutes a key issue for building user adaptive catalogs that provide dynamic product displays. Recently, high-tech companies engaging in electronic commerce have begun to explore the use of Artificial Intelligence methods to guide the appropriate selection of displays depending on different product characteristics on the one hand and desired attributes for purchased items on the other hand.

4 Research and Market Trends in Japan and USA

The shift towards highly personalized interfaces in which communication between user and computer will be mediated by lifelike agents is going to be the next major step in the evolution of user interface technology. Consequently, a rich spectrum of research efforts related to lifelike computer characters exists. Most of these activities are located in the USA, but major Japanese enterprises are involved as well.

5 Workshops and Conferences

7th Mini EURO:

7th Mini EURO Conference on Decision Support Systems, Groupware, Multimedia and Electronic Commerce , Bruges, Belgium, March 25-27, 1997.
The 7th Mini Conference organized by EURO , the Association of European Operational Research Societies, is devoted to the specific topic of decision support systems, groupware, multimedia and electronic commerce. Themes to be addressed include conceptual frameworks and methodologies, technological advances, as well as real world applications. This conference will certainly attract some contributions related to multimedia information presentation for decision support systems.

UM'97:

Sixth International Conference on User Modeling , Chia Laguna, Sardinia, Italy, June 2-5, 1997.
The biennial user modeling conference constitutes a primary forum for disseminating the results of academic and industrial research in the field of user modeling.

6 Related Information Sources

The DSS Research Resources WWW site maintained by Daniel Power offers a rich collection of on-line information related to Decision Support Systems (DSS) in general. This DSS specific catalog is located at

• http://power.cba.uni.edu/DJP/DSShome.html

Of particular interest is a directory focussing on companies that provide DSS software products like for example tools for information presentation.

Information concerning data visualization tools for DSS is also available from the Data Warehousing Information Center provided by LGI Systems Inc. The Web page specifically related to report and query tools for DSS in business applications is located at

• http://pwp.starnetinc.com/larryg/query.html

References

CHI-96.

Proc. of CHI-96 , Vancouver, Canada, Association for Computing Machinery, 1996.

S. Ishizaki.

Multiagent Model of Dynamic Design: Visualization as an Emergent Behavior of Active Design Agents. In: Proc. of CHI-96 , pp. 347-354, Vancouver, Canada, 1996.

E. Levy, J. Zacks, B. Tversky, D. Schiano.

Gratuitous Graphics? Putting Preferences in Perspective. In: Proc. of CHI-96 , pp. 42-49, Vancouver, Canada, 1996.

S. Oviatt.

Multimodal Interfaces for Dynamic Interactive Maps. In: Proc. of CHI-96 , pp. 95-102, Vancouver, Canada, 1996.

J. Schumann, T. Strothotte, A. Raab, S. Laser.

Assessing the Effect of Non-Photorealistic Rendered Images in CAD. In: Proc. of CHI-96 , pp. 35-41, Vancouver, Canada, 1996.