We present a new robotic drawing system based on stroke-based rendering (SBR). Our motivation is the artistic quality of the whole performance. Not only should the generated strokes in the final drawing resemble the input image, but the stroke sequence should also exhibit a human artist's planning process. Thus, when a robot executes the drawing task, both the drawing results and the way the robot executes would look artistic. Our SBR system is based on image segmentation and depth estimation. It generates the drawing strokes in an order that allows for the intended shape to be perceived quickly and for its detailed features to be filled in and emerge gradually when observed by the human. This ordering represents a stroke plan that the drawing robot should follow to create an artistic rendering of images. We experimentally demonstrate that our SBR-based drawing makes visually pleasing artistic images, and our robotic system can replicate the result with proper sequences of stroke drawing.

This paper shares experience with using Logisim to complement the hardware specification approach and accompanying simulator for the projects in "From Nand to Tetris" (N2T; Shocken et al., SIGCSE'09). Student feedback indicates that Logisim enhances the visualization of the main concepts and can be used effectively in parallel with the framework developed in N2T. This is achieved via an external Logisim library implemented by the authors that extends the rich set of components available in Logisim with the specialized circuits required in N2T (e.g ALU, CPU, Screen, Keyboard). Upon completing the projects the students are able to execute the same machine code for a Pong-like game on their Logisim and N2T computers.

This paper presents results from a user study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Korean text entry methods for smartwatches. Specifically, the study compares the four popular text entry methods for smartphones in the context of smartwatch use (three multi-tap 3x4 keypad methods and a QWERTY-like method). A distinctive feature of text entry in Korea is that traditionally different manufacturers have developed their own text entry methods starting with particular physical layouts on feature phones that are now available as soft keypads on smartphones. This research considers the next step in this progression by studying the viability of adopting these text entry methods on smartwatches. The results from the user study indicate that existing methods can be effective for text entry on smartwatches; analysis of the data offers suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the methods.

This video provides a visualization of an algorithm proposed by Floater and Gotsman for morphing two polygonal tilings. The algorithm represents the interior vertices of the tilings as convex combinations of their neighbors. At each time step the convex coefficients are linearly interpolated and the interior vertices of the intermediate tilings are found as the solutions to a system of linear equations.

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in our daily lives and are replacing the desktop for email, social networking, daily planner, and so on. A typical mobile device now integrates a wide range of accessories, such as camera, GPS receiver, accelerometer, and offers a touch-screen with gesture-based interaction. This makes mobile devices an exciting platform for software development and programming projects for mobile devices have great potential to provide engaging experiences for computer science majors.

This video provides a visualization of parametric search using as the underlying application an algorithm for computing a tangent to a level in arrangement proposed by Matoušek [2]. The visualization is based on the framework of van~Oostrum and Veltkamp [6], which simplifies considerably the implementation of parametric search algorithms.

This paper reports the results of a user study designed to evaluate text entry methods for mobile phones used in Korea. At present the keypad layout for Korean mobile phones has not been standardized and different manufacturers produce phones with different layouts. Included in the evaluation are three of the dominant text entry methods: Chon-ji-in, EZ-Hangul, and SKY. The metrics used in the analysis are key strokes per character, words per minute, and total error rate. The results suggest that SKY offers a good balance between speed, effort, and accuracy. The paper also introduces a phrase set that has high correlation with the Korean language and could be used in other experiments on Korean text entry methods.

BACKGROUND: An algorithm is presented to compute a multiple structure alignment for a set of proteins and to generate a consensus (pseudo) protein which captures common substructures present in the given proteins. The algorithm represents each protein as a sequence of triples of coordinates of the alpha-carbon atoms along the backbone. It then computes iteratively a sequence of transformation matrices (i.e., translations and rotations) to align the proteins in space and generate the consensus. The algorithm is a heuristic in that it computes an approximation to the optimal alignment that minimizes the sum of the pairwise distances between the consensus and the transformed proteins. RESULTS: Experimental results show that the algorithm converges quite rapidly and generates consensus structures that are visually similar to the input proteins. A comparison with other coordinate-based alignment algorithms (MAMMOTH and MATT) shows that the proposed algorithm is competitive in terms of speed and the sizes of the conserved regions discovered in an extensive benchmark dataset derived from the HOMSTRAD and SABmark databases. The algorithm has been implemented in C++ and can be downloaded from the project's web page. Alternatively, the algorithm can be used via a web server which makes it possible to align protein structures by uploading files from local disk or by downloading protein data from the RCSB Protein Data Bank. CONCLUSIONS: An algorithm is presented to compute a multiple structure alignment for a set of proteins, together with their consensus structure. Experimental results show its effectiveness in terms of the quality of the alignment and computational cost.