This paper outlines challenges encountered in conducting a systematic scoping review of existing literature on the use of map visualizations and other related visual representations in research publications based on a case study of reported cholera outbreaks and epidemics. Unlike traditional reviews, this type of visualisation-based literature review requires the analysis of visuals included, both during article screening and data extraction. Based on a review of the use of visuals in articles on cholera, we describe the methods, search parameters and criteria adopted in the review process and its resulting outcomes. The aim is to highlight the needs of the reviewers during this process, and present the implications of the challenges encountered in relation to the development of more effective visual tools for supporting article screening and map visualization analysis in this type of novel and much-needed literature reviews. While focusing on the case study of map visualizations for cholera research, we would argue that much of the work presented here also applies to literature reviews of any research involving other forms of visualizations and visual material in general.

Tools, applications and services relying on map-based interfaces are so ubiquitous in our modern digital world that often the important roles which maps play in supporting users’ interactions with them go unnoticed. Yet, without further advances in the design and development of map-based interfaces and interactions it is highly unlikely that future such systems will meet the increasing needs, expectations and requirements of their users. Therefore, it is important to provide regular multidisciplinary venues for the sharing of research, practical and professional expertise, learnings, practices, and experiences related to design, development and evaluation of advanced map-based interfaces and interactions across an ever-increasing range of fields. Over the past few years, the MAPII workshop has been providing one such much-needed forum that has brought together experts in maps and mapping from various disciplines, spanning sciences, humanities, art and design.

There has been in a rapid growth in the use of consumer health monitoring devices integrated with smartphones that help people to record and analyse data relating to different factors contributing to their health and well-being. However, these factors are often presented separately, making it hard for users to visualise potential relationships among different health data streams, and missing an opportunity to use other information sources available on their devices to contextualise these health indicators. Here we present a practical concept for integrating health and other contextual data with different analytic and visualization tools as the basis for an interactive health and well-being management dashboard.

Maps have been used for centuries as tools for exploring the real and the imagined, the physical and the metaphysical worlds. Today, in the world of technology, maps also play an important role as underlying representation tools, forming the basis of a wide range of digital devices, applications, and services. Despite this, there are hardly any venues for sharing of research and design expertise, learnings, practices, and experiences of the use of maps and map-like visualizations in the context of visual interfaces and interactions. This workshop aims to fill this gap by providing a much-needed interdisciplinary forum focusing on map-based interfaces and interactions.

Abstract As global COVID-19 pandemic response has moved from full lockdowns and partial lockdowns in most parts of the world to a post-COVID era, an interesting new phenomenon that has emerged is the increased prevalence of hybrid meetings with a mixture of online and in-person attendees. The opportunity for remote participants to observe the responses and interactions of others in the meeting is generally accepted as being limited. An experimental prototype system, called Wedge Video, has been constructed as an attempt to improve the experience of remote participants in hybrid in-person/remote meetings. Wedge Video uses standard screen and camera equipment with existing video conferencing software (Zoom). An evaluation of the prototype system was conducted based on three simple games that each required players to interact rapidly and with some use of body language or gaze direction. Encouraging results led to the examination of the geometry of screen and camera placement in detail. A system that has a somewhat ‘virtual reality’ feeling to it has now been developed. The remote user is given a view of the in-person part of the meeting with participants at the same scale and location as they would be if the remote user were at the table themselves. Similarly, the local participants see the remote person in place at their table, at a realistic scale and with close to accurate gaze direction. A very preliminary evaluation of these concepts has been promising.

Maps and map-like visualizations are increasingly being used as the basis for many types of interactive tools, services and applications. This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners whose work on such map-based interfaces and interactions is currently dispersed across different publication venues and disciplines. As such, this workshop aims to act as a common space for sharing map-related research expertise and knowledge coming from the fields of visualization, user interface design, interaction design, visual design and cartography.

In fields such as translation studies and computational linguistics, various tools are used to analyze the content of text corpora, and extract keywords and other entities for analysis. Concordancing – arranging passages of text corpus in alphabetical order of user-defined keywords – is one of most widely used forms of text analysis. This paper describes Multi-Mosaics, a tool for text analysis using multiple implicitly linked Concordance Mosaic visualisations. Multi-Mosaics supports examining linguistic relationships within the context windows surrounding multiple extracted keywords.

Although network visualizations are becoming increasingly common, designing such visualizations can be challenging due to the number of visual elements and non-linear relations that they need to display. The main design challenge faced is finding the right trade-off between providing a sufficient level of information detail while keeping the visual complexity of the visualization as low as possible. One way of overcoming this challenge is to rely on the use of mental models that are familiar to the users of network visualizations. In this paper, we propose the use of a mental interaction model similar to that of map visualizations - generally based on geographical maps - as the basis for visual design of network diagrams. We argue that such a mental model would foster a set of network interaction tasks that can be defined broadly as wayfinding. We present the process of wayfinding from a semiotic standpoint, and match its main key points to those of interaction tasks with network diagrams. As a case study for this analysis, we also present a prototype network diagram visualization tool, called Colocalization Network Explorer, which we have developed to support the exploration of the relationships between various diseases and the portion of the human genome that is potentially involved in their onset. Additionally, we describe how the design process has benefited from the adoption of the wayfinding mental model.

Researchers working in areas such as lexicography, translation studies, and computational linguistics, use a combination of automated and semi-automated tools to analyze the content of text corpora. Concordancing - or the arranging of passages of a textual corpus in alphabetical order according to user-defined keywords - is one of the oldest and still most widely used forms of text analysis. Concordance Mosaic is an interactive concordance visualization which emphasises quantitative information such as word frequency. While Concordance Mosaic is in active use by humanities scholars, no quantitative evaluation of the technique exists. In this paper, the Concordance Mosaic is quantitatively evaluated in comparison to a typical concordance browser. The comparison is evaluated using speed and accuracy on identified corpus analysis actions.

A common task in a number of application areas is to create textual documents based on recorded audio data. Visualizations designed to support such tasks require linking temporal audio data with contextual data contained in the resulting documents. In this paper, we present a tool for the visualization of temporal and contextual links between recorded dialogues and their summary documents.

Human-Centred Design (HCD) relies on the use of many methods (e.g. interviews, observations) originating from other disciplines such as social sciences (e.g. ethnography). Such methods often rely on the use of visual tools (e.g. photographs and illustrations) to better facilitate the involvement of the participants in the design process. Most HCD practitioners, however, do not have the necessary visual design skills, and as such, need to work with visual communication designers to co-create visual tools to support their design projects. In this poster, we present a multidisciplinary approach to guide the process of co-creating such visual tools.

Visual tools, such as illustrations, are increasingly being used as part of Human-Centred Design (HCD) methods (e.g. during the requirements gathering phase). However, many HCD practitioners, who do not have visual communication design skills, often find it difficult to determine which existing visual tools to use, or how to create new tools for their own design projects. As such, it is becoming necessary for HCD practitioners to work with visual communication designers to co-create visual tools for specific projects. Here, we provide a multidisciplinary design approach to guide the process of co-creating such visual tools. We also discuss the use of this process in a case study, which has required creating visual tools for field interviews.

Abstract News media play an important role in shaping social reality, and their multimedia narrative content, in particular, can have widespread repercussions in the public’s perception of past and present phenomena. Being able to visually track changes in media coverage over time could offer the potential for aiding social change, as well as furthering accountability in journalism. In this paper, we explore how visualizations could be used to examine differences in online media narrative patterns over time and across publications. While there are existing means of visualizing such narrative patterns over time, few address the aspect of co-occurrence of variables in media content. Comparing co-occurrences of variables chronologically can be more useful in identifying patterns and possible biases in media coverage than simply counting the individual occurrences of those variables independently. Here, we present a visualization, called time-sets, which has been designed to support temporal comparisons of such co-occurrences. We also describe an interactive prototype tool we have developed based on time-sets for analysis of multimedia news datasets, using an illustrative case study of news articles published on three online sources over several years. We then report on a user study we have conducted to evaluate the time-sets visualization, and discuss its findings.

We present a tool for visualization of transcripts of multi-party dialogues, with application to the analysis of communication in medical teamwork. The visualization is based on a "temporal mosaic" metaphor, which provides a temporal overview of dialogues and supports the tasks of transcript browsing and information access, by segmenting the dialogue and laying out the keywords of the different segments on interactive visual "tiles". The tool has been tested on a corpus of transcribed dialogues among the members of a (simulated) critical care team. An analytical evaluation is presented which demonstrates the potential uses of the tool in an educational setting and highlights areas for improvements.

The use of tourist maps has become an important part of many people's travel experiences. Design of tourist maps is far from being a straightforward task-requiring the knowledge of cartography, visual design, and visualization. This is particularly true for Illustrated tourist maps, which are supposed to be easier to understand and use by travelers from different backgrounds due to their use of illustrations for communicating map information. Most such maps, however, are designed for better visual aesthetics than necessarily for more accurate cartographic information. This paper presents a survey of illustrated tourist maps, with the aim of identifying and categorizing their common cartographic and other illustrated elements, as well as the visual styles used to represent those elements, and the functions they provide.

Whilst the primary purpose of conferences is work --- formal exchange and sharing of information --- they almost always also include elements of play: informal social and entertainment elements, such as receptions, dinners, and tourism activities. These activities also provide the opportunity for 'serious' discussions, meeting people, and networking, and are an essential part of a good conference. Despite this, most virtual conferencing tools fail to provide support for such activities, instead focusing on austere goals related to saving money, time, and travel. This paper describes the concept of a Virtual Cocktail Party (VCP) tool to integrate into a virtual conference environment. In VCP the 'party' is presented as a mixture of individuals and small conversation groups 'circulating' at the virtual venue. Exploiting an automated speech-to-text system, words from conversations are shown in word-clouds displayed around conversation groups, sufficient to identify topics of conversation allowing participants to decide whether or not to join a group.

Comparing frequency distributions is a basic task in statistics and in disciplines that rely on statistical analysis, such as corpus linguistics. However, support for comparing word frequencies between different corpora in corpus linguistics tasks such as lexical analysis and corpus-based translation studies, is often limited to fairly basic techniques like tabular word lists. While other visualizations such as word clouds do exist, they are not widely used in linguistic analysis tasks due to their lack of precision, unsuitability to dealing with the high frequencies of common words, and lack of effective mechanisms for direct manipulation. In this paper, we propose a visualization for comparing word frequencies across two corpora using a combination of slope charts and histogram contours. An interactive implementation of this visualization is also presented. The design of visualization, and the development of the prototype, have been guided through the involvement of expert linguist users.

Visual representation of sets and their relationships is valuable in many application areas. There are numerous categories of set visualizations, each with their own particular representation of sets using areas, lines, matrices, etc. All these existing visualizations, however, represent sets statically in time, without much consideration for comparisons of set cardinalities and relationships across time. In this paper, we describe a new visualization, called time-sets, which has been designed to support temporal comparisons of set cardinalities and their relationships. We also present a comparative case study of articles published by several online news sources over a period of time, to demonstrate the application of time-sets in this novel area using a prototype visualization tool we have developed for this specific purpose.

The integration of an agent-based simulation model as a component of a game engine for serious games targeting prevention and health promotion in the context of infectious diseases is described. It is argued that a combination of agent-based modelling and serious games can help provide a more realistic picture of disease spread than conventional ecoepidemiological models, by facilitating the integration of more detailed multidisciplinary expert knowledge. In addition, agent-based simulations provide engaging game mechanics, thereby fostering citizen engagement in the collection of up-to-date real-world data which can be used to improve the model.

Feedback plays an important role in assisting users to better understand their energy consumption behaviour. This is particularly true when users want to change their behaviour in order to reduce their energy consumption, and to manage their usage more effectively so as to avoid putting unnecessary load on energy providers. This paper presents the time-tone visualization, which aims to assist users by displaying variations in energy consumption by different categories of household devices over time, and their respective contributions to the total energy usage load. A user study conducted to compare time-tone against area-charts shows that although the two visualizations are comparable, time-tone is more effective for cases where there are large variations in energy usage loads.

It has been suggested that providing feedback allows people to better understand their energy consumption behaviour and take the necessary actions to reduce energy consumption. Here, we present the time-load visualization, which shows percentages of energy usage by different categories of devices that contribute to the total energy consumption load over time. Time-load aims to assist users with visualization of variations in energy consumption by different categories over time, and their respective, and often very unbalanced, contributions to the total energy usage load.

Creating complex 3D models is a challenging process. One of the main reasons for this is that 3D models are usually created using software developed for conventional 2D displays which lack true depth perspective, and therefore do not support correct perception of spatial placement and depth-ordering of displayed content. As a result, modellers often have to deal with many overlapping components of 3D models (e.g. vertices, edges, faces, etc.) on a 2D display surface. This in turn causes them to have difficulties in distinguishing distances, maintaining position and orientation awareness, etc. To better understand the nature of these problems, which can collectively be defined as ‘focus and context awareness’ problems, we have conducted a pilot study with a group of novice 3D modellers, and a series of interviews with a group of professional 3D modellers. This article presents these two studies, and their findings, which have resulted in identifying a set of focus and context awareness problems that modellers face in creating 3D models using conventional modelling software. The article also provides a review of potential solutions to these problems in the related literature.

Community-based healthcare strategies are becoming increasingly important in developing sustainable practices for prevention of neglected and emerging diseases in remote regions. In this paper, we discuss the use of "serious games" as one of the strategies for improving local populations' knowledge of the causes, preventive measures, and treatment options for neglected tropical diseases. We illustrate the potential of such a strategy for fostering engagement between local communities and healthcare workers by presenting a serious game architecture we have developed in collaboration with medical researchers and practitioners working in Amazonia. Although this first game focuses on Leishmaniases, it can be extended to easily include other similar diseases. This prototype game has been presented to a group of experts on neglected tropical diseases, and their opinions are reported here.

Providing effective feedback can empower users to change their behaviour and take the necessary actions to reduce their energy consumption. The types of feedback that allow comparison of energy usage seem to be particularly valuable. This paper introduces the time-stack visualization, which has been designed to support comparisons of individual and collective energy usage data. It also describes a user study conducted to compare the effectiveness of time-stack against a similar visualization called time-pie. The results show that although the two visualizations are generally comparable in their effectiveness, users rate time-stack more favourably.

Creating complex 3D polygonal models using existing modelling software can be challenging. Most 3D Modelling software have been designed for 2D displays and lack support for effective perception of depth ordering. Studies have shown that users of these types of software encounter a range of focus and context awareness problems while performing their 3D modelling tasks. We have previously developed a number of visualization and interaction techniques to better support focus and context awareness using multi-layered displays. A user study of these techniques has demonstrated that they need further improvements. Here, we present three modified visualization techniques, which as shown by a user study, improve the effectiveness of these previous alternatives.

The development and deployment of information technology, particularly mobile tools, to support collaboration between different groups of health-care professionals has been viewed as a promising way to improve disease surveillance and patient care in remote regions. The effects of global climate change combined with rapid changes to land cover and use in Amazonia are believed to be contributing to the spread of vector-borne emerging and neglected diseases. This makes empowering and providing support for local health-care providers all the more important. We investigate the use of information technology in this context to support professionals whose activities range from diagnosing diseases and monitoring their spread to developing policies to deal with outbreaks. An analysis of stakeholders, their roles and requirements, is presented which encompasses results of fieldwork and of a process of design and prototyping complemented by questionnaires and targeted interviews. Findings are analysed with respect to the tasks of diagnosis, training of local health-care professionals, and gathering, sharing and visualisation of data for purposes of epidemiological research and disease surveillance. Methodological issues regarding the elicitation of cooperation and collaboration requirements are discussed and implications are drawn with respect to the use of technology in tackling emerging and neglected diseases.

Abstract Most 3D modelling software have been developed for conventional 2D displays, and as such, lack support for true depth perception. This contributes to making polygonal 3D modelling tasks challenging, particularly when models are complex and consist of a large number of overlapping components (e.g. vertices, edges) and objects (i.e. parts). Research has shown that users of 3D modelling software often encounter a range of difficulties, which collectively can be defined as focus and context awareness problems. These include maintaining position and orientation awarenesses, as well as recognizing distance between individual components and objects in 3D spaces. In this paper, we present five visualization and interaction techniques we have developed for multi‐layered displays, to better support focus and context awareness in 3D modelling tasks. The results of a user study we conducted shows that three of these five techniques improve users' 3D modelling task performance.

Existing computer technologies poorly support the ideation phase common to graphic design practice. Finding and indexing visual material to assist the process of ideation often fall on the designer, leading to user experiences that are less than ideal. To inform development of computer systems to assist graphic designers in the ideation phase of the design process, we conducted interviews with 15 professional graphic designers about their design process and visual information needs. Based on the study, we propose a set of requirements for an ideation‐support system for graphic design.

Many developing regions around the world rely on community-based healthcare strategies and practices to deal with prevention and control of often neglected diseases, by educating the local population and healthcare professionals, on the mechanisms by which such diseases spread and how they can be controlled. In this paper we describe a multiplayer serious game designed to raise awareness, and foster adoption of preventive measures among local citizens and community-health professionals about Leishmaniosis. We also discuss how the underlying concept for this game and its mechanics have been iteratively designed and developed in collaboration with a group of people with relevant medical and research expertise as well as practical knowledge resulting from working with our target population.

This study investigates the readability (interpretability) of information presented on a geographical map onto which a semi-transparent multivariate selection layer has been overlaid. The investigation is based on an information visualization prototype developed for a mobile platform (tablet devices) which aimed at supporting epidemiologists and medical staff in field data collection and epidemiological interpretation tasks. Different factors are analysed under varying transparency (alpha blending) levels, including: map interpretation task (covering "seeing map" and "reading map" tasks), legend symbol and map area type. Our results complement other studies that focused on the readability characteristics of items displayed on semi-transparent foreground layers developed in the context of "toolglass" interfaces. The implications of these results to the usability of transparency variable selection layers in geographical map applications are also discussed.

There is an increasing need for technology that assist people with more effective monitoring and management of their energy generation and consumption. In recent years a considerable number of research activities have resulted in a multitude of new ICT-supported tools and services for both the private energy consumer market, as well as for energy related business and industries (e.g., utility and grid companies, facility management, etc.). This workshop focuses on advanced interaction, interface, and visualization techniques for energy-related applications, tools, and services. It brings together researchers and practitioners from a diverse range of background, including interaction design, human-computer interaction, visualization, computer games, and other fields concerned with the development of advanced visual interfaces for smart energy applications.

As telehealth systems are increasingly being adopted by healthcare providers, a growing number of medical practitioners need to learn to use such systems. Despite this, however, most medical schools do not currently include telehealth-related content in their curriculum. In this paper we demonstrate, through examples from our own experience, how the Problem Based Learning method can be used to incorporate telehealth systems in medical science education. We also present a survey of medical students and faculty, conducted at a university in Brazil, to gain the participants' opinions on the nu-case mobile telehealth system. The results of the survey show that nu-case provides support for a range of tasks that a telehealth system needs to cater for in the context of our application area.

In recent years a growing number of information visualization systems have been developed to assist users with monitoring their energy consumption, with the hope of reducing energy use through more effective user-awareness. Most of these visualizations can be categorized into either some form of a time-series or pie chart, each with their own limitations. These visualization systems also often ignore incorporating contextual (e.g. weather, environmental) information which could assist users with better interpretation of their energy use information. In this paper we introduce the time-pie visualization technique, which combines the concepts of timeseries and pie charts, and allows the addition of contextual information to energy consumption data.

It is estimated that global climate change and regional land use and cover changes in the Amazon region will contribute to the spread of vector-borne diseases such as bartonellosis and leishmaniasis. The large geographical distances and the sparsity of human settlements in the region pose challenges to the collaboration among health professionals whose goals range from diagnosing diseases to monitoring their spread. This paper presents work in progress on a system to support the tasks of local healthcare professionals and enabling collection, compilation, sharing and visualisation of data for purposes of epidemiological research and disease surveillance in remote regions.

Information visualisation methods can potentially be employed to assist the work of epidemiologists and other health care professionals in mapping the spread of communicable diseases in remote areas, where the task of disease surveillance encompasses temporal elements such as changes in climate, land use and population movements. This paper presents an investigation into the use of time-based visualisation techniques coupled with geographical maps and support for distributed mobile collection of patient data. This study has focused on the development of an information visualisation prototype designed for use by epidemiology researchers on mobile platforms (tablets and smart phones). The prototyping activity has involved the participation of prospective users working in the Amazon region. Initial results are presented and discussed.

A mosaic chart has been proposed for representation of events on a timeline. While early studies demonstrated the effectiveness of mosaics in supporting visualization of multimedia records on a meeting browser, the usability of mosaics as a static timeline visualization has not been studied in more general settings. This paper investigates the use of the mosaic charts for visualization of project schedules. A user study was conducted to compare a building project schedule encoded alternatively as a mosaic or as a Gantt chart. Although the study focused on static graphs, for which the Gantt technique is usually very effective, results showed that the users were as fast and accurate at answering the questions using the mosaic representation as they were using Gantt charts. The analysis and experiment indicated algorithmic, space-filling and interpretation limitations of the mosaic technique. We suggest possible design improvements to overcome some of these limitations.

In recent years several systems have been developed to integrate the management of physical and digital documents and artefacts. These systems, which often rely on technologies such as RFID, generally detect the location of a digitally tagged item within a collection, with varying degrees of location sensitivity, ranging from a room to a smaller container such as a filing cabinet or briefcase. Despite their obvious value, such systems are not capable of detecting the precise location and ordering of individual items within the managed collection of items. In this paper we present the second generation of our earlier prototype system, called SOPHYA, which utilises a wired technology to allow management and retrieval of documents and artefacts within ordered collections.

Visualisation and structuring of tasks in a schedule, from relatively simple activities such as meeting scheduling to more complex ones such as project planning, has been traditionally supported by timeline representations similar to Gantt charts. Despite their popularity, Gantt charts suffer from a number of shortcomings, including poor representation of detail and inefficient use of screen real-estate,particularly when a large number of parallel tasks, each of which requiring its own representation space, need to be displayed. We have devised an alternative visualisation,called temporal mosaic, which addresses some of these shortcomings while utilising space more efficiently. We have recently shown that as a static visualisation temporal mosaics outperform Gantt charts in terms of their ability to convey time-based scheduling information to users engaged in various temporal inference tasks. This paper extends that research by presenting interactive techniques which support creation, and dynamic visualisation of task hierarchies and relationships. These techniques are illustrated through a system for direct manipulation of schedules in both Gantt chart and temporal mosaic formats.

Although in today's everyday work environments digital and paper documents co-exist, the systems used to manage them are often completely separate; digital documents are managed using computer systems, while paper documents are organised and managed using manual systems. Since it is unlikely that the widespread use of paper documents will cease to exist in the foreseeable future, digital systems are needed for managing the storage and retrieval of paper documents which better integrate with existing systems for management of digital documents. This paper presents an architecture for a system to digitally manage paper document containers, such as folders, which has been used as the design basis for a prototype system we have developed. This prototype system aims to resolve some of the problems associated with an earlier prototype we have developed to integrate filing of physical folders with digital document management systems.

This paper presents an interactive visualisation system that assists users of semi-automatic speech transcription systems to assess alternative recognition results in real time and provide feedback to the speech recognition back-end in an intuitive manner. This prototype uses the OpenGL libraries to implement an animated 3D visual representation of alternative recognition results generated by the Sphinx automatic speech recognition system. It is expected that displaying alternatives dynamically will facilitate early detection of recognition errors and encourage user interaction, which in turn can be used to improve future recognition performance.

In most work environments people archive both the real and digital versions of their documents. But unlike the digital world, in the physical world locating a document can become a very time consuming task. The reason for this is the lack of a direct connection between the physical and digital versions of documents.

Despite its popularity and widespread use, timeline visualisation suffers from shortcomings which limit its use for displaying multiple data streams when the number of streams increases to more than a handful. This paper presents the Temporal Mosaic technique for visualisation of parallel time-based streams which addresses some of these shortcomings. Temporal mosaics provide a compact way of representing parallel streams of events by allocating a fixed drawing area to time intervals and partitioning that area according to the number of concurrent events. A user study is presented which compares this technique to a standard timeline representation technique in which events are depicted as horizontal bars and multiple streams are drawn in parallel along a vertical axis. Results of this user study show that users of the temporal mosaic visualisation perform significantly better at detecting concurrency, interval overlaps and inactivity than users of standard timelines.

Accessing specific or salient parts of multimedia recordings remains a challenge as there is no obvious way of structuring and representing a mix of space-based and time-based media. A number of approaches have been proposed which usually involve translating the continuous component of the multimedia recording into a space-based representation, such as text from audio through automatic speech recognition and images from video (keyframes). In this paper, we present a novel technique which defines retrieval units in terms of a log of actions performed on space-based artifacts, and exploits timing properties and extended concurrency to construct a visual presentation of text and speech data. This technique can be easily adapted to any mix of space-based artifacts and continuous media

Although digital recording of speech is widespread, and an increasing range of applications allow recording and inclusion of speech data in documents, editing and retrieval of speech audio remains generally a challenging task. We have previously developed a speech audio editing and browsing application which utilizes imperfect transcripts of speech as a mechanism for text-based editing and retrieval of speech audio documents. This paper presents a second prototype, called TRAED, which enhances the functionality provided by our earlier prototype, and further facilitates the task of speech audio editing and access.

This paper presents a model for storage of remote Internet-based multimedia meetings and information retrieval from textual and time-based content. The model builds on a theory of content mapping that exploits temporal and contextual relationships between media streams. Two prototypes are presented which illustrate the application of the model to a virtual meeting environment, and to a system for visualisation of meeting records on mobile devices. Implications of the proposed content mapping model with respect to interface design and non-linear browsing of time-based media are also discussed.

Conventional interfaces for visualisation of time-based media support access to sequential data in a linear fashion. We present two visualisation interfaces for a mobile application that supports non-linear, structured browsing of multimedia recordings by exploiting certain features of concurrent multimedia streams. The system is built on a content mapping framework which automatically creates links between text and audio data by establishing "temporal neighbourhoods". It illustrates how non-linear browsing may be particularly valuable for devices with limited screen real-estate.

Word Processing software usually only displays paragraphs of text immediately adjacent to the cursor position. Generally this is appropriate, for example when composing a single paragraph. However, when reviewing or working on the layout of a document it is necessary to establish awareness of current text in the context of the document as a whole. This can be done by scrolling or zooming, but when doing so, focus is easily lost and hard to regain.We have developed a system called DeepDocument using a two-layered LCD display in which both focussed and document-wide views are presented simultaneously. The overview is shown on the rear display and the focussed view on the front, maintaining full screen size for each. The physical separation of the layers takes advantage of human depth perception capabilities to allow users to perceive the views independently without having to redirect their gaze. DeepDocument has been written as an extension to Microsoft Word™.

We present an approach to building compact and effective information visualisation interfaces to allow users to browse and access content stored in continuous media. We introduce a content mapping framework, which supports time-based indexing of recordings of computer supported collaborative activity. In order to illustrate the temporal aspect of content mapping, we present HANMER, a system designed to provide fast access to audio-textual meeting recordings on personal digital assistants (PDAs). HANMER embodies techniques that exploit the processing capabilities and functionality of modern PDAs for visualisation and retrieval of multimedia meeting data.

There are various software technologies that allow capture and redelivery of lectures. Most of these technologies however rely on the use of proprietary software, often requiring extra efforts from the lecturer in terms of the initial preparation of the lecture material, or in editing and annotating after the lecture to make the material suitable for the students. To review the material students then require access to the proprietary software. This paper describes a system for the lightweight capture of lecture presentations, based on the use of a low-cost large interactive display surface, together with standard Microsoft PowerPoint/spl trade/ presentation software. The captured version of the presentation includes the original lecture slides' graphical annotations made by the lecturer during the lecture, and the audio recording of the lecture; all saved as a PowerPoint file. In addition, the system adds some annotations and index slides to allow quick and easy access to different segments of the presentation. Presentations can be replayed in part or in full as required, preserving all of the content of the live lecture.

A study has been carried out to identify the effects of different human-to-human communication modes on dyadic computer supported group work. A pilot study evaluated an available shared work-space software system, supplemented by face-to-face, telephone-based, and text-based communication modes between the two users. The findings from this study were then used to design an extensive experiment to explore the relative impact of face-to-face, full motion video, slow motion video, and audio only communication modes when used in conjunction with this type of CSCW system. This paper describes the experiments, and examines the findings of this empirical study with the aim of establishing the importance of co-presence 1 in CSCW, and the effectiveness of these various communication modes in achieving it. KEYWORDS computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), group communication, group work, communication mode, video conferencing. INTRODUCTION A growing number of tasks in our work environ...