Knowledge workers consume and annotate digital documents such as PDF files, videos, images and text notes - in some cases collaboratively - to form mental models and gain insight. An abundance of software solutions and utilities that were designed to assist users in stages of this process but not in the process as a whole, which makes knowledge work with documents unnecessarily inefficient. In this paper, we introduce ideas on how to streamline common knowledge worker tasks, such as collaboratively searching, gathering and freely arranging fragments of various media documents to gain understanding and then transforming emergent insights into interactive structured visualizations. Furthermore, we present NuSys, an integrated development environment (IDE) specialized for document-centric workflows, that implements the core of these ideas.

We present an immersive system for exploring numerically simulated flow data through a model of a coronary artery graft. This tightly-coupled interdisciplinary project is aimed at understanding how to reduce the failure rate of these grafts. The visualization system provides a mechanism for exploring the effect of changes to the geometry, to the flow, and for exploring potential sources of future lesions. The system uses gestural and voice interactions exclusively, moving away from more traditional windows/icons/menus/point-and-click (WIMP) interfaces. We present an example session using the system and discuss our experiences developing, testing, and using it. We describe some of the interaction and rendering techniques that we experimented with and describe their level of success. Our experience suggests that systems like this are exciting to clinical researchers, but conclusive evidence of their value is not yet available.

We describe some issues in designing and building educational Java applets for an introductory computer graphics course. The design problem involves balancing educational goals of building intuition about fundamental concepts in a domain against heterogeneity both in subject material and in student backgrounds. We present our design approach for resolving these forces --- fine-grained units addressing small concepts --- and discuss its effects on other areas including hypertext structure, interface design, and software engineering.

Panel SummaryWho and what are standards for?Are standards there to protect users' investments and ease the design of working, integrated solutions or are they there to generate product opportunities for suppliers?Given enough confusion in the market place the effect is to turn standards into supplier's opportunity, at the expense of users' protection.Extensions, registrations, revisions, profiles, and levels of certification all conspire to confuse the situation.The pressure to adopt Publicly Available Specifications and the perceived advantages of "de facto" standards can undermine the protective intent of "de jure" standards.This panel debates different attitudes to standards, often associated with different sides of the Atlantic, but also between standardiser, politician, supplier and user.Concern over slow progress in ISO growing, but even concern is slow to take effect!Political pressure for change has never been stronger (for example at the recent CEC workshop on choosing standardisation policy -attended by 350+ delegates.Proposed methods of standardisation often assume that fasttracking PASs will produce a better result, more speedily, but ignore the lack of success of fast-tracking to date in the graphics area.Related topics for discussion include: 1) Is conformance certification worth the cost?2) Portability v Extensibility? 3) Upwards compatibility-how is/should existing investment in products be protected.4) Should registered items be allowed as a way of bypassing standards?5) How should profiling be used.6) De facto v de jure standardisation.7) Can/should fast-tracking PASs be made to work?

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Article Three-dimensional widgets Share on Authors: Brookshire D. Conner View Profile , Scott S. Snibbe View Profile , Kenneth P. Herndon View Profile , Daniel C. Robbins View Profile , Robert C. Zeleznik View Profile , Andries van Dam View Profile Authors Info & Claims I3D '92: Proceedings of the 1992 symposium on Interactive 3D graphicsJune 1992 Pages 183–188https://doi.org/10.1145/147156.147199Online:01 June 1992Publication History 170citation1,946DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations170Total Downloads1,946Last 12 Months70Last 6 weeks6 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

It is often difficult in computer graphics applications to understand spatial relationships between objects in a 3D scene or effect changes to those objects without specialized visualization and manipulation techniques. We present a set of three-dimensional tools (widgets) called “shadows” that not only provide valuable perceptual cues about the spatial relationships between objects, but also provide a direct manipulation interface to constrained transformation techniques. These shadow widgets provide two advances over previous techniques. First, they provide high correlation between their own geometric feedback and their effects on the objects they control. Second, unlike some other 3D widgets, they do not obscure the objects they control.

We present an interactive modeling and animation system that facilitates the integration of a variety of simulation and animation paradigms. This system permits the modeling of diverse objects that change in shape, appearance, and behaviour over time. Our system thus extends modeling tools to include animation controls. Changes can be effected by various methods of control, including scripted, gestural, and behavioral specification. The system is an extensible testbed that supports research in the interaction of disparate control methods embodied in controller objects. This paper discusses some of the issues involved in modeling such interactions and the mechanisms implemented to provide solutions to some of these issues.The system's object-oriented architecture uses delegation hierarchies to let objects change all of their attributes dynamically. Objects include displayable objects, controllers, cameras, lights, renderers, and user interfaces. Techniques used to obtain interactive performance include the use of data-dependency networks, lazy evaluation, and extensive caching to exploit inter- and intra-frame coherency.

Article Free Access Share on Computer graphics in higher education (Panel Session) Authors: Al Bork The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile , Maxine Brown The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile , Robin King The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile , Andries van Dam The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile , Mike Wozny The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile , Chairman: James D. Foley The George Washington University The George Washington UniversityView Profile Authors Info & Claims SIGGRAPH '83: Proceedings of the 10th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniquesJuly 1983 Pages 31–33https://doi.org/10.1145/800059.801129Online:01 July 1983Publication History 2citation402DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations2Total Downloads402Last 12 Months1Last 6 weeks0 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Andries van DamThe panel will examine the evolution of the professional workstation from a time shared terminal to powerful graphics-based personal computer connected to a resource-sharing local network. The panelists will speculate on the future evolution of both the hardware/software architecture and end user environment.Workstation development at StanfordJames H. ClarkWorkstation development at Stanford is closely linked with graphics, distributed systems and networking. Two distinct systems have evolved over the last 3 years: the SUN system and the IRIS system. The SUN is a low-cost system based upon an efficient MC68000 processor/memory design and a relatively low-performance, high-resolution bit-map display. The IRIS (Integrated Raster Imaging System) is based upon the same MC68000 design, but the graphics part of the system is a modest- to low-cost, high-performance, high-resolution, color or black and white system that uses the Geometry Engine and several other custom IC parts. Both SUN and IRIS interface to the Stanford Ethernet network, and both are being used for distributed systems research, VLSI design stations, and graphics research. In addition, IRIS will probably be used for mechanical CAD research by the mechanical engineering department and in situations where high-performance graphics is important.Improvement Goals for Workstation FacilitiesRobert M. DunnThree major areas of improvement are needed: interaction techniques that are simpler, provide faster reaction, are useful for higher-level inputs, and have user-style-oriented alternatives. The second area is for image rendering based on local capabilities, in varying degrees of image quality as a function of desired “grade of service”. The third area is to provide support to incremental model construction and approximate design evaluation. There must be evaluation techniques that can work on partial models and give one approximate results. Implications of these criteria for workstation architecture will be discussed.The application of network workstations to large-scale engineeringHarvey KriloffThe development of computerized analysis procedures during the last twenty years has been largely oriented toward providing increased analytic function. This has meant that considerations of user access to specific capabilities or ease of use of these mammoth programs are only now becoming user concerns. The emerging new technologies for display, input and their interaction, when applied to the professional workstation, will be playing an increasingly important role in satisfying these concerns. A professional workstation can be used both to improve the efficiency by which data is collected for an existing analysis program and to assist the user in the preparation of data for a formal presentation or report. This performance improvement can be accomplished through the development of user-adapted “macro procedures” for data entry, the execution of processes to check program input data for accuracy and consistency, and workstation assistance in the training of both new and existing users. At the output stage of analysis, the workstation can be used to select and reformat information prepared by the analysis program, explore the interrelationship of results from several different analyses, and derive the data for a succeeding analysis in an iterative design mode.At Boeing Computer Services, we have been exploring the benefits realized by the development of such a workstation when applied to the field of structural engineering. An interaction-rich workstation with a human-engineered executive that controls and integrates the user interface, connected to our national network of IBM, CDC and CRAY computers with a broad variety of engineering software, supplies the engineer with a full range of tools for analysis, data preparation, report writing and data relationship exploration that are only beginning to be appreciated. In the next few years it is expected that this workstation (distributed) methodology for doing engineering and other quantitative professional functions will radically change the way these analytical processes are performed.Personal Workstations in a Local NetworkDavid NelsonFor many applications, personal workstations provide a superior form of computing compared to timesharing. The requirements of workstations, however, go well beyond the facilities provided by the local computer; they must include the equivalent advantages of timesharing such as user-to-user communications, shared programs and data files, shared peripherals, etc. The preferred way to implement these functions is to interconnect all workstations by means of a high-speed local network, controlled by a distributed operating system which provides transparent access to all network resources through a network-wide virtual memory system. Additional workstation functions such as large virtual address space and a concurrent multiple-window display system significantly increase user productivity. A high resolution bit-map display system with hardware support for dynamics is an essential component. For the future we look towards both significant cost reductions and improvement in performance, as well as significantly higher level software to better implement the user-computer interface.

Frank W. Tompa

An experimental system is described for the design, development, and presentation of computer-based documents that combine pictures and text on a high-resolution color raster display.Such documents can be used, for example, for maintenance and repair tasks, videotex databases, or computer-aided instruction.Documents are directed graphs whose nodes we refer to as pages, in analogy to the pages of a paper book.A page includes a set of simultaneously displayed pictures, actions (procedures and processes), and indexing information.Pages may be nested arbitrarily deeply in chapters that serve much the same organizing function as those of conventional books.The system is comprised of separate programs for laying out and drawing pictures, for graphically specifying the contents of pages, chapters, and their interconnections, and for displaying the document for user interaction.Examples are given from a prototype maintenance and repair manual in which emphasis was placed on designing actions that allow simple real-time animation and assist in finding one's way around the document.

An experimental system is described for the design, development, and presentation of computer-based documents that combine pictures and text on a high-resolution raster color display. Such documents can be used, for example, for maintenance and repair tasks or computer-aided instruction. Documents are directed graphs whose nodes we refer to as pages, in analogy to the pages of a paper book. A page includes a set of simultaneously displayed pictures, actions (procedures and processes) triggered when the page is accessed or when pickable picture elements on it are selected, and indexing information. Pages may be nested arbitrarily deeply in chapters that serve much the same organizing function as those of conventional books. The system is comprised of separate programs for lay-ing out and drawing pictures, for graphically specifying the contents of pages, chapters, and their interconnections, and for displaying the document for user interaction. Examples are given from a prototype document for the maintenance and repair of computerized numerical control equipment. Emphasis was placed on designing actions for simple realtime animation (both by color table techniques and by transforming named primitives and manipulating their attributes), and for finding one's way around the document (displays include: a "timeline " of recently visited pages, immediate predecessor and successor pages, sibling pages and their interconnections, and those pages satisfying key-word retrieval requests).

The microprogrammed filter engine (MICE) is a fast, microprogrammable processor built with ECL bit slices (Motorola ECL 10800 series) intended primarily to be used as an on-line data filtering engine for high energy physics experiments. In this note we describe the use of a hardware description language used to model and simulate the hardware during its development. We treat the problem of describing a pipelined, horizontal (112 bits wide) host machine, implemented using bit slices with considerable potential for parallelism. Several levels of modeling are conceptually applicable to a problem of this nature and the note describes the thorough process followed before we decided on a particular style of description and simulation.

This paper describes architectural considerations which led to the design of a fast programmable processor made from ECL bit-slioes. The processor will be used as an on-line data filtering engine for high energy physics experiments. Unlike prior designs of such engines, the processor supports both user (horizontal) microcode and emulation of the PDP-11 fixed point instruction set (without memory management and multiple interrupt levels). In addition to an overview of the techniques used to achieve an execution speed of roughly three times that of the PDP-11/70 CPU, strengths and weaknesses of bit- slices are discussed, as are the use of a Signetics meta assembler and the ISPS Architecture simulation system.

BUMPS (Brown University Multiple Projection System) is a program that illustrates the implementation of viewing transformations using animation. The program uses the viewing model defined in the Core Graphics System. BUMPS employs interactive computer graphics to demonstrate how planar geometric projections are generated, what the effects of different projections and projection parameters are on the projected object, and how the viewing functions of the Core Graphics System work. After presenting background material on projections, the features of BUMPS are described, followed by a pictorial user scenario of BUMPS in action. The paper concludes with a discussion of the merits of user controlled animation for teaching and possible improvements to the program.

This paper discusses and shows by example the potential of a network of microprogrammable microprocessors as a cost-effective alternative to traditional hardwired medium- and large-scale mainframes. While biased towards vector processing, this system is not intended to compete with multi-million dollar supercomputers such as the 360/195, CDC STAR, Illiac IV, CRAY-1, TI ASC, etc., which use special algorithms and the fastest circuitry available.

GPGS is a subroutine package offering powerful and versatile support for passive and interactive vector graphics, for time-sharing, batch, and stand-alone minicomputer systems. The package is computer, language, and operating system, as well as display device independent. Its key purpose is to allow for transportabiliit of programs and programmers by providing easy to learn, high level features. The applications programmer writes his program once and then executes it on any supported graphics equipment without recompiling or relinking it. Device-independence was implemented by dividing GPGS into a device-independent part invoked by the applications programmer, and internal, "device drivers", one per display device. Like the GSPC "Core System" whose design it influenced, GPGS is a general purpose package. It has a subset of graphics facilities to handle output of line and character primitives with attributes such as line style and character size, and input from interaction tools such as lightpens, keyboards, valuators, and function keys. It also supports 2D and 3D viewin transformationss for clipping and window to viewport mapping, and coordinate transformations.Unlike the GSPC Core System, GPGS also includes a set of basic features for modelling objects which allows definition of device independent masters called seudo picture segment. These are distinguished from normal, device (DPU) dependent pictur segments into which primitives and their attribute-value settings are ordinarily compiled. These masters may be instanced subject to affine transformations (translate, rotate, and scale) to create a typical master-instance hierarchy. The hierarchy may be stored in a disk based library or compiled into a normal picture segment for output to a display device.The images of objects stored in device dependent picture segments may be transformed on the display surface by v port (image) transformations. These typically allow use of hardware transformation capabilities for dragging or tumbling object images.Host/satellite graphics is accommodated by having the device independent part of GPGS in the host and splitting the device drivers across host and satellite. At the source code level it therefore makes no difference on which.configuration a program will be executed.Among the existing implementations are versions written in assembler for the IB 360/370 and the PDP 11, in both stand-alone and satellite mode, and under a variety of operating systems. They support plotters, storage tubes, and high performance refresh displays. FORTRAN based implementations exist for the Univac 1108, the PDP 10, and a Harris minicomputer.

The problem cf distributing an application between two processors has been investigated by studying an interactive graphics application that is divided between a time-shared host computer and a dedicated satellite system. The division of labor in the application is determined by a network flow assignment algorithm. The effect of variation in availability of the host computer on the distribution of the application is also studied. In particular, host availability is an important factor in determining the task distribution. As host availability decreased, procedures miqrate from the host to the satellite.

The STRUCT system utilizes the flexibility of a powerful graphics display system to provide a set of tools for program analysis. These tools allow the analysis of the static program structure and the dynamic execution behaviour of programs within the entire operating system user program environment of the Brown University Graphics System (BUGS). Information is collected and presented in a manner which fully exploits two aspects of this environment. First, the operating system has been developed in a well-structured hierarchical manner following principles laid down by other researchers. Second the programs under analysis have been written in a structured programming language following coding conventions which make available, at the source code level, valuable program control information. This system is currently being used to predict and analyze the performance advantages available through the migration of function between levels of software and between software and firmware within the BUGS.

In the process of establishing equitable and practical computer time allocations for our computer science courses this fall, we compared our seemingly high request with standards in other universities. Twenty-three private and state universities were chosen for the comparison and a questionnaire (appendix 1) was designed to elicit information about large introductory programming courses and more specialized systems programming/software engineering courses.

This paper describes a small computer, Interdata Model 3, that has been microprogrammed to serve as an intelligent terminal. The Interdata is connected to a System/360 multiplexor channel with a high-speed interface, and uses an ARDS direct view storage tube as a display console. The new Interdata target machine is patterned after the /360 (including all five instruction formats), but also has instructions particularly designed for intelligent terminal programming. These include instructions for character string manipulation, code conversion, list processing, coordinate manipulation, and virtual addressing. A powerful multiplexor channel, which allows the programmer to "overlap" I/O to several devices with a CPU program, has also been microprogrammed.