GeoSpace provides users with two types of interaction. First, the user can use text or speech to enter a query to which the system responds using the mechanism described above. Second, the user can use the mouse to zoom, pan, and move around the two and three dimensional map display.

First, the user asks the system “Show me Cambridge.” Then, the label Cambridge increases in opacity to bring this information to the user’s attention. The typographic size also changes accordingly, resulting in a sharper focus of Cambridge. Notice also that related information such as hospitals, highways and colleges around Cambridge are also identified visually to a slightly lesser degree. This demonstrates the reactive nature of discerning information rapidly in a visually dense environment.

Tags: information retrieval, machine learning, maps

I. Lokuge and S. Ishizaki. Geospace: An interactive visualization system for exploring complex information spaces. In I. R. Katz, R. L. Mack, L. Marks, M. B. Rosson, and J. Nielsen, editors, CHI95: Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 95 Conference Proceedings, pages 409–414, Denver, Colorado, USA, May 7-11 1995. ACM, Addison-Wesley. [pdf]

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This  paper present a seminal attempt to use the Spreading Activation Theory for information retrieval in multi-model user interfaces. The main reason for them to use this technique is that it follows the natural learning path of the user, which find it difficult to formulate his/her information seeking goal. Additionally, the advantage is that the ASN (activation spreading network) preserve’s the user previous state of exploration.

The system was tested with an interface called GeoSpace, that allowed the user to formulate vocal query on spatial features of the Boston’s area. The interface was conceived as a series of chained layers containing the relevant information. Each layer’s opaquity was regulated by the spreading retrieval engine.

Additionally, the author were trying to incorporate a simple learning mechanism that could associate different layers based on the retrieval’s order as suggested by the user.

3-4-2007 -> Geospace was commented by Frohlich [1997] as a dynamic homefinder system you can talk to, since it combines natural language input with a map formalism output to five users access to a database of area and property information.

This form of mixed mode interaction shows how the characted of model workd or conversational interfaces can be altered by introducing elements of the complementary mode into the input or output interface.

Tags: graphical user interface, human computer interaction, information retrieval, Location Based Services, machine learning, map algorithms, maps

Nuvvo 2.0, is a service for Web-based interactive learning is now free. Instructors and students both can use Nuvvo to teach and learn free of charge, improving accessibility to education and encouraging the free exchange of knowledge and ideas. The on-demand learning management system (LMS) allows individual instructors to teach online with included content creation, blogging, multimedia integration, evaluation tools, and portal customization tools. Instructors sign up and receive their own online learning portal from which to enroll students and run unlimited courses.

Tags: collaboration tools, education, learning technology, new technology, pedagogy

I am excited as a computer scientist can be … I think. Today I completed a draft version of the STAMPS query tester. This little application will be of a tremendous use to compare different kinds of retrieval techniques on the STAMPS dataset.

What I like of this interface is that it keep things essential, as I like them. However it still show lots of complexity in the output. I realized this using PythonCard a wxPython wrapper.

Tags: graphical user interface, information retrieval, Python

Prompted by a comment on this previous post, I was looking for some bibliographies on MobileLearning, which I found here: [1], [2], [3], and [4]. However, this collections are not organized at all. One of the best reviewed collection of articles is the one by Future Lab.

Additionally, for the current (future?) trends, here is the summary of the WMTE conference by the ‘never sleeping’ Nicolas.

Tags: mobile learning

Transana is software for professional researchers who want to analyze digital video or audio data. Transana lets you analyze and manage your data in very sophisticated ways. Transcribe it, identify analytically interesting clips, assign keywords to clips, arrange and rearrange clips, create complex collections of interrelated clips, explore relationships between applied keywords, and share your analysis with colleagues. The result is a new way to focus on your data, and a new way to manage large collections of video and audio files and clips.

A mac version is in development.

Tags: Exploratory Data Analysis, natural language processing, statistics, text data mining

PythonCard is a GUI construction kit for building cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, using the Python language. The PythonCard motto is “Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.”

PythonCard is for you if you want to develop graphical applications quickly and easily with a minimum of effort and coding. Apple’s HyperCard was one of their inspirations; simple, yet powerful. PythonCard uses wxPython.

Tags: interaction design, graphical user interface, Python

Google News Map is a python google hack that parse Google News, and draws a map with the latest headlines of the coordinates of the countries.

Tags: google, hack, information visualization, map algorithms, maps

World66 is an open content travel guide, where people from all over the planet can write about the places they love, the hotels they stayed in, the restaurants that have eaten. Every part of the travel guide can be edited directly, just click the [edit] button and go ahead. You can change the info you find, do a write up, add a complete city or just a bar or a restaurant.

Tags: collaboration tools, maps, tagging

CmapTools program empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps. It allows users to, among many other features, construct their Cmaps in their personal computer, share them on servers (CmapServers) anywhere on the Internet, link their Cmaps to other Cmaps on servers, automatically create web pages of their concept maps on servers, edit their maps synchronously (at the same time) with other users on the Internet, and search the web for information relevant to a concept map.

The CmapTools client is free for use by anybody, whether its use is commercial or non-commercial. In particular, schools and universities are encouraged to download it and install it in as many computers as desired, and students and teachers may make copies of it and install it at home. (Commercial companies that install their own CmapServer do need to get a separate license for a CmapTools client that will talk to the commercial version of the CmapServer).

Tags: flowcharts, information visualization, learning technology, mac, maps, collaboration tools