17669474
Data base decomposition in a hierarchical computer system
The design of a distributed data base for a hierarchical computer system is investigated. If the transmission cost and storage cost can be calculated from linear cost functions, a data base can be decomposed based upon a simple figure of merit. Moreover, each file can be allocated individually. When the cost functions are nonlinear, a file allocation algorithm is proposed to allocate files which again is based upon a simple figure of merit. The decomposition problem for completely decentralized data bases is also considered.
34016873
Parsing 2D Languages by a Pictorial GLR Parser
35519508
Extending Visual Languages for Multimedia
Visual languages, which let users customize iconic sentences, can be extended to accommodate multimedia objects, letting users access media dynamically. Teleaction objects, or multimedia objects with knowledge structures, can be designed using visual languages to automatically respond to events and perform tasks like "find related books" in a virtual library.
39945679
Iconic Language Design for People with Significant Speech and Multiple Impairments
17298481
Iconic language design for people with significant speech and multiple impairments
We present an approach of iconic language design for people with significant speech and multiple impairments (SSMI), based upon the theory of Icon Algebra and the theory of Conceptual Dependency (CD) to derive the meaning of iconic sentences. An interactive design environment based upon this methodology is described.
15816324
Multi-level specification and protocol design for distributed multimedia communication
The major challenge in the design of an efficient distributed multimedia system is the integration and support of a wide variety of applications. Investigating the basic issues involved in the design and specification of distributed muttimcdia systems is the focus of this paper. A basic layered network architecture is proposed as the uniform framework for the investigation of different levels of functionality typically associated with the communication network that supports multimedia communication. Within this framework, we propose to identify the communication requirements for multimedia applications and characterize a set of communication primitives which specify different qualities of scrvicc to reflect different real-time rcquircmcnts. ‘Ilis investigation is guided by an efficient and flexible multi-level specification model. We will characterize this model and show that the model can be amenable to the construction of a set of communication primitives that support synchronization and communication of multimedia applications.
16823669
Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication
This book contends that accessing and browsing information and communication are multidimensional and consequential aspects of the information user's entire experience and of general human behavior. Problems in information creation, processing, transmittal, and use often arise from an incomplete conceptualization of the "information seeking" process, where information seeking is viewed as the intentional finding of specific information. The process has traditionally been considered to begin with some kind of search query and end with some kind of obtained information. That, however, may be only the last, most easily observable--and perhaps not even primary--stage of a complex sequence of activities.This book reviews related theory, research, practice, and implications from a wide range of disciplines. It also analyzes converging forms of information, including mass media, online information services, the Internet and World Wide Web, libraries, public spaces, advertisements, and organizational communication. Extensive case studies illustrate the theoretical material.
28693312
A new architecture for motion-compensated image coding
Abstract In motion-compensated image coding (MCIC), the block matching algorithm requires a very complex computational procedure. To overcome this problem, several fast search procedures have been proposed. However, the resultant errors for these procedures may be too large unless small displacement is assumed. In order to reduce the computational complexity and preserve the quality of the original image, a new architecture for MCIC without the small displacement assumption is proposed in this paper. Based on a so-called characteristic mapping, certain important features of the block will be extracted and matched in the space of features. Hence, the procedure of matching any two blocks is very much simplified and the time required is drastically reduced. Moreover, the simulation results indicate that its performance is superior to those fast search procedures based on the error between the reconstructed image and the original one. This property will result in low bit rates for transmitting the error frame.
18938523
A two-dimensional vector packing model for the efficient use of coil cassettes
We consider the problem of efficiently packing steel products, known as coils, into special containers, called cassettes for shipping. The objective is to minimize the number of cassettes used for packing all the given coils where each cassette has capacity limits on both total payload weight and size. We model this problem as a two-dimensional vector packing problem and propose a heuristic. We also analyze the worst-case performance of the proposed algorithm under a special condition which, in fact, holds for the particular real-world case that we handled. Our computational experiment with real production data shows that the proposed algorithm performs quite satisfactorily in practice.
27879646
Location-Based Services for Tourism Industry: An Empirical Study
To cope with the fact of high competitiveness in tourism industry, some travel agencies are adopting the strategy of providing relatively more abundant and higher quality services to their clients. Since prior research has found that lack of information is one of the main barriers for people to travel, provide location-based information to people visiting and staying at a new location should be useful and valuable. This research attempts to find out travelers’ attitude toward location-based service (LBS). “What factors will affect the travelers’ willingness to adopt this new service” is what we tried to find out in this research. Our findings shows that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and security & privacy are associated with travelers’ attitude toward using LBS, but location information, context awareness, and device functions are not. Our findings can be referenced by tourism industry for the purpose of the design and development of successful business applications to catch the revolutionary opportunity and benefit of LBS.
17634440
An optimal cache algorithm for streaming VBR video over a heterogeneous network
High quality video content for on-demand services is usually stored and streamed in a compressed format with a VBR (variable bit rate) property; however, the streaming traffic is extremely bursty. If there is no client buffer to regulate the video's delivery, the backbone WAN (wide area network) bandwidth needs to allocate the video's peak bit rate to guarantee playback quality. To reduce the bandwidth requirement in the backbone WAN, previous researchers have proposed a Video Staging Mechanism to cache portions of the video in a video proxy close to clients. In this paper, we propose a very effective OC (optimal cache) algorithm to handle the Video Staging Mechanism and prove theoretically that the proxy cache computed by our OC algorithm for each video is minimal when all other resources remain constant. On the basis of experiment results, we cache the least amount of video data in the video proxy by using the OC algorithm, and reduce the WAN bandwidth requirement by an amount equal to that of conventional algorithms. In contrast, given the equal size of the storage in a video proxy, the OC algorithm reduces the bandwidth requirement in the backbone WAN much more than conventional algorithms.