18286129
Workflow Based Just-in-time Training
This paper focuses on the problem of information overload for newcomers in an organisation. We propose to address it by constructing a smart personal training assistant based upon workflow tools to drive temporal management of a just-intime workplace training system which will deliver a personalised and structured presentation of organisational documents.
17316572
Aligning Ontologies through Formal Concept Analysis
Abstract.Ontologies have been developed for a number of knowledge domains as di-verseasclinicalterminology,photocamerapartsandmicro-arraygeneexpressiondata.However,aninnatecharacteristicofthedevelopmentofontologiesisthattheyareoftencreatedbyindependentgroupsofexpertise,whichgeneratedthenecessityofmergingandaligningontologiescoveringoverlappingdomains.Manyalgorithmsandtoolshavebeenproposedformergingofontologies,butmostofthemdisregardthestructuralpropertiesofthesourceontologies,focusingmostlyonsyntacticanalysis.This article focuses on an alignment method for ontologies based on Formal ConceptAnalysis,adataanalysistechniquefoundedonlatticetheory. 1 Introduction IntheheartofSemanticWebinitiative,proposedbyTimBerners-lee[2,3],liestheideaofmachineprocessableinformation,suchthatautomatedagents,orsoftbots,couldscanthewebspaceforinformationwithaspeciﬂcmeaning.Nevertheless,theunderstandingofmeaninginWebpagesdesignedforhumansisnotaneasytaskforthepresentgenerationofsoftbotsandontologiescangreatlyassistinthisendeavour.Manyinitiativesaroundtheworldhavecreatedontologies.Someoftheseontologieswerecreatedforhighleveldescriptionoftheworld,whereasothersrepresentveryspeciﬂcsub-jects,likebreastcancer,forinstance.Sometimes,ontologiesdevelopedindependentlymayhavesomeoverlaps.TheforementionedBreastCancerOntology,forexample,mayhavecommonconceptsandrelationswithaGeneOntology.Theseoverlapsareveryimpor-tantfromthepointofviewofinformationintegration,becausethecommonontologicalentitieshavetobeidentiﬂedbeforeinformationcanbesuccessfullyintegrated.Forthisreason,mergeandalignmentofontologieshavereceivedsigniﬂcantattentionfromtheresearchcommunityinthelastsixyears.Theﬂrstimportantissueinmerge/alignmentofontologiesistherelationsymbol-meaning.Ontologiesareconstitutedofsymbols(entities)andrelationsbetweensymbols.However,inSemiotics[18]symbolshaveassociatedmeaning,whichlinksthemtotheirreferent
35187915
Conceptual Data Modelling in Database Design: Similarities and Differences between Expert and Novice Designers
Abstract This paper explores the similarities and differences between experts and novices engaged in a conceptual data modelling task, a critical part of overall database design, using data gathered in the form of think-aloud protocols. It develops a three-level process model of the subjects' behavior and the differentiated application of this model by experts and novices. The study found that the experts focused on generating a holistic understanding of the problem before developing the conceptual model. They were able to categorize problem descriptions into standard abstractions. The novices tended to have more errors in their solutions largely due to their inability to integrate the various parts of the problem description and map them into appropriate knowledge structures. The study also found that the expert and novice behavior was similar in terms of modelling facets like entity, identifier, descriptor and binary relationship, somewhat different in modelling ternary relationship, but quite different in the modelling of unary relationship and category. These findings are discussed in relation to the results of previous expert-novice studies in other domains.
3198534
Understanding Information Technology Complementarities Using an Augmented Endogenous Growth Framework
The complex relationships between information technology investments and organizational practices have been the focus of intensive research in recent years. The research focus appears to have shifted to investigating the effects of various organizational practices and their interactions with information technology capital. There also is emerging evidence of recent emphasis on organizational factors and a greater shift toward IT complementarities in which value addition is linked to combining complementary organizational practices with IT investments. In this paper we focus on the contributions of IT use and organizational practices and their interactions. We use firm-level data to extend previous studies in three ways: (1) by using a large sample covering 3,299 firms spanning 11 industries, (2) by focusing on a large number of organizational practices, and (3) by augmenting the endogenous growth accounting framework with a data mining technique. Our findings indicate that the set of interrelated organizational practices that complement positively to IT use is different from the set of practices hindering IT use. We conclude that IT complementary factors that positively affect productivity growth do not necessarily have a reverse effect when they are reduced or removed. It appears that some organizational factors have asymmetrical effects on growth.
1126755
Creating Shared Information Spaces to Support Collaborative Design Work
The provision of computer support for collaborative work is a central concern for Information Systems (IS) research and practice. In this paper we present the details of an information flow study undertaken in the household division of a large European design and manufacturing company (Delta). The goal of the study was to elicit user requirements for a computer system to facilitate the collaborative work of new product design teams. These requirements form the basis for the design and development of a Web-based LIRÉ (Living Repository) prototype system, the functionalities, features, and rationale of which are discussed. We also present the results of the evaluation of LIRÉ by the users at Delta and our observations on enhancing the sophistication and usefulness of this class of system. A production version based on the prototype but using commercially available software is currently in use by the New Product Development group at Delta.
17378919
Hierarchical motion history images for recognizing human motion
There has been increasing interest in computer analysis and recognition of human motion. Previously we presented an efficient real-time approach for representing human motion using a compact "motion history image" (MHI). Recognition was achieved by statistically matching moment-based features. To address previous problems related to global analysis and limited recognition, we present a hierarchical extension to the original MHI framework to compute dense (local) motion flow directly from the MHI. A hierarchical partitioning of motions by speed in an MHI pyramid enables efficient calculation of image motions using fixed-size gradient operators. To characterize the resulting motion field, a polar histogram of motion orientations is described. The hierarchical MHI approach remains a computationally inexpensive method for analysis of human motions.
8652205
Copy detection mechanisms for digital documents
In a digital library system, documents are available in digital form and therefore are more easily copied and their copyrights are more easily violated. This is a very serious problem, as it discourages owners of valuable information from sharing it with authorized users. There are two main philosophies for addressing this problem: prevention and detection. The former actually makes unauthorized use of documents difficult or impossible while the latter makes it easier to discover such activity.In this paper we propose a system for registering documents and then detecting copies, either complete copies or partial copies. We describe algorithms for such detection, and metrics required for evaluating detection mechanisms (covering accuracy, efficiency, and security). We also describe a working prototype, called COPS, describe implementation issues, and present experimental results that suggest the proper settings for copy detection parameters.
62531827
Robust detection of people in thermal imagery
We present a new contour analysis technique to detect people in thermal imagery. Background-subtraction is first used to identify local regions-of-interest. Gradient information within each region is then combined into a contour saliency map. To extract contour fragments, a watershed-based selection algorithm is used. A path-constrained A* search is employed to complete any broken contours, from which silhouettes are formed. Results using thermal video sequences demonstrate the capability of the approach to robustly detect people across a wider range of environmental conditions than is possible with standard approaches.
14448568
Sampling Representative Examples for Dimensionality Reduction and Recognition - Bootstrap Bumping LDA
We present a novel method for dimensionality reduction and recognition based on Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), which specifically deals with the Small Sample Size (SSS) problem in Computer Vision applications. Unlike the traditional methods, which impose specific assumptions to address the SSS problem, our approach introduces a variant of bootstrap bumping technique, which is a general framework in statistics for model search and inference. An intermediate linear representation is first hypothesized from each bootstrap sample. Then LDA is performed in the reduced subspace. Lastly, the final model is selected among all hypotheses for the best classification. Experiments on synthetic and real datasets demonstrate the advantages of our Bootstrap Bumping LDA (BB-LDA) approach over the traditional LDA based methods.
1546062
The digital Michelangelo project: 3D scanning of large statues
We describe a hardware and software system for digitizing the shape and color of large fragile objects under non-laboratory conditions. Our system employs laser triangulation rangefinders, laser time-of-flight rangefinders, digital still cameras, and a suite of software for acquiring, aligning, merging, and viewing scanned data. As a demonstration of this system, we digitized 10 statues by Michelangelo, including the well-known figure of David, two building interiors, and all 1,163 extant fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae, a giant marble map of ancient Rome. Our largest single dataset is of the David - 2 billion polygons and 7,000 color images. In this paper, we discuss the challenges we faced in building this system, the solutions we employed, and the lessons we learned. We focus in particular on the unusual design of our laser triangulation scanner and on the algorithms and software we developed for handling very large scanned models.