6609571
Efficient Techniques for Feature-Based Image/Video Access and Manipulation
Efficient, effective methods for indexing, searching, and retrieving images and videos from large archives are critical techniques required in visual information systems (VIS) applications. Users need a more powerful method for searching images than just traditional text-based query (e.g., keywords). Manual creation of keywords is too time-consuming for many practical applications. Subjective descriptions based on users’ input will be neither consistent nor complete. Also, the vocabulary used in describing visual contents is usually domain specific.
23414354
An iconic query system with intensional feedback capabilities
In recent years the issue of the interaction between casual users and database systems has become increasingly important. Moreover, the introduction of multimedia and distributed databases has necessitated the design of querying systems capable of reducing unnecessary and costly accesses. The authors address these issues by proposing a visual query system based on (1) the extensive utilization of icons and natural language in order to facilitate the access and the understanding of the database and (2) the use of knowledge, or the intensional part of the database, in order to reduce the physical access to the actual data (extensional part). In their query system the perception of the database structure is made particularly easy by introducing the concept of generalized attribute.<<ETX>>
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.
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.
42561769
Visual-Language System for User Interfaces
The Universities of Pittsburgh and Salerno have jointly developed the Pittsburgh-Salerno Iconic System which lets users design, specify, and interpret custom visual languages for different applications. The system is still in the experimental stage, although we have used it in two practical applications. The experimental system lets interface developers create a custom visual language from sample visual sentences composed of custom or basic icons. The system has already been tested in two small applications, one involving a system for speech-impaired users. >
1382308
Towards a theory of normalization for multimedia databases
We present a theory of normalization for multimedia databases. We introduce new types of functional dependencies between different types of media data. Thus, the definition of functional dependency is based upon a specific technology used to detect semantic relationships between complex data types, which need to be compared through approximate matching paradigms.
7967901
The effect of machine availability on the worst-case performance of LPT
We consider the makespan minimization parallel machine scheduling problem where each machine may be unavailable for a known time interval. For this problem, we investigate how the worst-case behavior of the longest processing time first algorithm (LPT) is affected by the availability of machines. In particular, for given m machines, we analyze the cases where arbitrary number, λ, ranging from one to m - 1, machines are unavailable simultaneously. Then, we show that the makespan of the schedule generated by LPT is never more than the tight worst-case bound of 1 + ½ ⌊m/(m - λ)⌋ times the optimum makespan.
16824799
A heuristic method for self‐healing ring design in a single‐homing cluster
In this paper, we consider a SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) USHR (Uni‐directional Self‐Healing Ring) design problem for a single‐homing cluster, i.e., a cluster with a single designated hub. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear integer programming problem and a branch and bound heuristic method based on the Lagrangian relaxation and subgradient optimization technique is proposed to handle the problem. In solving any ring design problem, we should deal with two different aspects of the ring design, namely, the ring routing aspect and the ring loading aspect. Both of these two aspects are well integrated and represented in our model. Such an integrated formulation has not been proposed in the existing literature mainly due to its computationally intractable complexity. In order to cope with such complexity, a preprocessing technique for reducing the complexity and several branch and bound strategies are proposed. The efficiency of the proposed method is tested through computational experiments. For the computational experiments, test problems are generated using the data obtained from the actual topologies in Seoul, Korea. The computational experiments show that the proposed method yields near‐optimum designs within reasonable computation time.
20494586
The implementation of a secure and pervasive multimodal Web system architecture
While most users currently access Web applications from Web browser interfaces, pervasive computing is emerging and offering new ways of accessing Internet applications from any device at any location, by utilizing various modes of interfaces to interact with their end users. The PC and its back-end servers remain important in a pervasive system, and the technology could involve new ways of interfacing with a PC and/or various types of gateways to back-end servers. In this research, cellular phone was used as the pervasive device for accessing an Internet application prototype, a multimodal Web system (MWS), through voice user interface technology. This paper describes how MWS was developed to provide a secure interactive voice channel using an Apache Web server, a voice server, and Java technology. Securing multimodal applications proves more challenging than securing traditional Internet applications. Various standards have been developed within a context of Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform to secure multimodal and wireless applications. In addition to covering these standards and their applicability to the MWS system implementation, this paper also shows that multimodal user-interface page can be generated by using XSLT stylesheet which transforms XML documents into various formats including XHTML, WML, and VoiceXML.
16514620
SIMD architecture for job shop scheduling problem solving
Job shop is a typical environment for manufacturing high-variety and low-volume discrete parts. Good scheduling is critical and challenging to the competitiveness of job shops. The Lagrangian relaxation neural network (LRNN) provides an approach of quantifiable quality and successful industrial applications. To further speed up scheduling for large-scale problems, in this paper, the parallelism of the LRNN approach is exploited for hardware implementation. New designs include a SIMD architecture, its associated instruction set and detailed circuits. Logic level simulation of the circuit design shows consistent schedules with those obtained by a software implementation. The hardware implementation is expected to have a one to two orders speed-up over the software one.
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.