Anthony Levas

Watson: beyond jeopardy!

This paper presents a vision for applying the Watson technology to health care and describes the steps needed to adapt and improve performance in a new domain. Specifically, it elaborates upon a vision for an evidence-based clinical decision support system, based on the DeepQA technology, that affords exploration of a broad range of hypotheses and their associated evidence, as well as uncovers missing information that can be used in mixed-initiative dialog. It describes the research challenges, the adaptation approach, and finally reports results on the first steps we have taken toward this goal.

Steerable interfaces for pervasive computing spaces

This paper introduces a new class of interactive interfaces that can be moved around to appear on ordinary objects and surfaces anywhere in a space. By dynamically adapting the form, function, and location of an interface to suit the context of the user, such steerable interfaces have the potential to offer radically new and powerful styles of interaction in intelligent pervasive computing spaces. We propose defining characteristics of steerable interfaces and present the first steerable interface system that combines projection, gesture recognition, user tracking, environment modeling and geometric reasoning components within a system architecture. Our work suggests that there is great promise and rich potential for further research on steerable interfaces.

Dynamically reconfigurable vision-based user interfaces

A significant problem with vision-based user interfaces is that they are typically developed and tuned for one specific configuration - one set of interactions at one location in the world and in image space. This paper describes methods and architecture for a vision system that supports dynamic reconfiguration of interfaces, changing the form and location of the interaction on the fly. We accomplish this by decoupling the functional definition of the interface from the specification of its location in the physical environment and in the camera image. Applications create a user interface by requesting a configuration of predefined widgets. The vision system assembles a tree of image processing components to fulfill the request, using, if necessary, shared computational resources. This interface can be moved to any planar surface in the cameras field of view. We illustrate the power of such a reconfigurable vision-based interaction system in the context of a prototype application involving projected interactive displays.

Analyzing and re-engineering business processes using simulation

Increasingly, companies around the world are re-engineering their core business processes to be more profitable and to improve customer satisfaction. Modeling and analysis are two critical steps in any process redesign effort. In this paper, we discuss the need for simulation tools that can be used effectively to model, document and analyze business processes. We also present the design of a hierarchical simulation tool called BPMAT (Business Process Modeling and Analysis Tool), and discuss its implementation.

Augmenting a retail environment using steerable interactive displays

This paper describes a prototype retail environment in which information interactions occur in situ, within the actual space of the merchandise. By combining a steerable projected display and recognition of user gestures and actions, and user position tracking through peripheral cameras, we have developed several innovative interaction techniques designed to augment the reality of a retail store.

WADE: an object-oriented environment for modeling and simulation of workcell applications

The authors provide an informal characterization of the process of workcell application design and describe the architecture and implementation of a software environment called WADE (workcell application development) intended to aid a designer of workcell applications. WADE embodies a reasonably general approach for modeling a wide range of industrial equipment, programming them in as powerful a manner as their control languages, simulating workcell applications with multiple programmable and nonprogrammable equipment, and analyzing the performance in flexible ways. Its design is object-oriented and open-ended, suitable for easy experimentation, extension, and refinement. The implementation is based on a modern language called AML/X with object-oriented programming capabilities and a powerful and production-quality solid modeling system called GDP. The authors illustrate the functionality of WADE with two example applications and conclude with a brief discussion of their experiences in designing and building WADE and some issues for consideration in future work. >

An Architecture and Framework for Steerable Interface Systems

Steerable Interfaces are emerging as a new paradigm used in realizing the vision of embodied interaction in ubiquitous computing environments. Such interfaces steer relevant input and output capabilities around space, to serve the user when and where they are needed. We present an architecture and a pr o- gramming framework that enable the development of Steerable Interface appli- cations. The distributed multi-layer architecture provides applications with ab- stractions to services of several novel components - for instance, steerable pro- jection, steerable visual interaction detection, and geometric reasoning. The programming framework facilitates integration of the various services while hiding the complexity of sequencing and synchronizing the underlying compo- nents.

Panel discussion on the role of modeling and simulation in business process reengineering

Modeling and simulation are important technologies that can be applied to business process reengineering (BPR). Dynamic process models afford the analysis of alternative process scenarios through simulation by providing quantitative process metrics such as cost, cycle time, serviceability and resource utilization. These metrics form the basis for evaluating alternatives and selecting the most promising scenario for implementation. Tradeoffs can be made on the basis of measurements as opposed to intuition, resulting in more informed business decisions. The paper summarizes the ideas to be presented in a panel discussion session on the role of modeling and simulation in business process reengineering. Each panelist represents a different perspective: 1) a theoretical view, 2) a BPR practitioners view and 3) a software system view. The objective of this session is to highlight key issues in modeling and simulation of business processes from each of these perspectives and to motivate research and tool development in this area.

A portable system for anywhere interactions

Interactions have taken off from the confinement of a single screen into various personal devices. Projected an interface onto different parts of a physical environment is an escape beyond traditional display devices. Imagine that any walls or floors can turn into a direct manipulation space without a lot of effort. This demonstration of ED-lite, a combination of a laptop, custom software, off-the-shelf digital camera and projector, shows projected interfaces with interactions on any surfaces including those not necessarily perpendicular to the projector. ED-lite is a derivation of our previous work on Everywhere Displays (ED) and steerable interfaces. This portable version has an automatic calibration feature that makes applications usable on any surfaces in a drop. More importantly, it is now possible to be taken on the road for demonstrations.

Exploiting pervasive enterprise chronicles using unstructured information management

Strides made in semiconductor technology and pervasive devices are fueling the ability to amass ever-increasing volumes of rich multimedia data chronicling the activities and experiences of enterprise employees. Rich content analytics are crucial to exploit the potential of such electronic chronicles, which represent a vital untapped resource in todays enterprises. This paper describes a system called Picasso that adds a new dimension to enterprise search and mining, by capturing and structuring information surrounding employee activities and making available vital insights from such information through our unstructured information management architecture (UIMA).