Diogo Cabral

Designing for Exploratory Search on Touch Devices

Exploratory search confront users with challenges in expressing search intents as the current search interfaces require investigating result listings to identify search directions, iterative typing, and reformulating queries. We present the design of Exploration Wall, a touch-based search user interface that allows incremental exploration and sense-making of large information spaces by combining entity search, flexible use of result entities as query parameters, and spatial configuration of search streams that are visualized for interaction. Entities can be flexibly reused to modify and create new search streams, and manipulated to inspect their relationships with other entities. Data comprising of task-based experiments comparing Exploration Wall with conventional search user interface indicate that Exploration Wall achieves significantly improved recall for exploratory search tasks while preserving precision. Subjective feedback supports our design choices and indicates improved user satisfaction and engagement. Our findings can help to design user interfaces that can effectively support exploratory search on touch devices.

InspirationWall: Supporting Idea Generation Through Automatic Information Exploration

Collaborative idea generation leverages social interactions and knowledge sharing to spark diverse associations and produce creative ideas. Information exploration systems expand the current context by suggesting novel but related concepts. In this paper we introduce InspirationWall, an unobtrusive display that leverages speech recognition and information exploration to enhance an ongoing idea generation session with automatically retrieved concepts that relate to the conversation. We evaluated the system in six idea generation sessions of 20 minutes with small groups of two people. Preliminary results suggest that InspirationWall contrasts the decay of idea productivity over time and can thus represent an effective way to enhance idea generation activities.

Pen-Based Video Annotations: A Proposal and a Prototype for Tablet PCs

Pen computing or pen-based technology can be considered one of the most natural and intuitive computer input interface for humans. The combination of digital video and pen-based technology can support a new approach for electronic paper by associating handwritten notes and drawings with video segments. This paper presents a proposal for pen-based video annotations and a prototype for Tablet PCs, implementing this concept, particularly dynamic pen-based video annotations combined with real-time video tracking.

IntentStreams: Smart Parallel Search Streams for Branching Exploratory Search

The users understanding of information needs and the information available in the data collection can evolve during an exploratory search session. Search systems tailored for well-defined narrow search tasks may be suboptimal for exploratory search where the user can sequentially refine the expressions of her information needs and explore alternative search directions. A major challenge for exploratory search systems design is how to support such behavior and expose the user to relevant yet novel information that can be difficult to discover by using conventional query formulation techniques. We introduce IntentStreams, a system for exploratory search that provides interactive query refinement mechanisms and parallel visualization of search streams. The system models each search stream via an intent model allowing rapid user feedback. The user interface allows swift initiation of alternative and parallel search streams by direct manipulation that does not require typing. A study with 13 participants shows that IntentStreams provides better support for branching behavior compared to a conventional search system.

Multimodal video annotation for contemporary dance creation

This paper presents a video annotator that supports multimodal annotation and is applied to contemporary dance as a creation tool. The prototype, developed for Tablet PCs, explores bimanual interaction, using pen and touch input interfaces. This combination can be more natural and familiar than the traditional input interfaces (keyboard or mouse). Contemporary dance is a domain where this type of flexible interaction with video material is relevant in order to augment and improve the rehearsal and creative processes. Motion tracking is used to define the dynamic behavior of the annotations and voice input complements the other modalities. The paper describes the design decisions done by the multidisciplinary development team and the current status of the tool.

A creation-tool for contemporary dance using multimodal video annotation

This paper presents a video annotator that supports multimodal annotation and is applied to contemporary dance as a creation tool. The Creation-Tool was conceived and designed to assist the creative processes of choreographers, working as a digital notebook for personal annotations. The prototype, developed for Tablet PCs, is a real-time multimodal video annotator based on keyboard, pen and voice inputs. In addition, a remote control for mobile devices was added to the system. Two types of annotations were defined: annotation marks and regular annotations. The annotations marks are defined by a keyword and an icon, in contrast to regular annotations that do not have a pre-defined structure. Motion tracking defines the dynamic behavior of the annotations and voice input complements the other modalities.

NARI: Natural Augmented Reality Interface

Following the proliferation of Augmented Reality technologies and applications in mobile devices it is becoming clear that AR techniques have matured and are ready to be used for large audiences. This poses several new multimedia interaction and usability problems that need to be identified and studied. AR problems are no longer exclusively about rendering superimposed virtual geometry or finding ways of performing GPS or computer vision registration. It is important to understand how to keep users engaged with AR and in what occasions it is suitable to use it. Additionally how should graphical user interfaces be designed so that the user can interact with AR elements while pointing a mobile device to a specific real world area? Finally what is limiting AR applications from reaching an even broader acceptance and usage level? This position paper identifies several interaction problems in today???s multimedia AR applications, raising several pressing issues and proposes several research directions.

I Smell Creativity: Exploring the Effects of Olfactory and Auditory Cues to Support Creative Writing Tasks

Humans perceive different objects, scenes or places using all their senses. Our sensory richness also plays an important role for creative activities. Humans also recall those sensory experiences in order to spark creativity, e.g. while writing a text. This paper presents a study with 100 students, divided in groups, that explores the effect of auditory and olfactory cues and their combination during a creative writing exercise. Our results provide useful insights suggesting that olfactory cues have an important role in the creative process of users and even when this type of cues are combined with auditory cues. We believe, that this type of modalities should gain more relevance on the development of creativity support tools and environments for supporting the creative writing process.

The role of location-based event browsers in collaborative behaviors: an explorative study

Events play an important role in touristic activities, they are usually planned in group, involving collaborative behaviours. Mobile technology is a useful tool for such activities. Augmented reality used in handheld devices can enhance the tourist experience. In this work, we present three mobile apps for the exploration of cultural events in a city: one based on 2D maps; one based on AR technology and a Hybrid one that integrates both approaches. In addition, we report on the impact that the different technology has on collaborative behaviors.

Flexible entity search on surfaces

Surface computing allows flexible search interaction where users can manipulate the representation of entities recommended for them to create new queries or augment existing queries by taking advantage of increased screen estate and almost physical tactile interaction. We demonstrate a search system based on 1) Direct Manipulation of Entity Representation on Surfaces and 2) Entity Recommendation and Document Retrieval. Entities are modeled as a knowledge-graph and the relevances of entities are computed using the graph structure. Users can manipulate the representation of entities via spatial grouping and assigning preferences on entities. Our contribution can help to design effective information exploration systems that take advantage of large surfaces.