Edin Arnautovic

A discourse model for interaction design based on theories of human communication

Most current models of interaction design build on scenarios and task analysis. We think that interaction design should be more along the lines of communication between humans. With this motivation, our paper presents a new approach to modeling interaction design based on insights from theories of human communication. From such discourse models, we aim for automated generation of user interfaces.

An automation agent architecture with a reflective world model in manufacturing systems

Manufacturing systems have become very complex, and the traditional hierarchical and centralized approaches are not adequate any more. Decentralized approaches are considered promising, but they are not yet sufficiently understood for widespread industrial application. In particular, agent-based control has not yet achieved its potential, so that more research is still required. Therefore, we propose a new architecture of automation agents. Such an agent is composed of a hardware component and a software component, where the hardware component can be viewed as an embodiment of this software component in its manufacturing environment. An important part of the software component is a world model repository of the automation agent. As a special innovation, the world model is reflective in the sense, that it contains a symbolic representation of the automation agent and of its relations to its environment as well. The world model repository is made up of representations of situations and activities. In summary, we propose an automation agent architecture with a reflective world model for use in manufacturing systems.

Automatic generation of the behavior of a user interface from a high-level discourse model

In addition to the structure and “look” of a user interface (UI), its behavior needs to be defined. For a fullyautomated UI generation, of course, it will have to be generated fully automatically as well. We avoid that finite-state machines or similar would have to be created manually by a UI designer. Instead, we start from a largely declarative high-level discourse model including a few procedural constructs. Based on our definitions of the procedural semantics of all parts of such a discourse model, we are able to automatically generate a finite-state machine that fully defines the behavior of the generated UI. In this way, we show how automatic generation of the behavior of a user interface is possible from a high-level discourse model.

Fully automatic user interface generation from discourse models

Automatic generation of user interfaces (UIs) has made some progress, but it still faces many challenges, especially when starting from high-level models. We developed an approach and a supporting tool for modeling discourses, from which the tool can generate WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointer) UIs automatically. This involves several complex steps, most of which we have been able to implement using model-driven transformations. When given specific target platform specifications, UIs for a variety of devices such as PCs, mobile phones and PDAs can be generated automatically.

Generating an Abstract User Interface from a Discourse Model Inspired by Human Communication

Programming user interfaces is hard, error-prone and expensive, but recent advances allow generating them from interaction design models. We present an approach for modeling interaction design that is inspired by human communication. Our interaction design models are discourse models, more precisely models of dialogues. They are based on theories of human communication and should, therefore, be more understandable to humans than programs implementing user interfaces. The main ingredients of our models are communicative acts (Speech Act Theory), which are connected as adjacency pairs (Conversation Analysis) and via RST relations (Rhetorical Structure Theory). While RST provides useful means for modeling discourse in the sense of monologue, a dialogue results from connecting monologues via adjacency pairs. This paper presents a new metamodel that integrates these approaches. Based on it, we show how abstract user interfaces can be generated from such discourse models. In a nutshell, we generate finite-state machinery and employ rules devised by us to map parts of a discourse model to abstract widgets.

Fully-automatic generation of user interfaces for multiple devices from a high-level model based on communicative acts

The problems involved in the development of user interfaces become even more severe through the ubiquitous use of a variety of devices such as PCs, mobile phones and PDAs. Each of these devices has its own specifics that require a special user interface. Therefore, we developed and implemented an approach to generate user interfaces for multiple devices fully automatically from a high-level model. In contrast to previous approaches focusing on abstracting the user interface per se, we make use of speech act theory from the philosophy of language for the specification of desired intentions in interactions. Our new approach of using communicative acts in high-level models of user interfaces allows their creation with less technical knowledge, since such models are easier to provide than user-interface code in a usual programming language. From one such high-level model, multiple user interfaces for diverse devices are rendered fully automatically using a number of heuristics. A generated user interface for a PDA is already in real-world use and its usability was informally evaluated as good

System Security Requirements Analysis: A Smart Grid Case Study

One of the main concerns in development and operation of mission-critical systems is system security. It is of critical importance to properly specify and implement system security requirements. In this paper, we apply a system security requirements analysis method to elicit, specify, categorize, and prioritize the system security requirements on the smart grid as a complex system-of-systems case study. In particular, we apply the Security Quality Requirements Engineering SQUARE method as a representative system security requirements analysis method. The main contributions of this research are the smart grid customer domain security requirements specification and its analysis from the system-of-systems perspective. We elicited a large proportion of system and system-of-systems vulnerabilities and requirements, and used them to specify secure smart grid intersystem interactions.

Using communicative acts in high-level specifications of user interfaces for their automated synthesis

User interfaces are very important for the success of many computer-based applications these days. However, their development takes time, requires experts for user-interface design as well as experienced programmers and is very expensive. This problem becomes even more severe through the ubiquitous use of a variety of devices such as PCs, mobile phones, PDAs etc., since each of these devices has its own specifics that require a special user interface.Therefore, we developed a tool-supported approach to automatically synthesize multi-device user interfaces from high-level specifications in the form of models. In contrast to previous approaches focusing on abstracting the user interface per se, we make use of communicative acts derived from speech act theory for the specification of desired user intentions in interactions. In this way, we approach a solution to the given problem, since user interfaces can be efficiently provided without experience in implementing them.

Using communicative acts in interaction design specifications for automated synthesis of user interfaces

Instead of developing user interfaces (UIs) directly, we argue for specifying an interaction design from which UIs can be automatically synthesized. We present an approach to using communicative acts in high-level specification of interaction design, which is implemented and allows automated synthesis of interfaces for multiple devices. Communicative acts derive from speech act theory and carry desired intentions in interactions. Models of communicative acts, UI domain objects and interaction sequences comprise interaction design specifications in our approach and are based on a metamodel that we have defined. As a result, the usability of a synthesized user interface of a real-world application turned out to be good

Bitcoin-Based Decentralized Carbon Emissions Trading Infrastructure Model

This paper presents a system-of-systems architecture model for a Decentralized Carbon Emissions Trading Infrastructure D-CETI with focus on privacy and system security goals. The structure and behavior are implemented as a solution to the problem of trading carbon emissions anonymously among the trading agents. Privacy and security of the trading agents and their carbon credits are the main requirements behind the architecture of D-CETI. The decentralized structure of multiple systems and distributed behavior are the two main features of D-CETI that distinguish it from the traditional carbon trading schemes and protocols. D-CETI is based on Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency with no central authority, and Open Transactions, a system that simplifies the use of cryptography in financial transactions. The architecture of D-CETI is evaluated and compared with the architecture of five other carbon emissions trading platforms.