Ifay F. Chang

FormPlus: a form authoring toolkit

The authors present the design and implementation of FormPlus, a form authoring toolkit for on-screen form design and filing. It is implemented on an IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager platform. FormPlus provides major front-end functions for form processing such as converting paper forms into electronic forms, designing forms, and filling in forms. No knowledge about programming is necessary. FormPlus also provides an object-oriented API (application programming interface) for programmers to develop their own applications with minimum effort. FormPlus is designed to be easily extendable to incorporate new objects and to allow data import and export.<<ETX>>

Performance characteristics of electrochromic displays

Several different types of electrochromic display devices are discussed. Their electrooptical properties and device characteristics are investigated and compared. Performance parameters for these devices are discussed in terms of their applicability to information display. It is concluded that electrochromism is best suited for direct-addressed displays.

Material parameters and intrinsic optical bistability in room temperature nematics RO-TN-200, -201, -403, E7, m1, and m3

Abstract New measurements are reported of the elastic constants and refractive indices of the room temperature nematics RO-TN-200, -201, -403 and E7. The new measured material parameters show that the purely optical field induced first-order Freedericksz transition can not be attained by these materials. However, the first-order Freedericksz transition can be enhanced in these nematics by an external magnetic field. We also report two new nematic mixtures for which the purely optical field induced first-order Freedericksz transition can be attained.

An object oriented approach to automating patient medical records

It is pointed out that, in automating patient records, one must consider the conversion of existing paper records, the records generated by various heterogeneous departmental medical information systems, and the different media (graphics, image, and voice) output created by some modern automated medical instrumentations. In an attempt to solve this complex problem, an object-oriented medical record model is adopted. A catalyst solution called the personal medical disk is proposed which allows and induces medical institutions to develop an all-digital medical record system at their own pace. A conceptual model has been implemented on an intelligent workstation as a stand-alone system. It is believed that using an object-oriented approach will allow rapid development, easier modification, and simpler maintenance of software to be achieved.<<ETX>>

Major technical issues in medical informatics computer technology systems and applications

Technical issues in medical informatics are addressed, with emphasis on tools for medical practitioners to willingly and effectively use computers to capture data and to access information; the conversion of paper records to electronic data to facilitate automation; and system and application integration based on patient medical documents and information. It is pointed out that the computer and communication technologies are sufficiently advanced to provide solutions to these problems. Practical solutions are discussed which use friendly computer user interface tools such as speech, gesture and handwriting recognition with a tablet or notepad computer. Painless transitions of paper record to image, to electronic form and to data, and an optical-disk-based patient medical document are also discussed.<<ETX>>

Internet interactive authoring, teach and learning-a breakthrough for education

The Internet is a telecommunication medium providing an inverted open platform through a common browser user interface and common network platform. This platform allows numerous information handling technologies to coexist. Using the cross platform language, JAVA, as a glue, very complex systems can be built rapidly and inexpensively. More importantly, this technology can be applied to education, providing sophisticated teaching and learning systems based on the common browser interface. Even an authoring and Web publishing system can be offered in the same way. Users only need to know how to use the browser and are not required to learn programming languages to produce publishable and accessible teaching content on the Internet. Furthermore, the Internet can be used for asynchronous interaction or synchronous interaction, depending on the bandwidth of the telecommunication medium affordable. Hence, the Internet is a breakthrough for education for the following reasons: the Internet is almost ubiquitously accessible with a reasonable cost; information publishing is a main strength with lots of freeware; a common browser interface is easier to master than numerous different user interfaces; specially designed Internet education systems are now available for pedagogic research or teaching at an affordable cost; and it absorbs all IT technological advances and yet protects users from obsolescence by the user communitys own actions.

Advances in new display technology (Panel Session)

New display technology has made some significant strides forward in the last few years. Although the CRT remains the most prevalent display device, accounting for over 85% of all installations, flat-panel matrix displays are becoming an increasingly significant factor in this area. The most important advances have been in thin film electroluminescence, gas discharge panels, and liquid crystal displays. In addition, light emitting diodes have shown improvements in light output and efficiency, and some recent work in electrophoretics give some promise that this technology will lead to viable display devices. Also, older technologies such as incandescent, vacuum flourescent, and electromechanical are still with us, and continue to be useful in many applications, the first where very high luminance is required, the second in such applications as automobile dashboards, and the third in various outdoor and large board installations. Finally, the CRT, not to be outdone by its rivals, has come up with improvements in performance, and with the flat tube versions in form factors that compete with those offered by the matrix displays. All of these advances will be discussed by the members of this panel.