Maximilian Eibl

Visual information retrieval with the SuperTable + Scatterplot

We present a new visualization approach for metadata combining different visualizations into a so-called SuperTable accompanied by a Scatterplot. The goal is to improve user experience during the information seeking process. Our new visualizations are based on our experiences developing a visual information retrieval system called INSYDER to supply small and medium size enterprises with business information front the Internet. Based on extensive user tests the original visualizations have been redesigned in two different design variants. Instead of offering multiple visualizations to choose front the SuperTable + Scatterplot combines them in a new way. Therefore, the user has the feeling that he is working with one single visualization in different states. Further the SuperTable solves a problem which seemed to be immanent to visualizations in document retrieval: the change of modalities.

The XTRIEVAL Framework at CLEF 2007: Domain-Specific Track

This article describes the architecture and configuration of the XTRIEVAL (eXtensible reTRIeval and EVALuation) framework. A first prototype is described in [1]. For CLEF 2007 a second prototype was implemented which was focused on the cross-language aspect. Runs for all subtasks of the Domain-Specific track were submitted. The performance of our submitted runs was on average compared to other participating groups. Additional experiments on the Multilingual task demonstrated substantial improvement.

DEViD: a media design and software ergonomics integrating visualization for document retrieval

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Media Design are two separated schools that have few common goals in the area of designing user interfaces. Whereas HCI places the accent on the most effective operation, media design emphasizes the aesthetic aspect. Thus, the design of a user interface offers a choice between the effective ugliness of ergonomics and the hard-to-use elegance of media design. One example of the successful integration of both schools is the DEViD (media design and software ergonomics integrating visualization for document retrieval systems) visualization described in this article. DEViD supports users in searching databases and integrates Boolean retrieval as well as probabilistic ranking and vague retrieval within one single interface. DEViD was created through cooperation between HCI and media design. Participants in this cooperation were the Social Science Information Center, Bonn (Germany), the University of Koblenz (Germany) and the School of Design, Offenbach (Germany).

Produce. annotate. archive. repurpose --: accelerating the composition and metadata accumulation of tv content

Supporting most aspects of a media providers real workflows such as production, distribution, content description, archiving, and re-use of video items, we developed a holistic framework to solve issues such as lack of human resources, necessity of parallel media distribution, and retrieving previously archived content through editors or consumers.

An Extensible Tool for the Annotation of Videos Using Segmentation and Tracking

Due to massive amount of data, the description of audiovisual media by metadata nowadays can benefit by the support of (semi-)automatic methods during the annotation process. The presented tool enables the user to mark, interactively segment and track preselected objects. An integrated shot detection splits the video into disjoint parts, for instance to circumvent the semi-automated tracking of objects across shot boundaries. Arbitrary application dependent custom image processing chains can be created in conjunction with the research framework AMOPA. Created data is exported in compliance to MPEG7-DAVP.

A tool for comparative IR evaluation on component level

1. MOTIVATION Experimental information retrieval (IR) evaluation is an important instrument to measure the effectiveness of novel methods. Although IR system complexity has grown over years, the general framework for evaluation remained unchanged since its first implementation in the 1960s. Test collections were growing from thousands to millions of documents. Regular reuse resulted in larger topic sets for evaluation. New business models for information access required novel interpretations of effectiveness measures. Nevertheless, most experimental evaluations still rely on an over 50 year old paradigm. Participants of a SIGIR workshop in 2009 [1] discussed the implementation of new methodological standards for evaluation. But at the same time they worried about practicable ways to implement them. A review about recent publications containing experimental evaluations supports this concern [2]. The study also presented a web-based platform for longitudinal evaluation. In a similar way, data from the past decade of CLEF evaluations have been released through the DIRECT system. While the operators of the latter system reported about 50 new users since the release of the data [3], no further contributions were recorded on the web-platform introduced in [2]. In our point of view archiving evaluation data for longitudinal analysis is a first important step. A next step is to develop a methodology that supports researchers in choosing appropriate baselines for comparison. This can be achieved by reporting evaluation results on component level [4] rather than on system level. An exemplary study was presented in [2], where the Indri system was tested with several components switched on or off. Following this idea, an approach to assess novel methods could be to compare to related components only. This would require the community to formally record details of system configurations in connection with experimental results. We suppose that transparent descriptions of system components used in experiments could help researchers in choosing appropriate baselines.

ImageCLEF 2006 experiments at the Chemnitz Technical University

We present a report about our participation in the ImageCLEF photo task 2006 and a short description of our new framework for future use in further CLEF participations. We described and analysed our participation in the monolingual English task. A special Lucene-aligned query expansion and histogram comparison are helping to improve the baseline results.

Conduplicated Symmetries: Renegotiating the Material Basis of Prototype Research

The role of materiality within prototyping recently received a high degree of attention from HCI and design communities. Existing approaches have solely focussed on the materiality of artifacts produced during prototyping. This focus largely has left the materiality of designers and users unaccounted for. The text illustrates how the Somatic-Marker-Hypothesis and Actor-Network-Theory can be employed in order to illustrate these forgotten dimensions of materiality during prototyping: Not only is material shaped during construction of artefacts. Material modifications also comprise alterations within the material of designers’ and users’ bodies themselves. In order to facilitate these descriptions, a novel approach towards symmetry had to be developed.

Evaluation of media analysis and information retrieval solutions for audio-visual content through their integration in realistic workflows of the broadcast industry

Automated annotation of audiovisual content and information retrieval systems have an increasing importance in all areas where professionals have to exchange and share video content. We have developed solutions especially for broadcasters and multimedia libraries. Our research project focuses on both multimedia analysis and multimedia information retrieval. It is designed to model and build workflows of potential real live use cases inspired by industry partners. By building these workflows, we are about to validate the capabilities and practical usage of our solution frameworks. In this paper we present the interim results from our first validation scenario and its implications and planned improvements.

Monolingual retrieval experiments with a domain-specific document corpus at the Chemnitz University of Technology

This article describes the first participation of the Chair Media Informatics of the Chemnitz University of Technology in the Cross Language Evaluation Forum. An experimental prototype is introduced which implements several methods of optimizing search results. The configuration of the prototype is tested with the CLEF training data. The results of the Domain-Specific Monolingual German task suggest that combining the suffix stripping stemming and the decompounding approach is very useful. Also, a local document clustering (LDC) approach used to improve the query expansion (QE) based on pseudorelevance feedback (PRF) seems to be quite beneficial. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the English task using the same configuration suggests that the qualities of the results are highly speech dependent.