Patrick Baudisch

Don't click, paint! Using toggle maps to manipulate sets of toggle switches

A toggle map is a set of toggle switches that allows the manipulation of several switches with a single mouse drag interaction. Because toggle switches are functionally equivalent to black and white pixels interaction techniques from paint programs can be adopted for this task. A controlled experiment shows that toggle maps can speed up interfaces containing many toggle switches such as the interactive definition of user profiles. To maximize time savings toggle maps have to be laid-out according to co-occurrences between toggles. Efficiency gains resulting from the paint method open up new application areas such as segmented interval sliders. As an example an efficient timer dialog is presented.

The Cage: efficient construction in 3D using a cubic adaptive grid

The Cage is an easy to use 3D grid. Built into a 3D modeler, it provides a visualized reference coordinate system that helps the user to orient himself in 3D space, and that supports efficient alignment and snapping methods. It can be adapted with a single mouse click to any new viewing situation and reference system. The Cage was implemented in C++ under Open Inventor on Silicon Graphics workstations. It was tested as a part of a 3D authoring tool for virtual TV studios.

Interaction in the virtual studio

Virtual Studio Systems Virtual studios are a new form of video production based on combining real objects, in real time, with synthetic or natural imagery. Typically the real objects actors and props are placed in a blue room and then cornposited with a virtual set generated by a visual simulation system. Several virtual studio systems are now available as commercial products [12] and are used by broadcasters in North America, Europe and Japan. For example, the final score tallying segments of the recent Eurovision song competition, broadcast live to a potential audience of 300 million, were produced with a virtual studio system (Discreet Logics Vapour [10] and the Ultimarte System 8 [9]). This paper serves as a short introduction to the operation of virtual studio systems. (FOr readers interested in more detail, a broader survey is available [4].)We focus on two areas: the basic architecture of virtual studio systems and some of thei r more novel interaction techniques. Virtual Studio Architecture A typical virtual studio system, GMDs 3OK [I] , is shown in Figure I. Here a set of cameras are equipped wi th tracking systems giving information about camera movement, The cameras produce foreground (FG) video signals, while a visual simulation system, such as a graphics supercomputer, produces corresponding background (BG) signals and, optionally, mask signals (see Plate I).The FG and BG are then composited, often by means of a process resembling chroma-keying, and the composited outputs (FG+BG) are made available to downstream components such as mixers, special effects devices, moni tors and recorders. In addition, each composited signal is fed back to the corresponding cameras viewfinder in order to assist the camera operator in shot placement. Looking at Figure I, we see that virtua[ studio systems divide naturally into three main subsystems: tracking, rendering and compositing. In order to achieve real-time performance, each subsystem is based on special hardware capable of operaring at video rates. Specific functional requirements include:

Attention, indifference, dislike, action: Web advertising involving users

Since advertising banners in Web pages usually do not relate to the users interests, banners are often rejected. Much effort has been spent on trying to adapt banners to users. While the usual approach is to try to accomplish that by gathering data about the user, we propose a different approach. Using user‐configurable advertising profiles and direct feedback we give full control to the users themselves. This approach is currently being implemented and evaluated in the context of an Internet TV program guide.