Stephan M. Kerpedjiev

Mapping communicative goals into conceptual tasks to generate graphics in discourse

We address the problem of realizing communicative plans in graphics. Our approach calls for mapping communicative goals to conceptual tasks and then using task-based graphic design for selecting graphical techniques. In this paper, we present the mapping rules in several dimensions: data aggregation and selection, task synthesis, and task aggregation. Those rules have been incorporated in AutoBrief, a research system for multimedia explanation.

Saying it in graphics: from intentions to visualizations

The authors propose a methodology for automatically realizing communicative goals in graphics. It features a task model that mediates the communicative intent and the selection of graphical techniques. The methodology supports the following functions: isolating assertions presentable in graphics; mapping such assertions into tasks for the potential reader, and selecting graphical techniques that support those tasks. They illustrate the methodology by redesigning a textual argument into a multimedia one with the same rhetorical and content structures but employing graphics to achieve some of the intentions.

Automatic Generation of Multimodal Weather Reports from Datasets

Weather reports are created in various --- modes natural language text, specialized language text, tables and maps. The system presented allows the user to define his needs of weather information and requirements on the form of presentation. The system analyzes a dataset obtained through specific procedures of forecasting or observation, plans the product according to the user requirements and generates its components. Special emphasis is placed on the coherence of the report by investigating the rhetorical structures observed in this kind of text and the coordination between a map and a text specifying it. The method of generation is a knowledge-based one with three types of knowledge employed in the system - terminological, rhetorical and grammatical. A prototype has been implemented and tested with original datasets.

AutoBrief: a multimedia presentation system for assisting data analysis

We present an approach to generating multimedia presentations that integrates hierarchical planning to achieve communicative goals, and task-based graphic design. A planning process decomposes domain-specific goals to domain-independent goals, which in turn are realized by media-specific techniques such as task-based graphic design. We apply our approach to developing AutoBrief, a system that summarizes large data sets using natural language and information graphics. Finally, we analyze AutoBrief in terms of the standard reference model (SRM).

Dissemination of weather information to emergency managers: a decision support tool

Since 1992, the Dissemination Project has been conducting experiments at the Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, CO, USA, to determine the use of advanced meteorological information by local government operations. Local emergency preparedness agencies (involving sheriff and police departments) can gain great benefit from appropriate information about weather hazards. The Dissemination Project employs a workstation specially designed to focus on four weather hazards: flash floods; fire danger; severe weather; and disruptive winter storms. The system uses high-resolution weather data sets produced by analysis and prediction models, as well as the WSR-88D radar, which provides mesoscale detail about rainfall distribution that is not available from rain-gauge networks. Specific to the workstation is MeteoAssert, a subsystem that extracts weather assertions from gridded data using territory, time, and parameter models and organizes them into descriptions-coherent chunks of related assertions. Both the original data sets and the assertions are visualized on different media: images; maps; graphs; tables; text; and sound. The first application developed on the workstation was the Basin Rainfall Monitoring System, designed to assist emergency managers in evaluating flash-flood situations.

Model-Driven, Assertion-Based Generation of Multimedia Weather Information

As gridded forecasts are becoming a common source of weather data, efforts are being made to automatically produce displays for various categories of decision makers such as emergency managers and ...

Intelligent handling of weather forecasts

Some typical cases of intelligent handling of weather forecasts such as translation, visualization, etc. are decomposed into two subprocesses--analysis and synthesis. Specific techniques are presented for analysis and synthesis of weather forecast texts as well as for generation of weather maps. These techniques deal with the weather forecasts at different levels--syntactic, discourse and semantic. They are based on a conceptual model underlying weather forecasts as well as on formal descriptions of the means of expression used in particular natural and cartographic sublanguages.

Transformation of weather forecasts from textual to cartographic form

Abstract This paper analyzes the weather forecasts as a particular specialized text class. A data model of that class is created. It serves as a basis for the automatic transformation of weather forecasts from textual to cartographic form. The method proposed consists of data extraction, data translation and map generation. These stages are discussed in detail. A program system that implements this method is developed and an experiment designed to reveal the validity of the method is described. Some suggestions for future development of this work are made.

MeteoAssert: generation and organization of weather assertions from gridded data

MeteoAssert, a system developed at the Forecast System Laboratory, analyzes gridded data sets and produces descriptions which are organized sets of assertions representing the content of weather messages. Each assertion conveys a single weather characteristic with a certain spatial and temporal scope. The assertions in a description are linked by discourse relations that predetermine the structure of the weather message: a natural language text, a piece of graphics, a table, or a mixture of these elements. The descriptions are generated in response to queries representing the information needs of the user. Three models drive the system: territory, time, and parameter. Each model defines the objects in terms by which the descriptions are created. MeteoAssert works as a server to several systems dealing with different applications and preparing various weather displays.<<ETX>>

Model-driven hypermedia access to weather information

A framework is presented for hypermedia access to weather information originating from gridded data sets. The information is presented on different media (map, text, graph, table, image), depending on what aspect is emphasized. The user navigates by selecting an element that is already displayed, and a new product is generated that provides additional details about the selected element. The contents of a product is represented by a description, which is an organized chunk of assertions. Each assertion provides a single weather characteristic to a given region and time period. Three knowledge bases (weather, territory, and time models) define the objects participating in the assertions and drive the generation.