Abstract: This paper introduces architectural and interaction patterns for integrating crowdsourced human contributions directly into user interfaces. We focus on writing and editing, complex endeavors that span many levels of conceptual and pragmatic activity. Authoring tools offer help with pragmatics, but for higher-level help, writers commonly turn to other people. We thus present Soylent, a word processing interface that enables writers to call on Mechanical Turk workers to shorten, proofread, and otherwise edit parts of their documents on demand. To improve worker quality, we introduce the Find-Fix-Verify crowd programming pattern, which splits tasks into a series of generation and review stages. Evaluation studies demonstrate the feasibility of crowdsourced editing and investigate questions of reliability, cost, wait time, and work time for edits.

Abstract: The project proposes an efficient implementation for IoT (Internet of Things) used for monitoring and controlling the home appliances via World Wide Web. Home automation system uses the portable devices as a user interface. They can communicate with home automation network through an Internet gateway, by means of low power communication protocols like Zigbee, Wi-Fi etc. This project aims at controlling home appliances via Smartphone using Wi-Fi as communication protocol and raspberry pi as server system. The user here will move directly with the system through a web-based interface over the web, whereas home appliances like lights, fan and door lock are remotely controlled through easy website. An extra feature that enhances the facet of protection from fireplace accidents is its capability of sleuthing the smoke in order that within the event of any fireplace, associates an alerting message and an image is sent to Smartphone. The server will be interfaced with relay hardware circuits that control the appliances running at home. The communication with server allows the user to select the appropriate device. The communication with server permits the user to pick out the acceptable device. The server communicates with the corresponding relays. If the web affiliation is down or the server isn't up, the embedded system board still will manage and operate the appliances domestically. By this we provide a climbable and price effective Home Automation system.

Abstract: KeYmaera X is a theorem prover for differential dynamic logic ( Open image in new window ), a logic for specifying and verifying properties of hybrid systems Reasoning about complicated hybrid systems models requires support for sophisticated proof techniques, efficient computation, and a user interface that crystallizes salient properties of the system KeYmaera X allows users to specify custom proof search techniques as tactics, execute these tactics in parallel, and interface with partial proofs via an extensible user interface

Abstract: A digital downloading jukebox system including a mechanism for delivering custom services to a recognized user, including services for creating playlists, communicating with others, accessing other features, etc. is provided. In some exemplary embodiments, after a user is recognized, the jukebox system allows users to access a special front-end via an Internet-enabled device or on an actual jukebox. Then, the user may, for example, create playlists, share songs with friends, send messages to friends, and access other value-added content. Such a system preferably learns about networks of friends, and enables managers to send similar messages to regular customers and/or others known to the system. In some exemplary embodiments, changes via a first user interface on a first device are reflected on second user interface on other properly-configured devices.

Abstract: When developing the user interface code of a mobile application, in practice a big gap exists between the digital conceptual drawings of graphic artists and working user interface code. Currently, programmers bridge this gap manually, by reimplementing the conceptual drawings in code, which is cumbersome and expensive. To bridge this gap, we introduce the first technique to automatically Reverse Engineer Mobile Application User Interfaces (REMAUI). On a given input bitmap REMAUI identifies user interface elements such as images, texts, containers, and lists, via computer vision and optical character recognition (OCR) techniques. In our experiments on 488 screenshots of over 100 popular third-party Android and iOS applications, REMAUI-generated user interfaces were similar to the originals, both pixel-by-pixel and in terms of their runtime user interface hierarchies. REMAUI's average overall runtime on a standard desktop computer was 9 seconds.

Abstract: Small flying robots represent a rapidly emerging family of robotic technologies with aerial capabilities that enable unique forms of assistance in a variety of collaborative tasks. Such tasks will necessitate interaction with humans in close proximity, requiring that designers consider human perceptions regarding robots flying and acting within human environments. We explore the design space regarding explicit robot communication of flight intentions to nearby viewers. We apply design constraints to robot flight behaviors, using biological and airplane flight as inspiration, and develop a set of signaling mechanisms for visually communicating directionality while operating under such constraints. We implement our designs on two commercial flyers, requiring little modification to the base platforms, and evaluate each signaling mechanism, as well as a no-signaling baseline, in a user study in which participants were asked to predict robot intent. We found that three of our designs significantly improved viewer response time and accuracy over the baseline and that the form of the signal offered tradeoffs in precision, generalizability, and perceived robot usability. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.1.2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems—human factors, software psychology; H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces— evaluation/methodology, usercentered design General Terms Design, Human Factors

Abstract: In recent years, educational robotics has become an increasingly popular research area. However, limited studies have focused on differentiated learning outcomes based on type of programming interface. This study aims to explore how successfully young children master foundational programming concepts based on the robotics user interface (tangible, graphical, hybrid) taught in their curriculum. Thirty-five Kindergarten students participated in a 9-week robotics curriculum using the LEGO WeDo robotics construction kit and the Creative Hybrid Environment for Robotic Programming (CHERP) programming language. A mixed methods data collection approach was employed, including qualitative observational data from the classrooms, as well as quantitative mid- and post-test assessments of students’ programming knowledge using CHERP. The findings show little association between user interface and programming comprehension, although there may be an order-affect when introducing user interfaces. Implications for best practices when introducing programming in early childhood settings are discussed.

Abstract: Context-specific user interfaces for use with a portable multifunction device are disclosed. The methods described herein for context-specific user interfaces provide indications of time and, optionally, a variety of additional information. Further disclosed are non-transitory computer-readable storage media, systems, and devices configured to perform the methods described herein.

Abstract: The customer domain of the smart grid naturally blends with smart home and smart building systems, but typical proposed approaches are “distributor-centric” rather than “customer-centric,” undermining user acceptance, and are often poorly scalable. To solve this problem, we propose a detailed architecture and an implementation of a “last-meter” smart grid-the portion of the smart grid on customer premises-embedded in an internet-of-things (IoT) platform. Our approach has four aspects of novelty and advantages with respect to the state of the art: 1) seamless integration of smart grid with smart home applications in the same infrastructure; 2) data gathering from heterogeneous sensor communication protocols; 3) secure and customized data access; and 4) univocal sensor and actuator mapping to a common abstraction layer on which additional concurrent applications can be built. A demonstrator has been built and tested with purposely-developed ZigBee smart meters and gateways, a distributed IoT server, and a flexible user interface.

Abstract: Immersive Analytics is an emerging research thrust investigating how new interaction and display technologies can be used to support analytical reasoning and decision making. The aim is to provide multi-sensory interfaces that support collaboration and allow users to immerse themselves in their data in a way that supports real-world analytics tasks. Immersive Analytics builds on technologies such as large touch surfaces, immersive virtual and augmented reality environments, sensor devices and other, rapidly evolving, natural user interface devices. While there is a great deal of past and current work on improving the display technologies themselves, our focus in this position paper is on bringing attention to the higher-level usability and design issues in creating effective user interfaces for data analytics in immersive environments.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method is provided for managing and sharing picture files. In one embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises providing a server platform and providing a datastore on the server platform for maintaining full resolution copies of the files shared between a plurality of sharing clients. A synchronization engine is provided on the server platform and is configured to send real-time updates to a plurality of sharing clients when at least one of the sharing clients updates or changes one of said files. A web interface may also be provided that allows a user to access files in the datastore through the use of a web browser.

Abstract: The DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials held in December 2013 provided a landmark demonstration of dexterous mobile robots executing a variety of tasks aided by a remote human operator using only data from the robot's sensor suite transmitted over a constrained, field-realistic communications link. We describe the design considerations, architecture, implementation, and performance of the software that Team MIT developed to command and control an Atlas humanoid robot. Our design emphasized human interaction with an efficient motion planner, where operators expressed desired robot actions in terms of affordances fit using perception and manipulated in a custom user interface. We highlight several important lessons we learned while developing our system on a highly compressed schedule.

Abstract: A vehicle including one or more computers to interface with electronics of the vehicle to access status data for systems of the vehicle and to make input settings to one or more of the systems. The vehicle includes wireless communication circuitry for providing connection to the Internet and to one or more wireless devices when paired with the vehicle. An occupancy sensor of the vehicle is configured to interface with the one or more computers of the vehicle to identify occupancy of seats of the vehicle. A processor of the one or more computers of the vehicle is configured to execute instructions to receive data from a wireless device that is paired with the vehicle. The data is used to identify a seat in the vehicle that is associated with a passenger. The processor executes instructions to provide data to a user interface accessed by the wireless device to expose a plurality of systems of the vehicle. The plurality of systems include systems that relate to an environment zone in which the seat is located in the vehicle. The user interface further includes controls to enable input of settings to one or more of the plurality of vehicle systems to make changes to the one or more of the plurality of vehicle systems. The changes made relate to one or more of the plurality of systems that relate to the environment zone of the seat.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes displaying, within a user interface in a digital media system, a media pane, and a project pane, displaying, within the media pane, a thumbnail group representing a media item, the thumbnail group comprising one or more thumbnails, enabling a user to select, from the thumbnail group, a segment of the media item, and enabling a user to transfer the selected segment to the project pane.

Abstract: While smartphones and mobile apps have been an essential part of our lives, privacy is a serious concern. Previous mobile privacy related research efforts have largely focused on predefined known sources managed by smartphones. Sensitive user inputs through UI (User Interface), another information source that may contain a lot of sensitive information, have been mostly neglected. In this paper, we examine the possibility of scalably detecting sensitive user inputs from mobile apps. In particular, we design and implement SUPOR, a novel static analysis tool that automatically examines the UIs to identify sensitive user inputs containing critical user data, such as user credentials, finance, and medical data. SUPOR enables existing privacy analysis approaches to be applied on sensitive user inputs as well. To demonstrate the usefulness of SUPOR, we build a system that detects privacy disclosures of sensitive user inputs by combining SUPOR with off-the-shelf static taint analysis We apply the system to 16,000 popular Android apps, and conduct a measurement study on the privacy disclosures. SUPOR achieves an average precision of 97.3% and an average recall of 97.3% for sensitive user input identification. SUPOR finds 355 apps with privacy disclosures and the false positive rate is 8.7%. We discover interesting cases related to national ID, username/password, credit card and health information.

Abstract: In this research we investigated the role of user controllability on personalized systems by implementing and studying a novel interactive recommender interface, SetFusion. We examined whether allowing the user to control the process of fusing or integrating different algorithms (i.e., different sources of relevance) resulted in increased engagement and a better user experience. The essential contribution of this research stems from the results of a user study (N=40) of controllability in a scenario where users could fuse different recommendation approaches, with the possibility of inspecting and filtering the items recommended. First, we introduce an interactive Venn diagram visualization, which combined with sliders, can provide an efficient visual paradigm for information filtering. Second, we provide a three-fold evaluation of the user experience: objective metrics, subjective user perception, and behavioral measures. Through the analysis of these metrics, we confirmed results from recent studies, such as the effect of trusting propensity on accepting the recommendations and also unveiled the importance of features such as being a native speaker. Our results present several implications for the design and implementation of user-controllable personalized systems. We explored user-controllable interfaces as extension of traditional-ranked lists.We introduced SetFusion, a controllable interface with sliders and a Venn diagram.We conducted a controlled user study on online conference article recommendation.Our evaluation had three dimensions: users' perception, behavioral and IR metrics.Controllable interface had a positive effect influenced by users' characteristics.

Abstract: A system and method for geolocation-based pictographs are provided. In example embodiments, a current geolocation of a user device is determined. A pictograph is identified based on the current geolocation of the user device. The identified pictograph is presented on a user interface of the user device.

Abstract: nmrshiftdb2 supports with its laboratory information management system the integration of an electronic lab administration and management into academic NMR facilities. Also, it offers the setup of a local database, while full access to nmrshiftdb2's World Wide Web database is granted. This freely available system allows on the one hand the submission of orders for measurement, transfers recorded data automatically or manually, and enables download of spectra via web interface, as well as the integrated access to prediction, search, and assignment tools of the NMR database for lab users. On the other hand, for the staff and lab administration, flow of all orders can be supervised; administrative tools also include user and hardware management, a statistic functionality for accounting purposes, and a 'QuickCheck' function for assignment control, to facilitate quality control of assignments submitted to the (local) database. Laboratory information management system and database are based on a web interface as front end and are therefore independent of the operating system in use.

Abstract: Programming by Examples (PBE) has the potential to revolutionize end-user programming by enabling end users, most of whom are non-programmers, to create small scripts for automating repetitive tasks. However, examples, though often easy to provide, are an ambiguous specification of the user's intent. Because of that, a key impedance in adoption of PBE systems is the lack of user confidence in the correctness of the program that was synthesized by the system. We present two novel user interaction models that communicate actionable information to the user to help resolve ambiguity in the examples. One of these models allows the user to effectively navigate between the huge set of programs that are consistent with the examples provided by the user. The other model uses active learning to ask directed example-based questions to the user on the test input data over which the user intends to run the synthesized program. Our user studies show that each of these models significantly reduces the number of errors in the performed task without any difference in completion time. Moreover, both models are perceived as useful, and the proactive active-learning based model has a slightly higher preference regarding the users' confidence in the result.

Abstract: This panel will establish an automated monitoring system of wireless sensor networks for a fish farm Environment Simulation. This system allows a user with a mobile device to monitor the fish farm Environmental Data with Instant mastery and control over the various environmental data. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, PH value and water level sensing modules are incorporated in this monitoring system. MCU processing is used to capture the physical sensing signal. The ZigBee wireless sensor network brings the data to a central processing core. A WIFI interface transfers the data to the user terminal device. The user can control the entire fish farm environment through the terminal device. Android software was used to design the terminal device user interface. A low power MSP430 series MCU is the core of each sensing terminal and the central terminal. The power supply can be battery-powered, standard electricity supply and/or solar battery powered. UPS makes the whole system more secure with low-cost, low energy consumption, easy operating features with a high degree of freedom for this wireless breeding environment monitoring system.

Abstract: Software is now both central and essential to modern biology, yet lack of availability, difficult installations, and complex user interfaces make software hard to obtain and use. Containerisation, as exemplified by the Docker platform, has the potential to solve the problems associated with sharing software. We propose bioboxes: containers with standardised interfaces to make bioinformatics software interchangeable.

Abstract: An electronic device including a memory is disclosed. The memory stores instructions controlling the electronic device to acquire information on a first external electronic device, access a server storing a software program related to the first external electronic device, receive at least a portion of the software program related to the first external electronic device from the server through the communication interface, install the at least a portion of the software program, transmit the at least a portion of the information on the first external electronic device and/or at least one part of the received at least a portion of the software program to a second external electronic device, and provide a user interface to the display using the installed at least a portion of the software program. The user interface is used for the second external electronic device to perform an operation related to the first external electronic device.

Abstract: This paper presents a taxonomy of design guidelines for robot teleoperation developed from a focused literature review of robot teleoperation. A list of user interface design guidelines was assembled, open card sorting and a focus group were used to classify them, and closed card sorting was employed to validate and further refine the proposed taxonomy. The initially obtained set of 70 guidelines is grouped into eight categories: platform architecture and scalability, error prevention and recovery, visual design, information presentation, robot state awareness, interaction effectiveness and efficiency, robot environment/surroundings awareness, and cognitive factors. Agricultural robots were used as an application case study for implementation and field evaluation. The proposed guideline taxonomy was used heuristically to evaluate the usability of an existing user interface of a teleoperated agricultural robot.

Abstract: A system for reading code symbols includes a camera, a user interface system, and a processor communicatively coupled to the camera and the user interface system. The user interface system includes a visual display. The processor is configured for (i) capturing an image including a code symbol, (ii) displaying the image on the visual display, (iii) determining whether the code symbol in the image is readable by the processor, and (iv) displaying on the visual display a positive indicator overlaying the code symbol in the image when the processor determines that the code symbol in the image is readable by the processor. The processor is further configured for reading the code symbol in the image in response to a selection input received from the user interface system.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments help the user of an electronic device with a touch screen to quickly and accurately select an actionable component on the touch screen before launching an application and reduce errors that can occur by inadvertently touching the wrong component. This problem is solved by providing a way to place the focus on a component (e.g., soft keyboard key) of the user interface before launching the associated application. A relative distance algorithm may be used to determine the closest actionable component to the touch point. Focus is placed on that component by highlighting, speech, audio indicator or some other means, clearly indicating to the user which icon has been selected.

Abstract: This paper presents a cross-age study exploring children's performance on robot introductory programming activities with one tangible and one isomorphic graphical system. Both subsystems are parts of an innovative system, namely the PROTEAS kit. The tangible subsystem consists of cube-shaped blocks that represent simple and more advanced programming structures. Users may interconnect the cubic-shaped commands and so create the robot programming code. The graphical subsystem presents onscreen an isomorphic to the tangible programming space. Children (N = 109) of five different aged groups were let to interact in pairs with the two operationally equivalent programming subsystems with the scope to program a NXT Lego robot. Three variables associated with children performance upon tasks and four variables related with performance during free interaction were studied. Data analysis based on computer logs and video recordings showed that children produced fewer errors, made more effective debugging and younger children in particular needed less time to accomplish the robot programming tasks with the tangible subsystem. Moreover, during free interaction, elder children were more engaged, created more complicated programs and explored different commands and parameters more actively in the tangible case. Finally, interpretation of the findings is provided and the advantages of tangible user interfaces in children's introductory programming are discussed.