Human-Machine Interactive Systems (Languages and Information Systems)

Many hardware devices present either results or alternatives selected by computers to users. A few are video display terminals (VDTs), touch-tone telephones, and computer-generated speech systems. In part this book con­ cerns the impact and implications of such tools. Alternatively this is an attempt to provide material for researchers, students, and managers con­ cerned with computer interfaces. The subject of computer interfaces is at one level a technical subarea sharing common interests with the broad dis­ ciplines of computer science, psychology, and bioengineering. However, it is also a topic thrust to the forefront of interest of a wide variety of individuals who confront one of the most striking technological changes that has occurred in human history-the introduction of contact with computing devices as an essential component of many kinds of ordinary transactions. Point of entry sales, travel and entertainment reservations, and library infor­ mation, are commonly conducted today by interaction with digital calculat­ ing devices that did not exist in the recent past. The papers in this book present several concerns arising from the widespread use of computing. One involves the future implications of further advances of this technology. This is a twofold issue: (a) the potential conse­ quences of changing the basic way that information is managed in areas ranging from design, engineering, and management/planning to information access, education, and clerical function; and (b) improvements that could be instituted from further development of the special characteristics of display techniques, technologies, and algorithms. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Freestyle System....Pages 3-21 Action Propagation Model for User Interface Programs....Pages 23-35 A Fully Integrated Natural Language Knowledge Base Management System....Pages 37-60 Communicating with Pictorial Databases....Pages 61-87 Mnemonic Assistance and User Productivity....Pages 89-101 Technology, Information, and the Individual....Pages 103-122 Communication Tools for Human-Computer Knowledge Transfer....Pages 123-182 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Video....Pages 185-197 Parallel Coordinates....Pages 199-233 Tools for Interactive Prototyping of Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional User Interfaces....Pages 235-253 Toward a Three-Dimensional User Interface....Pages 255-267 A Real-Time Display for Tactile Images....Pages 269-276 A Graphical Interface for a Geometric Modeling Database....Pages 277-297 A Dialect for Imaging and Graphics....Pages 299-325 Back Matter....Pages 327-328