Work in Progress Demo from Pen- and Touch-Computing: Vizdom and Dash
Host
Stefanie Mueller
MIT CSAIL
ABSTRACT: In this talk we will present two current research projects from our Pen- and Touch Computing lab at Brown University.
First, we will first demonstrate Vizdom (and it's processing backend IDEA) which are being developed in collaboration with Professor Tim Kraska's database management group and are sponsored by NSF and DARPA awards, as well as by gifts from Microsoft Research and Adobe. Vizdom is a pen- and touch-based interactive data exploration application with three salient features: 1) An emphasis on progressive computation that we argue (and to some degree tested in usability studies) greatly improves the user experience on larger datasets. 2) A tight integration of visualizations, machine learning and statistics all within the same tool and through an accessible interaction paradigm with the goal to empower "data-enthusiasts" - people who are not mathematicians or programmers, and only know a bit of statistics. 3) Embedding visual data exploration in a statistical framework to prevent common problems and statistical pitfalls (i.e., multiple comparisons problem).
In the second part of our talk, we demonstrate, Dash, an early-stage prototype of an integrated environment for document-based knowledge work, enhanced with pen- and touch interactions; this work is sponsored by Microsoft Research and Adobe. With Dash we aim to streamline common knowledge worker tasks by allowing users to create, collect and relate heterogeneous documents in both structured and free-form workspaces. In contrast to most applications which have special purpose databases that aren't exposed as databases, Dash not only allows application-specific views but also exposes database views of its document and metadata information. This allows computational operators and data visualizations to be applied to any feature of the repository. Thus, with Dash, users create, as a byproduct of their natural workflow, custom "dashboards" on their data since Dash treats all searches, visualizations and layouts as first class interactive documents on par with all other documents.
Andries van Dam, is the Thomas J. Watson Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education and Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. He has been a member of Brown's faculty since 1965, was a co-founder of Brown's Computer Science Department and its first Chairman from 1979 to 1985, and was also Brown's first Vice President for Research from 2002 - 2006. His research includes work on computer graphics, hypermedia systems, post-WIMP and natural user interfaces (NUI), including pen- and touch computing, and educational software. He has been working for over four decades on systems for creating and reading electronic books with interactive illustrations for use in teaching and research. In 1967 Prof. van Dam co-founded ACM SICGRAPH (the precursor of SIGGRAPH) and from 1985 through 1987 was Chairman of the Computing Research Association. He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAS, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has received the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, the SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics, and the IEEE Centennial Medal, and holds four honorary doctorates from Darmstadt Technical University in Germany, Swarthmore College, the University of Waterloo in Canada, and ETH Zurich. He has authored or co-authored over 100 papers and nine books, including "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics" and three editions of "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice".
Emanuel Zgraggen received his Fachhochschuldiplom in Informatik from HSR Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil in Switzerland and his MS in computer science from Brown University. He is currently a PhD candidate at Brown University working in the graphics group and is advised by Professor Andy van Dam and Professor Tim Kraska. His main research areas are Human Computer Interaction, Information Visualization and Data Science.
Robert Zeleznik is Director of User Interface Research for Brown University's Computer Graphics Group. He has worked broadly in the area of post-WIMP and pen-based human computer interaction, having over two decades of experience developing both 2D and 3D gestural user interfaces and interaction techniques. In addition, he has worked extensively in the application domains of 2D drawing and 3D modeling, scientific and information visualization, and hypermedia.
First, we will first demonstrate Vizdom (and it's processing backend IDEA) which are being developed in collaboration with Professor Tim Kraska's database management group and are sponsored by NSF and DARPA awards, as well as by gifts from Microsoft Research and Adobe. Vizdom is a pen- and touch-based interactive data exploration application with three salient features: 1) An emphasis on progressive computation that we argue (and to some degree tested in usability studies) greatly improves the user experience on larger datasets. 2) A tight integration of visualizations, machine learning and statistics all within the same tool and through an accessible interaction paradigm with the goal to empower "data-enthusiasts" - people who are not mathematicians or programmers, and only know a bit of statistics. 3) Embedding visual data exploration in a statistical framework to prevent common problems and statistical pitfalls (i.e., multiple comparisons problem).
In the second part of our talk, we demonstrate, Dash, an early-stage prototype of an integrated environment for document-based knowledge work, enhanced with pen- and touch interactions; this work is sponsored by Microsoft Research and Adobe. With Dash we aim to streamline common knowledge worker tasks by allowing users to create, collect and relate heterogeneous documents in both structured and free-form workspaces. In contrast to most applications which have special purpose databases that aren't exposed as databases, Dash not only allows application-specific views but also exposes database views of its document and metadata information. This allows computational operators and data visualizations to be applied to any feature of the repository. Thus, with Dash, users create, as a byproduct of their natural workflow, custom "dashboards" on their data since Dash treats all searches, visualizations and layouts as first class interactive documents on par with all other documents.
Andries van Dam, is the Thomas J. Watson Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education and Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. He has been a member of Brown's faculty since 1965, was a co-founder of Brown's Computer Science Department and its first Chairman from 1979 to 1985, and was also Brown's first Vice President for Research from 2002 - 2006. His research includes work on computer graphics, hypermedia systems, post-WIMP and natural user interfaces (NUI), including pen- and touch computing, and educational software. He has been working for over four decades on systems for creating and reading electronic books with interactive illustrations for use in teaching and research. In 1967 Prof. van Dam co-founded ACM SICGRAPH (the precursor of SIGGRAPH) and from 1985 through 1987 was Chairman of the Computing Research Association. He is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAS, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has received the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, the SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics, and the IEEE Centennial Medal, and holds four honorary doctorates from Darmstadt Technical University in Germany, Swarthmore College, the University of Waterloo in Canada, and ETH Zurich. He has authored or co-authored over 100 papers and nine books, including "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics" and three editions of "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice".
Emanuel Zgraggen received his Fachhochschuldiplom in Informatik from HSR Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil in Switzerland and his MS in computer science from Brown University. He is currently a PhD candidate at Brown University working in the graphics group and is advised by Professor Andy van Dam and Professor Tim Kraska. His main research areas are Human Computer Interaction, Information Visualization and Data Science.
Robert Zeleznik is Director of User Interface Research for Brown University's Computer Graphics Group. He has worked broadly in the area of post-WIMP and pen-based human computer interaction, having over two decades of experience developing both 2D and 3D gestural user interfaces and interaction techniques. In addition, he has worked extensively in the application domains of 2D drawing and 3D modeling, scientific and information visualization, and hypermedia.