Geometric Anticipation: Assisting Users in 2D Layout Tasks
by J. Stumpfel, J. Arvo and K. Novins. International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), pp. 345-347, January 2006.
Abstract
We describe an experimental interface that anticipates a
user's intentions and accommodates predicted changes in
advance. Our canonical example is an interactive version of
"magnetic poetry" in which rectangular blocks containing
single words can be juxtaposed to form arbitrary sentences
or "poetry." The user can rearrange the blocks at will, form-
ing and dissociating word sequences. A crucial attribute of
the blocks in our system is that they anticipate insertions
and gracefully rearrange themselves in time to make space
for a new word or phrase. The challenges in creating such
an interface are three fold: 1) the user's intentions must
be inferred from noisy input, 2) arrangements must be al-
tered smoothly and intuitively in response to anticipated
changes, and 3) new and changing goals must be handled
gracefully at any time, even in mid animation. We describe
a general approach for handling the dynamic creation and
deletion of organizational goals. Fluid motion is achieved
by continually applying and correcting goal-directed forces
to the objects. Future applications of this idea include the
manipulation of text and graphical elements within documents and the manipulation of symbolic information such
as equations.
Availability
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