. Digital Libraries have gained tremendous interest with several research projects addressing the wealth of challenges in this field. While computational intelligence systems are being used for specific tasks in this arena, the majority of projects relies on conventional techniques for the basic structure of the library itself. With the SOMLib project we created a digital library system that uses a neural network-based core for the representation of the library. The self-organizing map, a popular unsupervised neural network model, is used to topically structure a document collection similar to the organization of real-world libraries. Based on this core, additional modules provide information retrieval features, integrate distributed libraries, and automatically label the various topical sections in the document collection. A metaphor graphics based interface further assists the user in intuitively understanding the library providing an instant overview. Keywords: Self-Organizing Map ...

While methods for searching large digital libraries have experienced tremendous improvements recently, interfaces to such collections still have a far way to go. Most interfaces to digital libraries present themselves as various forms of sorted lists, providing metadata information on the documents in textual form. This prohibits intuitive understanding of document archives or web search results. In this paper we present the libViewer, a Java-based user interface to digital libraries using metaphor graphics to display information on the elements in a digital library in an intuitively understandable way. Metadata on digital libraries based on the Dublin Core Initiative is mapped onto a set of metaphors to allow instant recognition and orientation in an unknown document collection, facilitating interactive retrieval and exploration. Keywords: Information Visualization, Web-based Library Representation, Information Space Metaphors 1. Introduction When entering a library or large-scale b...

While methods for retrieving documents from large information repositories have improved a lot, presentation of the retrieved documents still leaves a lot to be desired. Important information on documents is usually presented as a textual listing of available metadata attributes such as document size, author information, date of creation, and so on. This requires the user to read and abstract from the presented metainformation. In this paper we present our libViewer system, a Java-Applet interfacing with a number of servers to provide an intuitive metaphor-graphics based representation of document repositories. Contrary to most other multidimensional data visualization approaches we rely on intuitive realworld metaphors to provide a visualization for untrained users rather than experts in special interfaces. We introduce a set of metaphors and present two prototype systems interfacing with Dublin Core metadata based repositories as well as the AltaVista search engine. We further provid...

Recent initiatives to geospatial digital libraries provide access to a wealth of distributed data, but offer only basic levels of interactivity and user assistance. Consequently, users find it difficult and time-consuming to browse through data collections and locate those data sets that meet their requirements. The MetaViz project addresses two of the major barriers preventing the extensive use of digital libraries: lack of usability and information overload. This research focuses on geospatial data, making it possible to develop effective visualization and interaction methods that are based on familiar spatial metaphors. The visualization methods developed employ three-dimensional techniques, combining several characteristics or dimensions of metadata into single graphical views. As those visualizations are based on map and landscape metaphors, they are easy to understand and provide instant overviews of complex data characteristics. The visualization methods have been int...

Browsing through digitalized books collections and reading activities are separated in most present WWW-based user's interfaces of digital libraries. This context break induces longer apprenticeship and navigation time within the interface. We study in this paper how 3D interaction metaphors provide a continuous navigation space for these two tasks.

visual retrieval model

The HyperVise project tries to facilitate the access to the large-scale digital libraries. One of its axes of research consists in listing some methods of research that exist in the real libraries and make defect in the virtual ones, and try to transfer them. Among these methods, we are especially interested in research by proximity and to the fortuitous and haphazard finding.

While methods for searching large digital libraries have experienced tremendous improvements recently, interfaces to such collections still have a far way to go. Most interfaces to digital libraries present themselves as various forms of sorted lists, providing metadata information on the documents in textual form. This prohibits intuitive understanding of document archives or web search results. In this paper we present the libViewer, a Java-based user interface to digital libraries using metaphor graphics to display information on the elements in a digital library in an intuitively understandable way. Metadata on digital libraries based on the Dublin Core Initiative is mapped onto a set of metaphors to allow instant recognition and orientation in an unknown document collection, facilitating interactive retrieval and exploration. Keywords: Information Visualization, Web-based Library Representation, Information Space Metaphors 1. Introduction When entering a library or large-scale ...

With the massive advance of electronic document repositories, usable interfaces to these repositories gain importance. While sophisticated information retrieval techniques provide acceptable result selection, interaction with a repository as such and with the documents retrieved leaves a lot to be desired, as users commonly are restricted to reading through one-dimensionally sorted lists of document descriptions. In this paper we present the combination of a topical organization of documents via the SOMLib system with the intuitive representation of document metadata provided by the libViewer visualization. It allows users to approach query results in a way comparable to how conventional libraries are being used. We demonstrate the benefits of this system by using it as a front-end to the AltaVista search engine. Keywords: Library Representation, Information Space Metaphors, Document Classification 1 Introduction With the increasing amount of information available electronically, m...

es diffrentes tapes du pipeline graphique 3D et de profiter de l'acclration matrielle. En effet, pour les API 3D les plus couramment utilises (comme Direct3D ou OpenGL), le matriel prsent est directement mis contribution pour la prise en charge de certaines fonctions 3D. Les fonctions non supportes par le matriel seront alors mules par le microprocesseur. Des drivers faisant le lien entre l'API 3D et la carte graphique permettront donc au programmeur de faire abstraction du matriel prsent. Il n'aura donc pas programmer explicitement les registres de la carte graphique ni crire des fonctions basniveau. La seconde manire de diffuser un contenu 3D est d'utiliser un ensemble modeleur et moteur de rendu. Ceux-ci doivent tre capables d'changer leurs donnes par un format de fichier commun. Pratiquement tous les derniers modeleurs disposent d'un filtre pour exporter les scnes construites au format VRML. Ces fichiers peuvent ensuite tre interprts et affichs par un co-navigateur