This paper describes the design and implementation of PESTO (Portable Explorer of STructured Objects), a user interface that supports browsing and querying of object databases. PESTO allows users to navigate the relationships that exist among objects. In addition, users can formulate complex object queries through an integrated query paradigm ("query-in-place") that presents querying as a natural extension of browsing. PESTO is designed to be portable to any object database system that supports a high-level query language; in addition, PESTO is extensible, providing hooks for specialized predicate formation and object display tools for new data types (e.g., images or text). 1 Introduction The Garlic project at the IBM Almaden Research Center [Care95] is developing a system and associated tools for managing large quantities of heterogeneous multimedia information. The goal of Garlic is to permit both traditional and multimedia data residing in a variety of existing data repositories ...

We describe an approach for multiparadigmatic visual access to databases, which is proposed to achieve seamless integration of different interaction paradigms. The user is provided with an adaptive interface augmented by a user model, supporting different visual representations of both data and queries. The visual representations are characterized on the basis of the chosen visual formalisms, namely forms, diagrams, and icons. To access different databases, a unified data model, the Graph Model, is used as a common underlying formalism to which databases, expressed in the most popular data models, can be mapped. Graph Model databases are queried through the adaptive interface. The semantics of the query operations is formally defined in terms of graphical primitives. Such a formal approach permits us to define the concept of "atomic query", which is the minimal portion of a query that can be transferred from one interaction paradigm to another and processed by the system. Since certain...

We propose a framework for database querying providing the user with several interaction paradigms based on different (i.e., form-based, diagrammatic, iconic, and hybrid) visual representations of the database. A unified model, namely the Graph Model, is used as the common underlying model, in terms of which databases expressed in the most common data models can be easily converted. Graph Model databases can be queried by means of the multiparadigmatic interface. The semantics of the query operations is formally defined in terms of the Graphical Primitives. Such a formal approach enables the query manager to maintain the same query consistently in any representation. In the proposed multiparadigmatic environment, the user can switch from one interaction paradigm to another during query formulation, so that the most suitable query representation can be found.

Abstract. Many aspects of database systems have been improved by Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). One area that has not received adequate attention in GUI research is the visual presentation of schemas, despite the increasingly important role that schemas play in database design and operation. Schema visualizations are valuable for viewing and manipulating both the schema and the information captured by it. In this paper, we describe a framework that formalizes the process of visualizing database schemas or any similar structured information. It is based on the concepts of a data model capturing schemas, a visual model capturing visualizations, and a visual metaphor that de nes a mapping between the two models. This formal description of the mapping between a schema and its visualization permits straightforward declaration of visual metaphors, and provides criteria to evaluate metaphors as to their ability to correctly visualize a schema. Given a visual metaphor, the framework divides visual information into that which has meaning relative to the data model, that which has meaning to the user but not to the data model, and that which is only aesthetic. This separation permits better use of aesthetic information, resulting in richer visualizations. As a whole, we believe that the formalism provides the foundations on which better schema visualization tools can be built.

Multimedia data has become readily available from a variety of resources, such as the Web, to users (ranging from naive to sophisticated) who need to select and to present the data in a way that is meaningful to their particular applications. Delaunay MM is our framework for querying and presenting multimedia data stored in distributed data repositories, including the Web. It is unique in combining user-defined layouts with ad hoc querying capabilities, thereby enabling users to tailor, in a simple way, the layout of virtual documents composed of retrieved multimedia objects. In this paper, we focus on the object-oriented data models, on the declarative query languages, and on how the results of the queries to disparate resources are integrated to form coherent user-defined documents. 1 Introduction Database management systems (DBMSs) have traditionally enabled the storage, retrieval, and presentation of tabular datasets primarily for professional applications. The recent phenomenon...

In this paper, we consider the problem of querying multimedia presentations based on content information. We believe that presentations should become an integral part of multimedia database systems, and users should be able to store, query, and possibly manipulate multimedia presentations using a single database management system software. Multimedia presentations are modeled as presentation graphs, which are directed acyclic graphs that visually specify multimedia presentations. Each node of a presentation graph represents a media stream. Edges depict sequential or concurrent playout of streams during the presentation. Information captured in each individual stream and the presentation order of this information during the multimedia presentation constitute the content information of the presentation. Querying multimedia presentation graphs based on content is important for the retrieval of information from a database. We present a graph data model for the specification of multimedia p...

INTRODUCTION Graph drawing addresses the problem of constructing geometric representations of graphs, and has important applications to key computer technologies such as software engineering, database systems, visual interfaces, and computer-aided-design. Research on graph drawing has been conducted within several diverse areas, including discrete mathematics (topological graph theory, geometric graph theory, order theory), algorithmics (graph algorithms, data structures, computational geometry, vlsi), and human-computer interaction (visual languages, graphical user interfaces, software visualization). This chapter overviews aspects of graph drawing that are especially relevant to computational geometry. Basic definitions on drawings and their properties are given in Section 1.1. Bounds on geometric and topological properties of drawings (e.g., area and crossings) are presented in Section 1.2. Section 1.3 deals with the time complexity of fundamental graph drawin

) Isabel F. Cruz 1 and Ashim Garg 2 1 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Tufts University Medford, MA 02155, USA 2 Department of Computer Science Brown University Providence, RI 02912--1910, USA Abstract. Constraint-based graph drawing systems provide expressive power and flexibility. Previously proposed approaches make use of general constraint solvers, which are inefficient, and of textual specification of constraints, which can be long and difficult to understand. In this paper we propose the use of a constraint-based visual language for constructing planar drawings of trees, series-parallel graphs, and acyclic digraphs in linear time. A graph drawing system based on our approach can therefore provide the power of constraint-based graph drawing, the simplicity of visual specifications, and the computational efficiency that is typical of the algorithmic-based approaches. 1 Introduction It is common practice to explain the layout of a graph using pictu...

In this paper we introduce a constraint-based language that has a visual syntax, and allows for the declarative specification of the display of data. Other features of the proposed language include: (1) simplicity and genericity of the basic constructs; (2) ability to specify a variety of displays (graphs, bar charts, pie charts, etc.); (3) compatibility with the object-oriented framework of the database language doodle. We provide the syntax and the semantics of the language, and examples of applications that demonstrate the expressiveness of our language. 1.1 Introduction Mappings between the data domain and the visual domain are commonly used for extracting information from the data by reasoning in the visual domain [3, 12]. For example, Venn diagrams are visual representations of abstract sets and of their inclusion relationships. Other diagrams are close to the concrete entities that they represent, such as transportation and communication networks. Bar charts, pie charts, and p...

A pictorial query specification technique that enables the formulation of complex pictorial queries for browsing through a collection of spatially-referenced images is presented. It is distinguished from most other methods by the fact that in these methods the query image specifies a target database image in its entirety whereas in our approach the query image specifies the combination of objects that the target database image should contain rather than being treated as a whole image. The query objects are represented by shape features although other features such as color, texture, or wavelets could also be used. Using our technique, it is possible to specify which particular objects should appear in the target images as well as how many occurrences of each object are required. Moreover, it is possible to specify the minimum required certainty of matching between query-image objects and database-image objects, as well as to impose spatial constraints that specify bounds on the distanc...