This paper describes an approach to the automatic presentation of multimedia documents based on parsing and syntax-directed translation using Relational Grammars. This translation is followed by a constraint solving mechanism to create the final layout. Grammatical rules provide the mechanism for mapping from a representation of the content of a presentation to forms that specify the media objects to be realized. These realization forms include sets of spatial and temporal constraints between elements of the presentation. Individual grammars encapsulate the "look and feel" of a presentation and can be used as generators of that style. By making the grammars sensitive to the requirements of the output medium, parsing can introduce flexibility into the information realization process. Keywords: Automatic design, grammar-directed design, visual languages, relational grammars, parsing, constraints 2: Introduction A fully functioning multimedia system requires a wide range of stages to achi...

Due to the growing complexity of information that has to be communicated by current AI systems, there comes an increasing need for building advanced intelligent user interfaces that take advantage of a coordinated combination of different modalities, e.g., natural language, graphics, and animation, to produce situated and user-adaptive presentations. A deeper understanding of the basic principles underlying multimodal communication requires theoretical work on computational models as well as practical work on concrete systems. In this article, we describe the system WIP, an implemented prototype of a knowledge-based presentation system that generates illustrated texts that are customized for the intended audience and situation. We present the architecture of WIP and introduce as its major components the presentation planner, the layout manager, and the generators for text and graphics. To achieve a coherent output with an optimal media mix, the single components have to be interleaved. The interplay of the presentation planner, the text and the graphics generator will be demonstrated by means of a system run. In particular, we show how a text-picture combination containing a

The task of the knowledge-based presentation system WIP is the generation of a variety of multimodal documents from an input consisting of a formal description of the communicative intent of a planned presentation. WIP generates illustrated texts that are customized for the intended audience and situation. We present the architecture of WIP and introduce as its major components the presentation planner, the layout manager, the text generator and the graphics generator. An extended notion of coherence for multimodal documents is introduced that can be used to constrain the presentation planning process. The paper focuses on the coordination of contents planning and layout that is necessary to produce a coherent illustrated text. In particular, we discuss layout revisions after contents planning and the influence of layout constraints on text generation. We show that in WIP the design of a multimodal document is viewed as a non-monotonic planning process that includes various revisions of preliminary results in order to achieve a coherent output with an optimal media mix. 1

Layout refers to the process of determining the sizes and positions of the visual objects that are part of an information presentation. Automated layout refers to the use of a computer program to automate either all or part of the layout process. This field of research lies at the crossroads between artificial intelligence and human computer interaction. Automated layout of presentations is becoming increasingly important as the amount of data that we need to present rapidly overtakes our ability to present it manually. We survey and analyze the techniques used by research systems that have automated layout components and suggest possible areas of future work.

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This study is devoted to the layout problem in the TRIDENT project (Tools foR an Interactive Development ENvironmenT) , which is dedicated to highly interactive business -oriented applications. In this project, the placement problem consists of a computer-aided visual placement of interaction objects (IO) included in a more composite IO called Presentation Unit (PU). Two strategies for placing IO within a PU are characterised and investigated : a static twocolumn based strategy and a dynamic right/bottom strategy. Each strategy decomposes the placement into three partially overlapping dimensions : localisation, dimensioning, and arrangement. A set of simple mathematical relationships is introduced to rate the quality of visual principles gained with the result of each strategy within the three dimensions. This rating shows that the lack of flexibility should lead us more towards a dynamic strategy for computer-aided visual placement. KEYWORDS: Dynamic Strategy, Grid, Interaction Objec...

Modeling is the creation of graphical objects. It is a tedious task for users to perform, and too complex to be amenable to full automation. The notion of cooperative modeling, where a human and a computer system cooperate to perform the modeling task, therefore, has great appeal. We provide a comparative description of humancomputer cooperative interaction paradigms for creating graphical objects. This work serves three purposes: 1.) to present a conceptual framework for organizing known paradigms; 2.) to provide a basis for choosing among the set of existing paradigms; and 3.) to expose opportunities for developing new interaction paradigms with certain desirable combinations of characteristics. Keywords:Keywords: Graphical user interfaces, modeling, design automation, human-machine interaction, interaction techniques, critics, constraint-based design, cooperative design, automated design of graphical displays. 1 Introduction Modeling---theprocess of creating graphical objects--- de...

Layout refers to the process of determining the size and position of the visual objects in an information presentation. We introduce the WeightMap, a bitmap representation of the visual weight of a presentation. In addition, we present algorithms that use WeightMaps to allow an automated layout system to evaluate the effectiveness of its layouts. Our approach is based on the concepts of visual weight and visual balance, which are fundamental to the visual arts. The objects in the layout are each assigned a visual weight, and a WeightMap is created that encodes the visual weight of the layout. Image-processing techniques, including pyramids and edge detection, are then used to efficiently analyze the WeightMap for balance. In addition, derivatives of the sums of the rows and columns are used to generate suggestions for how to improve the layout.

3. the arrangement, which answers to the question "according to which order to place information on a screen?" (or "how should IO be arranged in a PU?" by logical order, by frequency or by predefined format?). This study is devoted to the layout problem in the TRIDENT project (Tools foR an Interactive Development ENvironmenT) , which is dedicated to highly interactive business -oriented applications. In this project, the placement problem consists of a computer-aided visual placement of interaction objects (IO) included in a more composite IO called Presentation Unit (PU). Two strategies for placing IO within a PU are characterised and investigated : a static two-column based strategy and a dynamic right/bottom strategy. Each strategy decomposes the placement into three partially overlapping dimensions : localisation, dimensioning, and arrangement. A set of simple mathematical relationships is introduced to rate the quality of visual principles gained with the result of each strategy ...

this paper, we describe the constraintbased layout framework LayLab that has been developed in the context of the IntelliMedia presentation and design system WIP [ Andr'e et al., 1993; Wahlster