Search results

There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely held that less use is made of these databases than could or should be the case, and that one reason for this is that potential users find it difficult to identify which databases to search, to use the various command languages of the hosts and to construct the Boolean search statements required. This reasoning has stimulated a considerable amount of exploration and development work on the construction of search interfaces, to aid the inexperienced user to gain effective access to these databases. The aim of our paper is to review aspects of the design of such interfaces: to indicate the requirements that must be met if maximum aid is to be offered to the inexperienced searcher; to spell out the knowledge that must be incorporated in an interface if such aid is to be given; to describe some of the solutions that have been implemented in experimental and operational interfaces; and to discuss some of the problems encountered. The paper closes with an extensive bibliography of references relevant to online search aids, going well beyond the items explicitly mentioned in the text. An index to software appears after the bibliography at the end of the paper.

As the increase in manufacturing competitiveness forces organizations to use more sophisticated and complex software, system performance depends on clever systems design, efficient planning and scheduling of the related processes. For these advanced manufacturing systems the dependence on human competence is greater. However, previous studies indicate that the human aspects for successfully implementing such systems have been neglected. The objective here is to test the hypotheses that system complexity is inversely related to performance, and that training of system operators, and the quality of the man/machine interface reduces the negative impact of system complexity. A sample of discreet manufacturing systems from 128 organizations was used to test these hypotheses empirically. Moderated multivariate regression indicates that man/machine interfaces are significant contributors to reducing the negative effect of systems complexity. With a lower level of significance, operator training has a similar impact. For complex manufacturing systems software, it behoves managers to insure that the man/machine interface provides the desirable features outlined in this study.

The significance of operational human errors in shipping safety has widely been recognized. The accumulation of many shipboard operations on the bridge of the ship demands that a high level of efficiency must be ensured. Discusses the efficiency of the interface which depends on the success of incorporating the human factor in the engineering systems of ship control. At the time of diminishing crew quality, the bridge operator’s confidence, competence and communication capability must be in co‐ordination with the technology provided by these systems. Suggests that the areas of limitation in the bridge‐operator interface must be identified and the course of action for optimizing this critical relationship for safety must be determined.

The purpose of this paper is to present research in the area of control method for the man‐machine systems with brain machine interface (BMI). Concrete target system is, for instance, a car cruising system and so on.

The improved receding horizon control (RHC) method for the sampled‐data systems and the adaptive digital‐to‐analog (DA) converter which has the way to switch the sampling functions according to the system status are used. The feature selection method based on the kernel support vector machines with the backward stepwise selection for the BMI signals are also used.

This paper proposes the new improved RHC method with the adaptive DA converter for the application of the BMI‐based systems. The proposed method is illustrated as useful and effective method for the systems to which switch of control laws is indispensable by the simulations.

Although the proposed method is effective for the BMI‐based systems with switching of control laws, the faster algorithm for RHC will be need to apply to the man‐machine systems with the BMI in practical use.

The basic concept or framework of the proposed method can be used for the real man‐machine systems with the BMI, for examples, car crusing systems, wheel‐chaired systems and so on.

The paper contributes to the development of the new effective control method for the BMI‐based man‐machine systems.

At present the end user must often rely on an intermediary to make use of available online systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds the possibility of making systems accessible to a wider range of people. AI research is a branch of computer science which attempts to develop programs to enable computer systems to communicate more fluently, to explain why they have taken certain actions, to handle unforeseen situations, and to exhibit other similar signs of intelligent behavior. This paper reviews a number of studies which demonstrate how AI techniques can be applied in the design of end user‐oriented interfaces to existing online systems as well as in the development of future generations of online systems intended for the end user. Criteria proposed for user‐oriented systems are summarized and suggestions are given of the ways in which AI techniques may enable one to realize them. These criteria are found to focus on the language for man—machine communication and on approaches to delegating more aspects of the retrieval process to the system. Available technology such as intelligent terminals can be used to augment the interface of existing online systems by varying command languages and display formats. The features of two prototypes demonstrating this approach are described. AI work on man—machine communication and knowledge‐based systems which is likely to influence the design of future online systems is highlighted. Finally, Licklider's proposal for “procognitive systems” is recalled, and it is suggested that AI techniques provide indications of how such systems could eventually be built.

Researching user friendly interfaces have been an integral part of the Alvey programme, as Stephen McClelland explains.

The goal of a good computer interface is to provide a natural language help facility that allows new users to learn about the computer, its operating system in particular, and the important packages that are available for his use. The UNIX Consultant (UC) is an intelligent natural language interface designed to allow naive users to communicate with the UNIX operating system (of A.T. and T. Bell Laboratories) in ordinary English in as painless a way as possible. UC allows the user to engage in natural language dialogues with the operating system. He can query UC about how to do things in UNIX, ask about common names, formats, receive on‐line definitions of UNIX and get help debugging problems using UNIX commands.

Selected current and recent work in the area of cognitive modelling is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to user models (that is, the model held by a system of a user). The relevance of this work to information retrieval is assessed and some attempts to include user models in IR systems are discussed. Implications are drawn for future work in IR.

A report on robots at the Manufacturing Week exhibition, highlighting some of the developments on show in the man‐machine interface field. This reveals that the Windows environment is becoming increasingly popular for robot manufacturers. Special attention is given to the exhibits of two robot companies. In the first, a new robot off‐line programming and simulation system from Kuka is described. Its uniqueness is that the robot controller logic module and software is embedded into the off‐line programming PC, so that developed programs can be directly downloaded to the robot. The second, shown by System Devices, is a Windows‐based programming support package developed by Epson for its SCARA robots.