To date, hundreds of millions of mini-QWERTY keyboard equipped devices (miniaturized versions of a full desktop keyboard) have been sold. Accordingly, a large percentage of text messages originate from fixed-key, mini-QWERTY keyboard enabled mobile phones. Over a series of three longitudinal studies I quantify how quickly and accurately individuals can input text on mini-QWERTY keyboards. I evaluate performance in ideal laboratory conditions as well as in a variety of mobile contexts. My first study establishes baseline performance measures; my second study investigates the impact of limited visibility on text input performance; and my third study investigates the impact of mobility (sitting, standing, and walking) on text input performance. After approximately five hours of practice, participants achieved expertise typing almost 60 words per minute at almost 95% accuracy. Upon completion of these studies, I examine the types of errors that people make when typing on mini-QWERTY keyboards. Having discovered a common pattern in errors, I develop and refine an algorithm to automatically detect and correct errors in mini-QWERTY keyboard enabled text input. I both validate the algorithm through the analysis of pre-recorded typing data and then empirically evaluate the impacts of automatic error correction on live mini-QWERTY keyboard text input. Validating the algorithm over various datasets, I demonstrate the potential to correct approximately 25% of the total errors and correct up to 3% of the total keystrokes. Evaluating automatic error detection and correction on live typing results in successfully correcting 61% of the targeted errors committed by participants while increasing typing rates by almost two words per minute without introducing noticeable distraction.

Downloading software from a server usually takes a noticeable amount of time, that is, noticeable to the user who wants to run the program. However, this issue can be mitigated by the use of streaming software. Software steaming is a means by which software can begin execution even while transmission of the full software program may still be in progress. Therefore, the application load time (i.e., the amount of time from when an application is selected for download to when the application can be executed) observed by the user can be significantly reduced. Moreover, unneeded software components might not be downloaded to the device, lowering memory and bandwidth usages. As a result, resource utilization such as memory and bandwidth usage may also be more efficient. Using our streaming method, an embedded device can support a wide range of applications which can be run on demand. Software streaming also enables small memory footprint devices to run applications larger than the physical memory by using our memory management technique. In this dissertation, we present a streaming method we call block streaming to transmit stream-enabled applications, including stream-enabled file I/O. We implemented a tool to partition software into blocks which can be transmitted (streamed) to the embedded device. Our streaming method was implemented and simulated on an MBX860 board and on a hardware/software co-simulation platform in which we used the PowerPC architecture. We show a robotics application that, with our software streaming method, is able to meet its deadline. The application load time for this application also improves by a factor of more than 10X when compared to downloading the entire application before running it. The experimental results also show that our implementation improves file I/O operation latency; in our examples, the performance improves up to 55.83X when compared with direct download. Finally, we show a stream-enabled game application combined with stream-enabled file I/O for which the user can start playing the game 3.18X more quickly than using only the stream-enabled game program file alone.

Thesis (M. Eng. Sc.)--University of Adelaide, 1987. / Typescript. Includes a copy of a paper presented at TADSEM '85 --Australian Seminar on Devices for Expressive Communication and Environmental Control, co-authored by the author. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [115-121]).

This project created a program that takes predicate calculus formulas and creates a visual Semantic Tableaux truth tree, thereby proving or disproving a conclusion. Formal methods used in developing and verifying software and hardware are mathematically based techniques for describing and reasoning about system properties. Such formal methods provide frameworks within which people specify, develop, and verify systems in a systematic, rather than ad hoc, manner. Formal methods include the more specific activities of program specification, program verification and hardware verification.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis presents the development, experimentation and validation of a reliable and robust system to monitor the injector pulse generated by an Engine Control Module (ECM) and send the corresponding fueling quantity to the real-time computer in a closed loop Hardware In the Loop (HIL) bench. The system can be easily calibrated for different engine platforms as well. The fueling quantity that is being injected by the injectors is a crucial variable to run closed loop HIL simulation to carry out the performance testing of engine, aftertreatment and other components of the vehicle. This research utilized Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfer capability offered by National Instruments (NI) Compact Reconfigurable Input-Output (cRIO) to achieve high speed data acquisition and delivery. The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage was to develop the HIL bench for the research. The second stage was to determine the performance of the system with different threshold methods and different sampling speeds necessary to satisfy the required accuracy of the fueling quantity being monitored. The third stage was to study the error and its variability involved in the injected fueling quantity from pulse to pulse, from injector to injector, between real injector stators and cheaper inductor load cells emulating the injectors, over different operating conditions with full factorial design of experimentation and mixed model Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). Different thresholds were experimented to find out the best thresholds, the Start of Injection (SOI) threshold and the End of Injection (EOI) threshold that captured the injector “ontime” with best reliability and accuracy. Experimentation has been carried out at various data acquisition rates to find out the optimum speed of data sampling rate, trading off the accuracy of fueling quantity. The experimentation found out the expected error with a system with cheaper solution as well, so that, if a test application is not sensitive to error in fueling quantity, a cheaper solution with lower sampling rate and inductors as load cells can be used. The statistical analysis was carried out at highest available sampling rate on both injectors and inductors with the best threshold method found in previous studies. The result clearly shows the factors that affect the error and the variability in the standard deviations in error; it also shows the relation with the fixed and random factors. The real-time application developed for the HIL bench is capable of monitoring the injector waveform, using any fueling ontime table corresponding to the platform being tested, and delivering the fueling quantity in real-time. The test bench made for this research is also capable of studying injectors of different types with the automated test sequence, without occupying the resource of fully capable closed loop test benches for testing the ECM unctionality.

This dissertation describes the development, design, implementation and evaluation of a data acquisition system, with the main aim of using it for data collection on a laboratory pilot ball mill. An open-source prototype hardware platform was utilised in the implementation of the data acquisition function, however, with limitations. An analogue signal conditioning card has been successfully developed to interface the analogue signals to the dual domain ADC module. Model-based software development was used to design and develop the algorithms to control the DAS acquisition process, but with limited capabilities. A GUI application has been developed and used for the collection and storage of the raw data on the host system. The DAS prototype was calibrated and collected data successfully through all the channels; however, the input signal bandwidth was limited to 2Hz. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)