The thesis describes a method for human-computer interaction through vision-based gesture recognition and hand tracking, which consists of five phases: image grabbing, image segmentation, feature extraction, gesture recognition, and system mouse controlling. Unlike most of previous works, our method recognizes hand with just one camera and requires no color markers or mechanical gloves. The primary work of the thesis is improving the accuracy and speed of the gesture recognition. Further, the gesture commands will be used to replace the mouse interface on a standard personal computer to control application software in a more intuitive manner.

Readers often encounter the need to explore a document only for a specific point of interest. We call the phenomena of approaching a narrative not for its entirety, but for a thread of a particular topic, thematic reading. Present reading tools and information retrieval techniques provide only limited assistance to readers in such a situation. Our research centers on this phenomenon. We conducted investigations on both human behavior and machine automation, with a goal of better meeting the requirements of thematic reading. To observe readers? behavior and understand their expectations, we implemented a reader?s interface with designs targeting the predicted needs of thematic readers. We conducted user studies using both the system and Microsoft Word. We proved that thematic reading is capable of achieving the goal of understanding a specific topic, at least to a degree that succeeds in topic-wise tasks. We also reached guidelines for designing future reading platforms in major aspects such as view, navigation, and contextual awareness. As for machine automation, we investigated the potential to automatically locate thematically relevant excerpts. This investigation was inspired by the editorial compilation of a textbook index. To increase the search performance, we proposed a two-step methodology which first expands the query with expansion and then filters the intermediate results by checking the term-occurrence proximity. For query expansion, we compared the query expansion with WordNet, morphological inflections, and both processes together. Our results show that in the context of our study, WordNet made almost no contribution to the enhancement of recall, while expansion with the inflectional variants turned out to be a successful and essential scheme. For the refinement section, the results show that the proximity check on the alternative phrases formed after inflectional expansion can effectively increase the precision of the previously acquired return results. We further tested a different scheme ? using sliding window ? of defining target and verification units in the methodology. Our findings show that the structural delimitations (sentences and chapters) outperformed sliding windows. The first scheme was able to achieve consistently desirable results, while the results from the second were inconclusive.

On-the-go users' interaction with mobile devices often requires high visual attention that can overtax limited human resources. For example, while attending information displayed on a mobile device, on-the-go users who are driving a car or walking in the street can easily fail to see a dangerous situation. This dissertation explores the benefits of wearable tactile displays (WTDs) to support eyes-free interaction for on-the-go users. The design and implementation of the WTDs are motivated by two principles in mobile user interaction that have been proven both commercially and academically: wristwatch interfaces that reduce the time for device acquisition and tactile interfaces that eliminate the need for visual attention. In this dissertation, I present three phases of design iteration on WTDs to provide the design rationale and challenges. The result of the iterative design is evaluated through in-depth formal investigations with novice users in two experiments: user perception of the tactile stimuli and information throughput in association with multiple tactile parameters, and perception of the tactile stimuli and information throughput when the user is visually distracted. The first experiment explores general human capabilities in perceiving tactile stimuli on the wrist. It reveals that subjects could discriminate 24 tactile patterns with 98% accuracy after 40 minutes of training. Of the four parameters (intensity, starting point, rhythm, direction) that were configured to design the 24 patterns, intensity was the most difficult parameter to distinguish, and temporal variation was the easiest. The second experiment explores users' abilities to perceive incoming alerts from two mobile devices (WTD and mobile phone) with and without visual distraction. The second experiment reveals that when the user was distracted visually, reaction time to perceive the incoming alerts became slower with the mobile phone alert but not with the WTD.

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Dans cette thèse nous essayons de fixer un cadre au problème de la synthèse d'une langue. Quelques réalisations pratiques donnerons un aperçu des résultats obtenus, et nous préciserons les phases qui nécessitent une étude plus approfondie

Nous nous intéressons à des protocoles de communications globales portant sur les graphes connexes. Dans une première partie, nous considérons le cas de l'échange total. Le Temps Minimum d'Echange Total (T.M.E.T.) est le nombre minimum d'étapes nécessaires pour que tous les sommets reçoivent tous les messages. Nous établissons des nouvelles bornes (inférieures et supérieures) sur le T.M.E.T. Nous déterminons le T.M.E.T des arbres et plus généralement des graphes de degré minimum un. Nous démontrons une conjecture de Bermond, Kodate, Marlin et Perennes sur les points fixes d'une rotation complète de certaines grilles toriques, ce qui permet de déduire l'optimalité de leur T.M.E.T. Nous montrons aussi que le T.M.E.T d'un graphe orienté de de Bruijn est optimal. Dans une seconde partie, nous considérons la problème classique de la diffusion. Nous déterminons une nouvelle borne supérieure sur le temps de diffusion d'in graphe non orienté en fonction de sa connectivité. Nous caractérisons certains graphes dont le numéro de couplage est égal au degré minimum et déterminons leur temps de diffusion. Nous donnons des résultats nouveaux sur la diffusion dans les graphes de de Bruijn. Dans la dernière partie, nous donnons des résultats originaux sur le nombre de stabilité d'un graphe de de Bruijn et plus généralement des graphes représentatifs des arcs. Nous montrons ensuite que la taille minimum d'un graphe de de Bruijn UB est ce qui valide une première conjecture de Bond. Enfin, nous prouvons que le rayon d'un graphe de Kautz est D, ce qui valide une seconde conjecture de Bond. ( d ,D ) d 1, - 2 UK( ,D )

De nos jours, l'importance sans cesse croissante des masses de données conduit les <br />décideurs de divers domaines à faire appel aux techniques d'Extraction de Connaissances <br />à partir des Données (ECD). L'une des étapes principales de ce processus est la fouille <br />de données. Or, interpréter les résultats issus de ces méthodes de fouille de données, <br />en particulier pour les méthodes de classication automatique, reste complexe pour les <br />utilisateurs. Ce qui rend indispensable l'utilisation d'une nouvelle approche permettant <br />d'aider les utilisateurs à interpréter automatiquement leurs résultats. Ainsi, nous propo- <br />sons une nouvelle approche, appelée AIMFD (Approche d'Incorporation de Métadonnées <br />dans la Fouille de Données) qui se résume principalement à intégrer des informations <br />sémantiques (métadonnées) permettant d'aider les utilisateurs à interpréter de manière <br />automatique les résultats des méthodes de fouille de données. Nous appliquons cette ap- <br />proche au domaine de la classication automatique.

Univ., Diss.--Saarbrücken, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2009. / Title from title screen (viewed November 5, 2009). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Information Technologies in the the Faculty of Engineering & Information Technologies. Degree awarded 2009; thesis submitted 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-215). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.