Research is concerned with communication of design thinking, from the perspective of a designer, and in relation to the process, product, and user experience of design. It is a study of the act of persuasion within the processof a designer’s thinking, and is concerned with interpretation of the relation between words and images. The role of technology, intuition, and visual thinking are identified as three key components of design thought, and the way these three constituent parts inter-relate is the subject matter of inquiry. Research is conducted from a theoretical and practical perspective, and throughout the inquiry, a balance between subjective and objective informationis retained. An essentially holistic approach to understanding the designer’s decision-making process is adopted, and as such, the research does not separate the act of thinking from the act of doing. The inquiry concentrates on exposing the tacit dialogue of a designer througha series of five discourses. Each discourse begins with a preface, a contextual statement that frames the line of inquiry. The first discourse introduces the research methodology; discourse two reviews the literature surrounding communication of design thinking, and observes the design process through documentation and communication of 97 examples; discourse three interviews five professional designers and listens to how they visually communicate the physical and emotional experience of being a designer; discourse four questions a designer’s tacit understanding of visual thinking and exposes the surrounding assumptions, and the fifth discourse closes this inquiry by communicating the activity of rhetoric, describing rhetoric as the relation and inter-relation between the implicit and explicit processes of looking, listening and questioning. The visual methodology provides a context that allows the designer’s qualitiesof judgement and experience to become subjects in themselves. Each discourse attends to the unfolding nature of a network of relationships that developed amongst the roles of intuition, visual thinking and technology. In doing so, the inquiry proposes to contribute to knowledge by: communicating the significance of visual thinking as a methodology for doctoral design research; the role of computer technology as a tool for looking, listening and questioning the activityof rhetoric; intuition as a facilitator of rhetoric and rhetoric as an interrogator of intuition.

Masters of Science / Plant genome analysis is currently experiencing a boost due to reduced costs associated with the development of next generation sequencing technologies. Knowledge on genetic background can be applied to guide targeted plant selection and breeding, and to facilitate natural product discovery and biological engineering. In medicinal plants, secondary metabolites are of particular interest because they often represent the main active ingredients associated with health-promoting qualities. Plant polyphenols are a highly diverse family of aromatic secondary metabolites that act as antimicrobial agents, UV protectants, and insect or herbivore repellents. Most of the genome mining tools developed to understand genetic materials have very seldom addressed secondary metabolite genes and biosynthesis pathways. Little significant research has been conducted to study key enzyme factors that can predict a class of secondary metabolite genes from polyketide synthases. The objectives of this study were twofold: Primarily, it aimed to identify the biological properties of secondary metabolite genes and the selection of a specific gene, naringenin-chalcone synthase or chalcone synthase (CHS). The study hypothesized that data science approaches in mining biological data, particularly secondary metabolite genes, would enable the compulsory disclosure of some aspects of secondary metabolite (SM). Secondarily, the aim was to propose a proof of concept for classifying or predicting plant genes involved in polyphenol biosynthesis from data science techniques and convey these techniques in computational analysis through machine learning algorithms and mathematical and statistical approaches. Three specific challenges experienced while analysing secondary metabolite datasets were: 1) class imbalance, which refers to lack of proportionality among protein sequence classes; 2) high dimensionality, which alludes to a phenomenon feature space that arises when analysing bioinformatics datasets; and 3) the difference in protein sequences lengths, which alludes to a phenomenon that protein sequences have different lengths. Considering these inherent issues, developing precise classification models and statistical models proves a challenge. Therefore, the prerequisite for effective SM plant gene mining is dedicated data science techniques that can collect, prepare and analyse SM genes.

Through eye tracking technology, scientists have explored the eyes diverse aspects and capabilities. There are many potential applications that benefit from eye tracking. Each benefit from advances in computer technology as this results in improved quality and decreased costs for eye-tracking systems.This thesis presents a computer vision-based eye tracking system for human computer interaction. The eye tracking system allows the user to indicate a region of interest in a large data space and to magnify that area, without using traditional pointer devices. Presented is an iris tracking algorithm adapted from Camshift; an algorithm originally designed for face or hand tracking. Although the iris is much smaller and highly dynamic. the modified Camshift algorithm efficiently tracks the iris in real-time. Also presented is a method to map the iris centroid, in video coordinates to screen coordinates; and two novel calibration techniques, four point and one-point calibration. Results presented show that the accuracy for the proposed one-point calibration technique exceeds the accuracy obtained from calibrating with four points. The innovation behind the one-point calibration comes from using observed eye scanning behaviour to constrain the calibration process. Lastly, the thesis proposes a non-linear visualisation as an eye-tracking application, along with an implementation.

This project explores systematic strategies for establishing a definitive mode of representation in drawing. These strategies are considered in the context of the subjectivities and contingencies of perceptual experience, the mediation of that experience and inherent limitations in representational language. The aim is to explore the possibilities of constructing two-dimensional artworks which serve to define or investigate perceptual processes, perspective devices and spatial relationships.

Innovative improvements in the area of Human-Computer Interaction and User Interfaces have en-abled intuitive and effective applications for a variety of problems. On the other hand, there has also been the realization that several real-world optimization problems still cannot be totally auto-mated. Very often, user interaction is necessary for refining the optimization problem, managing the computational resources available, or validating or adjusting a computer-generated solution. This thesis investigates how humans can help optimization methods to solve such difficult prob-lems. It presents an interactive framework where users play a dynamic and important role by pro-viding hints. Hints are actions that help to insert domain knowledge, to escape from local minima, to reduce the space of solutions to be explored, or to avoid ambiguity when there is more than one optimal solution. Examples of user hints are adjustments of constraints and of an objective function, focusing automatic methods on a subproblem of higher importance, and manual changes of an ex-isting solution. User hints are given in an intuitive way through a graphical interface. Visualization tools are also included in order to inform about the state of the optimization process. We apply the User Hints framework to three combinatorial optimization problems: Graph Clus-tering, Graph Drawing and Map Labeling. Prototype systems are presented and evaluated for each problem. The results of the study indicate that optimization processes can benefit from human interaction. The main goal of this thesis is to list cases where human interaction is helpful, and provide an ar-chitecture for supporting interactive optimization. Our contributions include the general User Hints framework and particular implementations of it for each optimization problem. We also present a general process, with guidelines, for applying our framework to other optimization problems.

This thesis explores the notion of identity dilemma and its visualisation in the context of New Zealand Chinese immigration. It focuses on interpreting and visualising New Zealand Chinese immigrants’ thoughts and feelings and their struggle to adapt to the environment as well as their ambivalent negotiation to balance their in-between identity of being a New Zealander (Westerner) and Chinese. It is a practice-based project and is presented by means of photography, with illustration as the supporting medium. The predicament of identity is explored through interviewing members of the New Zealand Chinese community. A semi-constructed interview is designed and introduced to canvass 20 Chinese participants’ opinions of their cultural beliefs and sense of belonging in a Western society. The data is collected and analysed to investigate the informants’ thoughts and feelings in their daily routine in a multicultural community. I, as an art and design practitioner, visually interpret and transcend my opinion of identity dilemma of Chinese immigrants into my practical works. The participants’ thoughts and feelings are transferred into my artwork through creating patterns of visual elements. Employing a heuristic visual research method, my explorative work attempts to transfer social research findings of the idea of identity dilemma into my artwork for initiating contemporary visual discourse.

Aujourd'hui le téléphone portable est un outil multifonction qui sert à communiquer, s'informer, interagir, dans des contextes variés comme au domicile, dans la rue ou les transports. Cependant, le développement de nouvelles fonctionnalités est fortement contraint par les limitations de l'interface homme-machine (petit écran, clavier physique réduit ou absent, interaction à une main). L'amélioration de l'interface de ces dispositifs constitue donc un enjeu scientifique et industriel majeur comme nous le montre l'exemple de l'iPhone. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans ce contexte. Elle étudie tout d'abord les contraintes spécifiques aux dispositifs mobiles puis classe les techniques de l'état de l'art et les solutions qu'elles apportent pour répondre aux contraintes précédemment identifiées. Elle propose ensuite cinq nouvelles techniques d'interaction qui visent à résoudre des problèmes non entièrement résolus. TapTap et MagStick sont deux techniques qui répondent au problème de la sélection de petites cibles au pouce sur un écran tactile. Les claviers physiques étant souvent absents sur dispositifs mobiles, le LeafMenu augmente les menus linéaires en permettant de les activer via des raccourcis gestuels. Les MicroRolls proposent d'enrichir la bande passante interactionnelle des dispositifs mobiles au moyen de gestes de roulement du pouce. Ces gestes, différentiables des gestes de glissement habituels grâce à leur forme caractéristique, permettent d'augmenter le vocabulaire d'entrée des écrans tactiles, par exemple pour activer efficacement des commandes très fréquentes. Enfin la dernière contribution de cette thèse, propose d'utiliser les gestes en trois dimensions comme autre moyen d'enrichir le vocabulaire d'entrée. Elle est illustrée par TimeTilt, une technique combinant des gestes fluides et impulsifs pour faciliter la navigation entre plusieurs vues.

La visualisation d'objets et de scènes de grande taille est un des dé s de la visualisation par ordinateur, particulièrement dans le cadre d'applications interactives. Celles-ci re- quièrent deux qualités: une vitesse de l'ordre de 30 images par seconde dans le but de donner une impression de temps-réel et la qualité. En e et, des images réalistes sont de plus en plus considérées comme une condition essentielle, notamment en ce qui concerne les simulateurs. Ainsi est-il communément reconnu que l'industrie pétrolière est pourvoyeuse de don- nées de grande taille. Ces données sont également caractérisées par la grande diversitée des objets et des scènes utilisés: terrains, données géologiques volumiques (sismique 3D), données SIG (Systèmes d'Information Géographique), modèles d'ingénierie complexes (plateformes, ra neries), puits de forages, oléoducs et gazoducs. En outre, des informa- tions additionnelles sont souvent attachées à tous ces éléments: annotations, identi ca- tions, descriptions techniques, et conditions instantanées. Parmi tous ces objets, deux grandes familles peuvent être distingués: les objets na- turels et les objets manufacturés. Malgré cette classi cation, tous les objets sont com- munément représentes par des maillages triangulés. De nombreuses raisons expliquent ce choix du triangle comme base de la représentation des primitives géométriques: tout ob- jet peut être discrétisé en un maillage triangulaire; tout polygone peut se décomposer en un ensemble de triangles; les points d'un triangle sont toujours coplanaires; les triangles sont toujours convexes; les coordonnées barycentriques peuvent toujours être utilisées comme règle non-ambiguë d'interpolation de valeurs attachées au point dans le domaine du triangle; de plus, les cartes graphiques sont spécialisées dans la 'rasterisation' des triangles. Cependant, le choix d'un maillage triangulé ne s'avère pas toujours judicieux, à la fois pour des questions de performance et de qualité de rendu des images. La thèse apporte deux contributions principales: * un algorithme pour récupérer des primitives géométriques implicites à partir d'une base de données maillée * un algorithme de rendu qui emploie directement les équations des primitives géométriques implicites (ex: cylindres, cônes et tores), pour éviter leur triangulation

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>In the past decade, the construction industry has been identified to be among the industries that are lagging in the application of modern information and communication technology as tools to enhance project performance. Where this technology has been applied, little has been done to meet up with the pace of advancements in information and communication technology.</p><p>This research looks at the extent to which information and communication technology (ICT) tools have being integrated for project enhancement in a major railway construction project. Most precisely, it looks at how ICT tools have affected communication and collaborative processes in the context of the soft skills processes and the hard skills processes. Enormous literature in this field of study was reviewed to set the base upon which to make the investigation. Findings show that ICT tools have been integrated just to a limited extent on the project which still used traditional management and project communication methods.; and there was room for integration of better tools as project participants were aware of some of these ICT tools that can enhance the performance of the project. Finally, an ICT infrastructure that encompasses all aspects of the project environment and the entire project lifecycle is proposed. This infrastructure enhances project performance by integrating all project stakeholders in the process of knowledge sharing and use in the project. The research also determines that most project organisations would refrain from integrating certain kinds of project enhancement tools because of he cost obtaining them as well as the cost to train employees on their usage.</p>

La puissance de calcul disponible poursuit sa progression exponentielle mais en offrant plus de parallélisme. Cette progression de la puissance disponible peut être mise à profit pour rendre interactifs certains calculs. La structure et les objectifs de l'application diffèrent alors sensiblement de ceux du calcul intensif traditionnel. Le rôle de l'utilisateur devient central. Il motive le recours à des périphériques d'entrée et sortie avancés, impose des contraintes de cohérence, de latence, de fréquence. Nous présentons les résultats de nos travaux sur ce thème du calcul interactif haute performance. Nous abordons les problèmes de rendu graphique haute performance en environnement multi-projecteurs, de la conception d'un intergiciel adapté à ce type d'application, ainsi que de la reconstruction interactive 3D multi-caméras. Ces recherches ont donné lieu à la suite logicielle FlowVR et au développement d'applications interactives ambitieuses sur la plate-forme Grimage.