waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
advisory systems for pro se litigants  increasing numbers of litigants represent themselves in court. advisory systems designed to help litigants understand the available legal remedies and satisfy the substantive and procedural requirements to obtain those remedies have the potential to assist these litigants and thereby reduce the burden that they impose on the courts. this paper presents a four-component model of advisory systems for prose litigants. this model was implemented in the protection order advisory (poa), an advisory system for pro se protection order applicants, poa illustrates how existing inference, document-drafting, and interface-design techniques can be used to construct advisory systems for pro se litigants in a wide range of legal domains for which (1) determining whether a prima facie case is satisfied does not require open-textured reasoning, and (2) the documents required to initiate an action are characterized by homogeneity and simple structure.  l. karl branting
using background knowledge to speed reinforcement learning in physical agents  this paper describes icarus, an agent architecture that embeds a hierarchical reinforcement learning algorithm within a language for specifying agent behavior. an icarus program expresses an approximately correct theory about how to behave with options at varying levels of detail, while the icarus agent determines the best options by learning from experience. we describe icarus and its learning algorithm, then report on two experiments in a vehicle control domain. the first examines the benefit of new distinctions about state, whereas the second explores the impact of added plan structure. we show that background knowledge increases learning rate and asymptotic performance, and decreases plan size by three orders of magnitude, relative to the typical formulation of the learning problem in our test domain.  daniel shapiro pat langley ross shachter
a proposal for adding reality to expert systems  human reasoning involves much more than just "true" and "false"; we use degrees of truth. for example, i am reasonably sure that telepathy is impossible, but i am not certain. expressing "reasonably certain" is easy in fuzzy logic, but is impossible in traditional logic --- either i believe telepathy possible or not possible. traditional logic is a forced choice system whereas fuzzy logic is not.  since uncertainty of information in the knowledge base leads to uncertainty in the conclusions, the inference engine must be able to analyze the transmission of uncertainty from premises to conclusions. this uncertainty should be understandable to the user. we have before us an excellent example of acting via computer, assuming certainty, with the 500 point dow jones drop on october 19, 1987. had fuzzy logic been built into these trading programs, there might not have been such a panic, although neither human stupidity nor greed can be underestimated.  without some method, based on a sound methodology, to deal with uncertainty, we can expect more "black mondays", whether it is in the space program, or banking, or the stock market, etc. it is the belief of the author fuzzy logic can lead the way.  t. f. higginbotham
a simulation model and analysis: integrating agv's with non-automated material handling  companies that integrate old and new technologies need analysis methods with complex logic to evaluate the resulting system, making simulation a primary analysis tool. this paper presents the logic for a general purpose simulation model representing an automatic guided vehicle (agv) system integrated with traditional material handling equipment. to accurately represent type of system, logic includes vehicle loading/unloading and conventional equipment passing capability. the model's flexibility accommodates any combination of straight aisles and intersections through minor adjustments to the general model. the logic concepts are implemented using the siman simulation language. an application is presented which demonstrates using the model to analyze the impact of interfacing agv and traditional traffic upon aisle congestion and overall system performance.  catherine m. harmonosky randall p. sadowskl
special session on effective information presentation techniques  are computer graphics displays as effective as they should be? are they as appealing as they could be? how can displays of information acquire more impact? how can they be made more memorable. questions like these are being asked frequently in the computer graphics community.  because of advanced display equipment, lower costs, effective communication networks, and increasingly sophisticated user groups, computer graphics is entering a new stage in its development. visualized information will reach more people in this decade than ever before. computer graphics displays will become centrally involved with concept formation and decision making on a mass scale. for this reason computer graphics systems should incorporate more successfully the knowledge of visual communication professionals who have developed valid, effective principles for conveying facts and concepts through typography, color, symbols, motion, photography, etc.  aaron marcus mervyn kurlansky susan marcus jack reineck gay reineck
hardware support for adaptive subdivision surface rendering  adaptive subdivision of triangular meshes is highly desirable for surface generation algorithms including adaptive displacement mapping in which a highly detailed model can be constructed from a coarse triangle mesh and a displacement map. the communication requirements between the cpu and the graphics pipeline can be reduced if more detailed and complex surfaces are generated, as in displacement mapping, by an adaptive tessellation unit which is part of the graphics pipeline. generating subdivision surfaces requires a large amount of memory in whicmultiple arbitrary accesses are required to neighbouring vertices to calculate the new vertices. in this paper we present a meshing scheme and new architecture for the implementation of adaptive subdivision of triangular meshes that allows for quick access using a small memory making it feasible in hardware, while at the same time allowing for new vertices to be adaptively inserted. the architecutre is regular and characterized by an efficient data management that minimizes the data storage and avoids the wait cycles that would be associated with the multiple data accesses required for traditional subdivision. this architecture is presented as an improvement for adaptive displacement mapping algorithms, but could also be used for adaptive subdivision surface generation in hardware.  m. bóo m. amor m. doggett j. hirche w. strasser
modeling acoustics in virtual environments using the uniform theory of diffraction  realistic modeling of reverberant sound in 3d virtual worlds provides users with important cues for localizing sound sources and understanding spatial properties of the environment. unfortunately, current geometric acoustic modeling systems do not accurately simulate reverberant sound. instead, they model only direct transmission and specular reflection, while diffraction is either ignored or modeled through statistical approximation. however, diffraction is important for correct interpretation of acoustic environments, especially when the direct path between sound source and receiver is occluded.  the uniform theory of diffraction (utd) extends geometrical acoustics with diffraction phenomena: illuminated edges become secondary sources of diffracted rays that in turn may propagate through the environment. in this paper, we propose an efficient way for computing the acoustical effect of diffraction paths using the utd for deriving secondary diffracted rays and associated diffraction coefficients. our main contributions are: 1) a beam tracing method for enumerating sequences of diffracting edges efficiently and without aliasing in densely occluded polyhedral environments; 2) a practical approximation to the simulated sound field in which diffraction is considered only in shadow regions; and 3) a real-time auralization system demonstrating that diffraction dramatically improves the quality of spatialized sound in virtual environments.  nicolas tsingos thomas funkhouser addy ngan ingrid carlbom
document preparation by an experimental text and facsimile integrated workstation  since '78, an experimental workstation has been built up [1 to 5] at the siemens central research laboratories at munich which allows composing, filing, and transmission of illustrated office documents, offering to the user's disposal the following packet of facilities we expect to become standard in the future "paperless" office.  we decided to design a system model in order to verify this conception by experiment. the result of this design is an assembly of function modules, which, in the general, correspond to peripherals, linked by a local network (scope fig. 1):  • dialog screen  • document screen  • keyboard, for text input  • tablet, for window control, menu selection, graphics and handprint input  • printer, for printout of unformatted or formatted text, graphics, and images  • scanner, for facsimile input of black & white as well as 6gray-level images, optionally to by integrated with printer into an intelligent copier  • harddisk, for system software and temporary storage of user files  • floppy, for backup, transport and letter mail  • transceiver, for remote connection.  any of these peripherals can, if required, be duplicated for time sharing users, or for increased performance. since an essential feature of our system conception is the integration of text and facsimile facilities, we defined the name textfax which stands as well for the above conception as for the experimental system we are now going to discuss in detail.  wolfgang harak wolfgang postl
animating facial expressions  recognition and simulation of actions performable on rigidly-jointed actors such as human bodies have been the subject of our research for some time. one part of an ongoing effort towards a total human movement simulator is to develop a system to perform the actions of american sign language (asl). however, one of the "channels" of asl communication, the face, presents problems which are not well handled by a rigid model.  an integrated system for an internal representation and simulation of the face is presented, along with a proposed image analysis model. results from an implementation of the internal model and simulation modules are presented, as well as comments on the future of computer controlled recognition of facial actions.  we conclude with a discussion on extensions of the system, covering relations between flexible masses and rigid (jointed) ones. applications of this theory into constrained actions, such as across rigid nonmoving sheets of bone (forehead, eyes) are also discussed.  stephen m. platt norman i. badler
oopm/rt: a multimodeling methodology for real-time simulation  when we build a model of real-time systems, we need ways of representing the knowledge about the system and also time requirements for simulating the model. considering these different needs, our question is "how can we determine the optimal model that simulates the system by a given deadline while still producing valid outputs at an acceptable level of detail?" we have designed oopm/rt (object-oriented physical modeler for real-time simulation) methodology. the oopm/rt framework has three phases: (1) generation of multimodels in oopm using both structural and behavioral abstraction techniques, (2) generation of at (abstraction tree) which organizes the multimodels based on the abstraction relationship to facilitate the optimal model selection process, and (3) selection of the optimal model that guarantees the deliver simulation results by the given amount of time. a more- detailed model (low abstraction model) is selected when we have enough time to simulate, while a less-detailed model (high abstraction model) is selected when the deadline is immediate. the basic idea of selection is to trade structural information for a faster runtime while minimizing the loss of behavioral information. we propose two possible approaches for the selection: an integer-programming-based approach and a search-based approach. by systematically handling simulation deadlines while minimizing the modeler's interventions, oopm/rt provides an efficient modeling environment for real- time systems.  kangsun lee paul a. fishwick
improving human computer interaction in a classroom environment using computer vision  in this paper we discuss our use of multi-modal input to improve human computer interaction. specifically we look at the methods used in the intelligent classroom to combine multiple input modes, and examine in particular the visual input modes. the classroom provides context that improves the functioning of the visual input modes. it also determines which visual input modes are needed when. we examine a number of visual input modes to see how they fit into the general scheme, and look at how the classroom controls their operation.  joshua flachsbart david franklin kristian hammond
simulation methodology: lessons of the past, challenges for the future  this panel discussion is patterned after a similar session held at the recent annual meeting of the society for general systems research, held in detroit (may, 1983). the objective of that panel session was to raise the level of awareness of systems researchers regarding the role of modelling and simulation as a key tool in systems methodologies. audience reaction to the session was intense and generated much debate. consequently, the idea arose of presenting a matching version to the simulation community. it will be interesting to compare reactions emerging from the different perspectives of systems research and simulation modelling practice. for interested readers, the panel contributions are being expanded and deepened by the authors to take the form of articles for publication in the post proceedings of the detroit sgsr meeting and the journal behavioral science.  the current panel discussion aims to examine the methodology of current practice, and from this base, go on to point out the challenges that lie in the near and long term future. the session will consist of an integrated sequence of presentations by simulation methodologists. beginning with problems and approaches in contemporary large- scale simulation modelling, it will move onto more ambitious computer- supported methodologies under development.  bernard p. zeigler
the quickhull algorithm for convex hulls  the convex hull of a set of points is the smallest convex set that contains the points. this article presents a practial convex hull algorithm that combines the two-dimensional quickhull algorithm with the general-dimension beneath-beyond algorithm. it is similar to the randomized, incremental algorithms for convex hull and delaunay triangulation. we provide empirical evidence that the algorithm runs faster when the input contains nonextreme points and that it used less memory. computational geometry algorithms have traditionally assumed that input sets are well behaved. when an algorithm is implemented with floating-point arithmetic, this assumption can lead to serous errors. we briefly describe a solution to this problem when computing the convex hull in two, three, or four dimensions. the output is a set of "thick" facets that contain all possible exact convex hulls of the input. a variation is effective in five or more dimensions.  c. bradford barber david p. dobkin hannu huhdanpaa
ice - intelligent computer explanation (abstract only)  to quote a popular advertisement: "of the 235 million people in america, only a fraction can use a computer." on-line help systems can transfer needed information to those people and to experienced users as well. this paper surveys existing help systems, examining:  the kind of help provided: e.g., documentation, debugging assistance, tutorial assistance, spelling checking.  the method of communication used: e.g., menus, canned text, natural language, graphics.  the intelligence of the help system: e.g., what it knows about the user or about problem solving.  the form of knowledge representation used.  the inference mechanisms used.  the form of knowledge acquisition used.  in particular, a new design for intelligent computer explanation will be described.  margaret christensen
atlas supplement to the 1972 county and city data book  a series of maps presenting the spatial distribution of the tabular data from the 1972 county and city data book is discussed. using an automated mapping procedure developed on a minicomputer by two non-computer scientists, 196 choropleth maps of county-level data for the state of washington were prepared. the maps provide governmental decision- makers and planners a means to quickly comprehend patterns in the data that are not readily noticeable in the tabular presentation of the data.  lucky m. tedrow eugene a. hoerauf
a reinforcement learning model of selective visual attention  this paper proposes a model of selective attention for visual search tasks, based on a framework for sequential decision-making. the model is implemented using a fixed pan-tilt-zoom camera in a visually cluttered lab environment, which samples the environment at discrete time steps. the agent has to decide where to fixate next based purely on visual information, in order to reach the region where a target object is most likely to be found. the model consists of two interacting modules. a reinforcement learning module learns a policy on a set of regions in the room for reaching the target object, using as objective function the expected value of the sum of discounted rewards. by selecting an appropriate gaze direction at each step, this module provides top-down control in the selection of the next fixation point. the second module performs "within fixation" processing, based exclusively on visual information. its purpose is twofold: to provide the agent with a set of locations of interest in the current image, and to perform the detection and identification of the target object. detailed experimental results show that the number of saccades to a target object significantly decreases with the number of training epochs. the results also show the learned policy to find the target object is invariant to small physical displacements as well as object inversion.  silviu minut sridhar mahadevan
expert dictionaries: knowledge based tools for explanation and maintenance of complex application environments  the paper describes a new type of tool, which has been defined to support complex applications (such as the ones typically found in office environments). the relevant features of this tool are the following:  it collects "domain" (also called "deep") knowledge (relevant for the application domain), and uses it to explain the application "behaviour", either automated or not  it makes use of an extensional representation of the domain knowledge based on hypertexts  it can support the activity of maintenance (of the application) and of training (to understand how the application works). we have chosen for the tool the name "expert dictionary". a first implementation of this tool for a specific application target (document generation) has been carried on with hypertalk, the programming language of hypercard.  franca garzotto paolo paolini
an efficient data structure for random walk algorithms in faceted porous media  modern x-ray computerized micro-tomography (cmt) facilities allow researchers interested in composite materials and porous media to image their samples in 3d with micrometer resolution. the datasets obtained for representative samples are frequently very large (10243 voxels in gray-scale levels). performing a tessellation on such datasets would produce hundreds millions facets, which would be impossible to handle in memory on rather powerful computers.  various numerical methods are classical for the prediction of some effective properties of porous and other composite media from the phase properties and the micro- structure (diffusivities, conductivities). the choice of a monte- carlo random walk scheme is justified by its minimal memory cost in addition to image storage. in order to employ it, one must be able to perform ray- tracing in large and precise 3d images. the new framework we present allows that feature by using a memory-sparing data structure dedicated to such algorithms.  we only store in memory the vertices provided by the marching cube algorithm. so, since the facets are not stored, the needed memory size is divided by a factor of five, without any significant increasing of the computation time: the extraction of properties from very large micro- porous media samples is now possible.  this study allows us to claim that a simulation making an intensive use of ray-tracing in tessellated media obtained with the marching-cube algorithm is not as expensive (in terms of memory and time cost) as it could seem. we show that the marching-cube algorithm, when it is used dynamically to connect vertices upon request, is still a very powerful mesh generator since it consumes then very few memory, and that it can be trivially implemented.  jean- françois delesse bertrand le sa gerard vignoles
computer aided cinematography techniques for model validation  graphical display is a tool for visualizing patterns through quantification of dimensions or parameters that may not be observable by tabular methods. this paper focuses on graphical display where greater than 2 dimensions or parameters are being iteratively evaluated. the specific techniques included in this paper are: (1) two-dimensional plotting of hydrologic flow, with time as a third dimension; (2) three- dimensional plotting of vegetational biomass on a landscape coordinate system; and (3) three-dimensional plotting of carbon monoxide concentrations in a coal gasification facility versus hour-of-day and location with sequential plotting of each day for an extended time period. each of these examples of cinematography illustrates patterns in data with time- or space-varying parameters. specific statistical parameters such as the coefficient variation have been used to idenitfy potential patterns of interest. graphic cinematography is useful for (a) recognition of pattern where a single two- dimensional or three-dimensional display fails to reveal important features, (b) rapid review of data, (c) easy display of various combinations of parameters, and (d) evaluations of large volume temporal data.  m. e. vansuch r. h. strand m. p. farrell
interactive computer modelling of truck/shovel operations in an open-pit mine  an interactive computer model of truck/shovel operations in an open- pit copper mine has been developed to aid in the design and evaluation of a computer-based truck dispatching system. interactive features include computer graphics and alphanumeric displays of on-going simulation results and a facility for user command entry. these interactive features allow the model user to act as the decision maker during simulation experiments. a non- interactive option allows execution of high speed simulation experiments with no displays and with automatic decision making.  l. k. nenonen p. w.u. graefe a. w. chan
cutting legal loops  riverrun, past eve and adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to howth castle and enviorns.  *****  a way a lone a last a loved a long the joyce, finnegans wake 1, 628 (1955)  recursion is the act of defining an object or solving a problem in terms of itself. a careless recursion can lead to an infinite regress. we avoid the bottomless circularity inherent in this tactic by demanding that the recursion be stated in terms of some "simpler" object, and by providing the definition or solution of some trivial base case. properly used, recursion is a powerful problem solving technique, both in artificial domains like mathematics and computer programming, and in real life. friedman & felleisen,  the little lisper ix (1986)  d. h. berman