CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id sigradi2008_049
id sigradi2008_049
authors Benamy, Turkienicz ; Beck Mateus, Mayer Rosirene
year 2008
title Computing And Manipulation In Design - A Pedagogical Experience Using Symmetry
source SIGraDi 2008 - [Proceedings of the 12th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] La Habana - Cuba 1-5 December 2008
summary The concept of symmetry has been usually restricted to bilateral symmetry, though in an extended sense it refers to any isometric transformation that maintains a certain shape invariant. Groups of operations such as translation, rotation, reflection and combinations of these originate patterns classified by modern mathematics as point groups, friezes and wallpapers (March and Steadman, 1974). This extended notion represents a tool for the recognition and reproduction of patterns, a primal aspect of the perception, comprehension and description of everything that we see. Another aspect of this process is the perception of shapes, primary and emergent. Primary shapes are the ones explicitly represented and emergent shapes are the ones implicit in the others (Gero and Yan, 1994). Some groups of shapes known as Semantic Shapes are especially meaningful in architecture, expressing visual features so as symmetry, rhythm, movement and balance. The extended understanding of the concept of symmetry might improve the development of cognitive abilities concerning the creation, recognition and meaning of forms and shapes, aspects of visual reasoning involved in the design process. This paper discusses the development of a pedagogical experience concerned with the application of the concept of symmetry in the creative generation of forms using computational tools and manipulation. The experience has been carried out since 1995 with 3rd year architectural design students. For the exploration of compositions based on symmetry operations with computational support we followed a method developed by Celani (2003) comprising the automatic generation and update of symmetry patterns using AutoCAD. The exercises with computational support were combined with other different exercises in each semester. The first approach combined the creation of two-dimensional patterns to their application and to their modeling into three-dimensions. The second approach combined the work with computational support with work with physical models and mirrors and the analysis of the created patterns. And the third approach combined the computational tasks with work with two-dimensional physical shapes and mirrors. The student’s work was analyzed under aspects such as Discretion/ Continuity –the creation of isolated groups of shapes or continuous overlapped patterns; Generation of Meta-Shapes –the emergence of new shapes from the geometrical relation between the generative shape and the structure of the symmetrical arrangement; Modes of Representation –the visual aspects of the generative shape such as color and shading; Visual Reasoning –the derivation of 3D compositions from 2D patterns by their progressive analysis and recognition; Conscious Interaction –the simultaneous creation and analysis of symmetry compositions, whether with computational support or with physical shapes and mirrors. The combined work with computational support and with physical models and mirrors enhanced the students understanding on the extended concept of symmetry. The conscious creation and analysis of the patterns also stimulated the student’s understanding over the different semantic possibilities involved in the exploration of forms and shapes in two or three dimensions. The method allowed the development of both syntactic and semantic aspects of visual reasoning, enhancing the students’ visual repertoire. This constitutes an important strategy in the building of the cognitive abilities used in the architectural design process.
keywords Symmetry, Cognition, Computing, Visual reasoning, Design teaching
series SIGRADI
email
last changed 2016/03/10 09:47

_id d7f7
authors Jeng, Hoang-Ell
year 1995
title A Dialogical Model for Participatory Design; A Computational Approach to Group Planning
source Delft University of Technology
summary In participatory design, design concepts are generated collectively through discussion, dialogical interactions, in which the interchange of normative and supporting factual descriptions builds a collective design discourse. The goal of this research is to develop a method for participatory design to support this collective, face-to-face design problem-solving, in order to increase the acceptability of the design product. Since the mid-1960s, there has been an important movement towards increasing the participation of citizens in determining their built environment. At first, the movement was associated with social-political ideologies and rhetoric. By the end of the 1970s, participatory design had become an accepted component of professional practice. The objectives of the movement became more pragmatically and more modestly focused on exchanging practical information, resolving conflicts, and supplementing design. Today, participatory design is in a new phase. Traditional participatory design methods are seen as insufficient to fulfill an increasing demand for dialogue. The point of departure of the study is the assumption that new information technologies can satisfy this demand. The method includes: (1) a group-reasoning model, (2) a dialogical system and (3) a framework for participation-based design guidelines. The group-reasoning model formulates the process of knowledge acquisition, the learning and sharing of belief systems, the generation of design alternatives and design evaluations--by which reasoning takes place dialogically. The dialogical system provides a clear description of how the information should be processed, what aspects should be paid attention to, what results can be anticipated, and when and how to control the process. The framework for participation-based design guidelines guides and structures the design process. It facilitates a reconstruction of the implicit cognitive structure which underlines dialogue and is generated through the discussion of a group.
series thesis:PhD
last changed 2003/02/12 22:37

_id d79e
authors Boerner, Katy
year 1995
title Interactive, Adaptive, Computer-aided Design
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 627-634
summary A general framework of a system that supports building engineering is presented. It accounts for a set of desirable features. Among them are (1) graphical man-machine interaction, (2) high interactivity to facilitate the acquisition of the huge amount of knowledge necessary to support design, (3) incremental knowledge acquisition as the basis for incrementally increasing system support, and (4) adaptability to the tasks which are tackled, the distinctive features of the domain, and user preferences. This paper provides the underlying assumptions and basic approaches of the modules constituting this framework and sketches the current implementation.
keywords Graphical Interfaces, Incremental Knowledge Acquisition, Knowledge Organization, Case-Based Reasoning, Design Prototypes, Analogical Reasoning
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/11/21 15:16

_id 8a1a
authors Burattini, Ernesto
year 1995
title Expert Systems and Hypertext: Can They Work Cooperatively?
source Multimedia and Architectural Disciplines [Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Education in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe / ISBN 0-9523687-1-4] Palermo (Italy) 16-18 November 1995, pp. 315-322
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.315
summary In recent years two technologies, hypertext and expert systems, developed independently each other, drawn researcher´s attention since they seemed good tools to represent the knowledge and the reasoning process performed by human beings. These two technologies, until recently, had not too much intersection between them notwithstanding both were involved in representing the knowledge of experts of some domains and the domains itself. Also in the architecture field some expert systems and many hypertext products have been developed. Starting from some applications developed by our research team, in terms of expert systems and hypertext, we try here to give some suggestions about the possible interactions and the complementary use we may done of them.
series eCAADe
email
more http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_38.htm
last changed 2022/06/07 07:54

_id e201
authors Coulon, Carl-Helmut
year 1995
title Automatic Indexing, Retrieval and Reuse of Topologies in Architectural Layouts
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 577-586
summary Former layouts contain much of the know-how of architects. A generic and automatic way to formalize this know-how in order to use it by a computer would save a lot of effort and money. However, there seems to be no such way. The only access to the know-how are the layouts themselves. Developing a generic software tool to reuse former layouts you cannot consider every part of the architectural domain or things like personal style. Tools used today only consider small parts of the architectural domain. Any personal style is ignored. Isnít it possible to build a basic tool which is adjusted by the content of the former layouts, but maybe extended inclemently by modeling as much of the domain as desirable? This paper will describe a reuse tool to perform this task focusing on topological and geometrical binary relations.
keywords Case-Based Reasoning, Graph Matching, Structural Comparison, Topology
series CAAD Futures
last changed 1999/08/03 17:16

_id a84e
authors De Grassi, Mario and Giretti, Alberto
year 1995
title Applying Formal Methods to Multimedia Design Aid
source Multimedia and Architectural Disciplines [Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Education in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe / ISBN 0-9523687-1-4] Palermo (Italy) 16-18 November 1995, pp. 283-296
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1995.283
summary In the last decade we assisted at an evolution of computer aided design systems from drafting, calculation and simulation utilities toward systems able to support the conceptual phase of the design process. Systems supporting conceptual design use knowledge about the design domain and assume a will defined model of the design activity. Their computational framework is usually built by means of a set of representational schemata which lack a formal semantics. This aspect causes a limitation on the applicability of their computational framework to different domains. In this paper we propose a formal knowledge representation language, that has been defined in order to represent the structural relationships of domain knowledge. On the basis of language structure we propose a number of inferences tailored to case-based conceptual design aiding. Finally we apply the representational framework to the implementation of a computational architecture for conceptual design aiding that integrates multimedia representation of design cases with symbolic information processing. The architecture combines a knowledge representation server and a multimedia server. The knowledge representation server processes both domain knowledge and design experiences according to the Case Based Reasoning paradigm. The multimedia server produces the required case representation.

series eCAADe
more http://dpce.ing.unipa.it/Webshare/Wwwroot/ecaade95/Pag_34.htm
last changed 2022/06/07 07:55

_id 33f3
authors Fujii, Haruyuki
year 1995
title Incorporation of Natural Language Processing and a Generative System - An Interactive System that Constructs Topological Models from Spatial Descriptions in Natural Language
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 205-218
summary The natural language processing technique and the spatial reasoning technique are incorporated to create a computational model representing the process of updating and maintaining the knowledge about spatial relations. An algorithm for the spatial reasoning is proposed. An interactive system that understands sentences describing spatial relations is implemented. The system determines the reference of an anaphoric or deictic expression from the literal meaning of the input and the implicit meaning derived from the literal meaning. The consistency of the spatial relations is maintained. The correct topological representations of the spatial relations are generated from well-formed descriptions.
keywords Natural Language Processing, Discourse Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Architecture, CAD
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

_id 807c
authors Kellett, Ronald
year 1996
title MEDIA MATTERS: NUDGING DIGITAL MEDIA INTO A MANUAL DESIGN PROCESS (AND VICE VERSA)
source Design Computation: Collaboration, Reasoning, Pedagogy [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-05-5] Tucson (Arizona / USA) October 31 - November 2, 1996, pp. 31-43
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1996.031
summary This paper reports on a media class offered during the 1995-96 academic year at the University of Oregon. This course, a renovation of an existing 'manual' media offering targeted intermediate Ievel graduate and undergraduate students who, while relatively experienced design students, were relatively inexperienced users of digital media for design. This course maintained a pedagogical emphasis on design process, a point of view that media are powerful influences on design thinking, and an attitude toward experimentation (and reflection) in matters of media and design process. Among the experiments explored were fitting together digital with manual media, and using digital media to collaborate in an electronic workspace. The experience offers opportunity to consider how digital media might be more widely integrated with what remains a predominantly 'manual' design process and media context for many architecture schools and practices.
series ACADIA
type normal paper
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:52

_id 9ec6
authors Maher, M.L., Balachandran, B. and Zhang, D.M.
year 1995
title Case-Based Reasoning in Design
source Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
summary This survey presents a number of issues raised by the application of case-based reasoning for design. The authors comment on the two extremes of case-based design: design assistance and design automation, and how they share a number of difficult issues related to their implementation.
series other
email
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id 1bb0
authors Russell, S. and Norvig, P.
year 1995
title Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
source Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
summary Humankind has given itself the scientific name homo sapiens--man the wise--because our mental capacities are so important to our everyday lives and our sense of self. The field of artificial intelligence, or AI, attempts to understand intelligent entities. Thus, one reason to study it is to learn more about ourselves. But unlike philosophy and psychology, which are also concerned with AI strives to build intelligent entities as well as understand them. Another reason to study AI is that these constructed intelligent entities are interesting and useful in their own right. AI has produced many significant and impressive products even at this early stage in its development. Although no one can predict the future in detail, it is clear that computers with human-level intelligence (or better) would have a huge impact on our everyday lives and on the future course of civilization. AI addresses one of the ultimate puzzles. How is it possible for a slow, tiny brain{brain}, whether biological or electronic, to perceive, understand, predict, and manipulate a world far larger and more complicated than itself? How do we go about making something with those properties? These are hard questions, but unlike the search for faster-than-light travel or an antigravity device, the researcher in AI has solid evidence that the quest is possible. All the researcher has to do is look in the mirror to see an example of an intelligent system. AI is one of the newest disciplines. It was formally initiated in 1956, when the name was coined, although at that point work had been under way for about five years. Along with modern genetics, it is regularly cited as the ``field I would most like to be in'' by scientists in other disciplines. A student in physics might reasonably feel that all the good ideas have already been taken by Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and the rest, and that it takes many years of study before one can contribute new ideas. AI, on the other hand, still has openings for a full-time Einstein. The study of intelligence is also one of the oldest disciplines. For over 2000 years, philosophers have tried to understand how seeing, learning, remembering, and reasoning could, or should, be done. The advent of usable computers in the early 1950s turned the learned but armchair speculation concerning these mental faculties into a real experimental and theoretical discipline. Many felt that the new ``Electronic Super-Brains'' had unlimited potential for intelligence. ``Faster Than Einstein'' was a typical headline. But as well as providing a vehicle for creating artificially intelligent entities, the computer provides a tool for testing theories of intelligence, and many theories failed to withstand the test--a case of ``out of the armchair, into the fire.'' AI has turned out to be more difficult than many at first imagined, and modern ideas are much richer, more subtle, and more interesting as a result. AI currently encompasses a huge variety of subfields, from general-purpose areas such as perception and logical reasoning, to specific tasks such as playing chess, proving mathematical theorems, writing poetry{poetry}, and diagnosing diseases. Often, scientists in other fields move gradually into artificial intelligence, where they find the tools and vocabulary to systematize and automate the intellectual tasks on which they have been working all their lives. Similarly, workers in AI can choose to apply their methods to any area of human intellectual endeavor. In this sense, it is truly a universal field.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id 99a3
authors Schaaf, Joerg W. and Voss, Angi
year 1995
title Retrieval of Similar Layouts in FABEL using AspecT
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 617-626
summary In the FABEL project several approaches have been developed and published for retrieving similar cases in the domain of architectural design. In this paper we want to focus on a short description and foremost on integration of these approaches. We will introduce the most important approaches. As a first step towards integration, we suggest decomposing them into their main parts: representation of cases, similarity function and retrieval component. Using the first two parts each approach in a new search algorithm operating on a generic data structure, we built a shell called AspecT for an easy integration. We are positive that one can never have fully considered all aspects of a design. Therefore, we describe an open framework to define new aspects and to apply them depending on the context. Unfortunately, openness brings some difficulties along with it. One can not predict the importance of an aspect, until the situation assessment of the query is completed. In other words, it is impossible to define a static distribution of aspect weights that fits for all purposes. As a consequence, one can not predefine a static structure on the case base to speed tip retrieval processes. Dealing with this problem, we developed and published a special search algorithm that passes through a multidimensional case base, finding the best fitting cases within a short amount of time. This algorithm does not need any predefined structure on the case base except aspect specific relations between cases. Creativity of inventing new aspects of cases should not be hindered but one can ask whether or not a certain aspect are worth being regarded in searching for useful cases. The shell AspecT offers a tool to evaluate aspects. At first, formal criteria influence the initial weights of aspects but later on, the contribution of an aspect to find user accepted cases, determines the survival fitness of an aspect. The rule for living or dying is simple. Seldom used aspects disappear, whereas others become stronger. A short description regarding this work is given in last part.
keywords Case-Based Reasoning, Retrieval, Integration of Similarity Concepts, Architectural Design
series CAAD Futures
last changed 1999/08/03 17:16

_id ff69
authors Seok, Lee Han, Sik, Park-Chung and Kim, Dae-Gwon
year 1995
title A Knowledge-Based CAAD system with Qualitative Spatial Reasoning Capability
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 359-368
summary Design and creativity go hand in hand. The ability to be creative in design can be enhanced when humans and computers, which both work as information processing systems cooperate in a complementary, integrated manner. Computational systems should play the most essential role in enhancing creativity within human-machine design systems in the future. In this context, we present the concept and architecture of a new integrated CAAD System, AutoNEO, that will support the achievement of creative results. We will focus on the qualitative spatial reasoning capability of AutoNEO, and provide an example of layout design as a case of qualitative spatial reasoning.
keywords Knowledge-Based CAAD System, Qualitative Spatial Reasoning, Design Creativity
series CAAD Futures
last changed 1999/08/03 17:16

_id 09c6
authors Silva, Neander F.
year 1995
title The Use of Hybrid Technology in the construction of an Evolving Knowledge-Base Design System
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 589-598
summary This paper focus in one vital aspect of design computing: the knowledge-base extension and maintenance. It describes a hybrid approach where a rudimentary evolving knowledge-base design system is proposed. It draws inspiration from three areas of artificial intelligence: knowledge-base systems, connectionist models, and case-based reasoning. Its main contributions are: an incremental self-adjustment able to minimise substantially the dependency on knowledge engineer intervention, and an interactive support to innovation.
keywords Precedents, Connectionism, Knowledge-Bases Maintenance, Innovative Design
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

_id aa38
authors Tan, M., Gan, J., Indorf, P., Man, D., Teh, R., Datta, S., Serra, L. and Loo, J.
year 1995
title Multivalent Architectural Case Information for Creative Reasoning
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, pp. 543-554
summary The theoretical underpinnings, practical and technical implementation of a multimedia database to support creative designing is presented through a prototype system which would go on-line in the near future. At the heart of the system is the notion that architectural knowledge is multivalent ñ requiring the means for recombination in new and different ways to support design thinking. The system also attempts to deal with the practical issues of case building, 3D modelling, interface design and technical clarity.
keywords Creativity, Multimedia, Case-Based Reasoning, Computer-Aided Architectural Design, Architectural Database, Visual Database, Virtual Reality.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

_id b633
authors Tan, Milton and Teh, Robert (Eds.)
year 1995
title The Global Design Studio [Conference Proceedings]
source Sixth International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 9971-62-423-0] Singapore, 24-26 September 1995, 779 p.
summary 1995 marks the 10th anniversary of the CAAD Futures series of international conferences which is dedicated to "promoting (...) the advancement of computer-aided architectural design in the service of those concerned with the quality of the built environment". It also marks the first time this important forum is held in Asia; hosted by the School of Architecture, National University of Singapore. This proceedings is a compilation of the sixty nine papers which were selected by an International Review Committee and presented at the conference in Singapore on 24-26 September 1995. The Chapters are organised according to the themes covered by the conference -Electronic Design Media, Environmental Simulation & Decision Support, Generative Systems, Scene and Product Modelling, Virtual Reality, Information Delivery Systems & Geographic Information Systems, Shape Grammar, Recognition & Emergence, Precedence & Prototypes, Case-based Reasoning, and Cooperative Design.
series CAAD Futures
email
last changed 2003/05/16 20:58

_id 4bf6
authors Akin, O. and Lin, C.
year 1995
title Design Protocol data and novel design decisions
source Design Studies, 16 (#2, April), 211-236
summary This work is a part of The Delft Protocols Workshop which is an international gathering of experts on design research. The objective is to study the behaviours of designers using techniques of cognitive psychology in general and protocol analysis in particular. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between visual-graphic data processing and novel design ideas. Several analyses dealing with verbal-conceptual and visual-graphic data have been conducted; and the relationships between design activities and design decisions have been explored. The findings indicate that phases of the design process and the activities correlate with key design decisions.
series journal paper
email
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id caadria2007_659
id caadria2007_659
authors Chen, Zi-Ru
year 2007
title The Combination of Design Media and Design Creativity _ Conventional and Digital Media
source CAADRIA 2007 [Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia] Nanjing (China) 19-21 April 2007
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2007.x.w5x
summary Creativity is always interested in many fields, in particular, creativity and design creativity have many interpretations (Boden, 1991; Gero and Maher, 1992, 1993; Kim, 1990; Sternberg, 1988; Weisberg, 1986). In early conceptual design process, designers used large number of sketches and drawings (Purcell and Gero, 1998). The sketch can inspire the designer to increase the creativity of the designer’s creations(Schenk, 1991; Goldschmidt, 1994; Suwa and Tversky, 1997). The freehand sketches by conventional media have been believed to play important roles in processes of the creative design thinking(Goldschmidt, 1991; Schon and Wiggins, 1992; Goel, 1995; Suwa et al., 2000; Verstijnen et al., 1998; Elsas van and Vergeest, 1998). Recently, there are many researches on inspiration of the design creativity by digital media(Liu, 2001; Sasada, 1999). The digital media have been used to apply the creative activities and that caused the occurrenssce of unexpected discovery in early design processes(Gero and Maher, 1993; Mitchell, 1993; Schmitt, 1994; Gero, 1996, 2000; Coyne and Subrahmanian, 1993; Boden, 1998; Huang, 2001; Chen, 2001; Manolya et al. 1998; Verstijinen et al., 1998; Lynn, 2001). In addition, there are many applications by combination of conventional and digital media in the sketches conceptual process. However, previous works only discussed that the individual media were related to the design creativity. The cognitive research about the application of conceptual sketches design by integrating both conventional and digital media simultaneously is absent.
series CAADRIA
email
last changed 2022/06/07 07:50

_id eb51
authors Coyne, Richard
year 1996
title CAAD, Curriculum and Controversy
source Education for Practice [14th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-2-2] Lund (Sweden) 12-14 September 1996, pp. 121-130
doi https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1996.121
summary This paper brings some of the debate within educational theory to bear on CAAD teaching, outlining the contributions of conservatism, critical theory, radical hermeneutics and pragmatism. The paper concludes by recommending that CAAD teaching move away from conservative concepts of teaching, design and technology to integrate it into the studio. In a highly illuminating book on education theory, Shaun Gallagher (1991) outlines four current views on education that correspond to four major positions in contemporary social theory and philosophy. I will extend these categories to a consideration of attitudes to information technology, and the teaching of computing in architecture. These four positions are conservatism, critical theory, radical hermeneutics, and pragmatism. I will show how certain issues cluster around them, how each position provides the focus of various discursive practices, or intellectual conversations in contemporary thinking, and how information technology is caught up in those conversations. These four positions are not "cognitive styles," but vigorously argued domains of debate involving writers such as Gadamer, Habermas and Derrida about the theory of interpretation. The field of interpretation is known as hermeneutics, which is concerned less with epistemology and knowledge than with understanding. Interpretation theory applies to reading texts, interpreting the law, and appreciating art, but also to the application of any practical task, such as making art, drawing, defining and solving problems, and design (Coyne and Snodgrass, 1995). Hermeneutics provides a coherent focus for considering many contemporary issues and many domains of practice. I outline what these positions in education mean in terms of CAAD (computer-aided architectural design) in the curriculum.

series eCAADe
email
more http://www.caad.ac.uk/~richard
last changed 2022/06/07 07:56

_id a8f0
authors Goel, V.
year 1995
title Sketches of thought
source MA: MIT Press, Cambridge
summary Much of the cognitive lies beyond articulate, discursive thought, beyond the reach of current computational notions. In Sketches of Thought, Vinod Goel argues that the cognitive computational conception of the world requires our thought processes to be precise, rigid, discrete, and unambiguous; yet there are dense, ambiguous, and amorphous symbol systems, like sketching, painting, and poetry, found in the arts and much of everyday discourse that have an important, nontrivial place in cognition. Goel maintains that while on occasion our thoughts do conform to the current computational theory of mind, they often are -- indeed must be - vague, fluid, ambiguous, and amorphous. He argues that if cognitive science takes the classical computational story seriously, it must deny or ignore these processes, or at least relegate them to the realm of the nonmental. As a cognitive scientist with a design background, Goel is in a unique position to challenge cognitive science on its own territory. He introduces design problem solving as a domain of cognition that illustrates these inarticulate, nondiscursive thought processes at work through the symbol system of sketching. He argues not that such thoughts must remain noncomputational but that our current notions of computation and representation are not rich enough to capture them. Along the way, Goel makes a number of significant and controversial interim points. He shows that there is a principled distinction between design and nondesign problems, that there are standard stages in the solution of design problems, that these stages correlate with the use of different types of external symbol systems; that these symbol systems are usefully individuated in Nelson Goodman's syntactic and semantic terms, and that different cognitive processes are facilitated by different types of symbol systems.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:14

_id 2115
authors Ingram, R. and Benford, S.
year 1995
title Improving the legibility of virtual environments
source Second Euro graphics Workshop on Virtual Environments
summary Years of research into hyper-media systems have shown that finding one's way through large electronic information systems can be a difficult task. Our experiences with virtual reality suggest that users will also suffer from the commonly experienced "lost in hyperspace" problem when trying to navigate virtual environments. The goal of this paper is to propose and demonstrate a technique which is currently under development with the aim of overcoming this problem. Our approach is based upon the concept of legibility, adapted from the discipline of city planning. The legibility of an urban environment refers to the ease with which its inhabitants can develop a cognitive map over a period of time and so orientate themselves within it and navigate through it [Lynch60]. Research into this topic since the 1960s has argued that, by carefully designing key features of urban environments planners can significantly influence their legibility. We propose that these legibility features might be adapted and applied to the design of a wide variety of virtual environments and that, when combined with other navigational aids such as the trails, tours and signposts of the hyper-media world, might greatly enhance people's ability to navigate them. In particular, the primary role of legibility would be to help users to navigate more easily as a result of experiencing a world for some time (hence the idea of building a cognitive map). Thus, we would see our technique being of most benefit when applied to long term, persistent and slowly evolving virtual environments. Furthermore, we are particularly interested in the automatic application of legibility techniques to information visualisations as opposed to their relatively straight forward application to simulations of the real-word. Thus, a typical future application of our work might be in enhancing visualisations of large information systems such the World Wide Web. Section 2 of this paper summarises the concept of legibility as used in the domain of city planning and introduces some of the key features that have been adapted and applied in our work. Section 3 then describes in detail the set of algorithms and techniques which are being developed for the automatic creation or enhancement of these features within virtual data spaces. Next, section 4 presents two example applications based on two different kinds of virtual data space. Finally, section 5 presents some initial reflections on this work and discusses the next steps in its evolution.
series other
last changed 2003/04/23 15:50

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