Semi-automatic user interface generation considering pointing granularity

This paper presents the development of Graphical User Interface (GUI) for determining energy saving under Option A i.e. retrofit isolation of the International Performance Measurement and Verification (IPMVP) protocol. The GUI is developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 2010. In Option A of retrofit isolation, savings are determined by partial field measurement of the energy used to which an Energy Conservative Measure (ECM) was installed separate from the energy use of the rest of the facility. The GUI consists of three most applied Option A ECM projects, i.e. 1) lighting efficiency improvement, 2) lighting system retrofitting with dimmer and 3) chiller efficiency improvement. This Option A Visual basic-based GUI could guide and help Energy Service Company (ESCO) and facility owner to calculate energy saving that involves retrofit isolation energy efficiency projects adhere to IPMVP protocol.

The contemporary theory of metaphor defines the metaphor as a major and indispensable part of our ordinary, conventional way of conceptualizing the world and it asserts that the metaphors are used to define our relationship with the physical environment and to create a context of communication. The metaphors are the core idioms of the contemporary graphical user interface (GUI) and have an important role in helping users interact with computer systems. The desktop metaphor began with the first GUI Xerox Star and was popularized by the Lisa of Apple Macintosh. Realizing the physical-office metaphor and reflecting the familiar world of the potential users by using icons of file, folder and trashcan, the metaphor-based GUIs made it relatively easy for all to use the computer productively. Nowadays almost all of the software industry is based on the desktop metaphor paradigm. However, besides the researchers that favor the use of metaphors in the development of the system image by accentuating their assistance to learning, there are also other researchers, who reject the metaphor-based design approach in GUIs by referring to their limitations. Considering these discussions and various approaches, this study aims to make an outline of the historical development of metaphor-based GUIs; to determine the current state of metaphor within GUI design by brief examples and finally to identify future prospects and research themes. The study claims that metaphor still remains to be an inevitable part of the GUI to communicate it with the users and despite its potential limitations -rather than rejecting the metaphor totally- it seems better-to try compatible and supplementary solutions like visual formalism.

Interaction design is considered important for achieving usable Web user interfaces. Communicative acts as abstractions from speech acts can model basic building blocks (‘atoms’) of communication, like a question or an answer. When, e.g., a question and an answer are glued together as a so-called adjacency pair, a simple ‘molecule’ of a dialogue is modeled. Deliberately complex discourse structures can be modeled using relations from Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). The content of a communicative act can refer to ontologies of the domain of discourse. Taking all this together, we created a new discourse metamodel that specifies what discourse models may look like. Such discourse models can specify an interaction design. Since manual creation of user interfaces is hard and expensive, automated generation may become more and more important. This tutorial also demonstrates how such an interaction design can be used for automated Web user-interface generation. This is based on model-transformation rules according to the model-driven architecture. Based on AI optimization techniques, the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are automatically tailored to a device such as a smartphone according to a given device specification. Since the usability of fully-automatically generated GUIs is still not satisfactory, unique customization techniques are employed as well. We also address low-vision accessibility of Web-pages, by combining automated design-time generation of Web-pages with responsive design for improving accessibility.

Heat exchanger control trainer is a device that helps to demonstrate process control of process variables and simulates real world industrial plant system whereas the implementation of Internet of things (IoT) technology allows wireless communication. This paper describes a work to develop an IoT based heat exchanger control trainer for undergraduate process control programme with the implement Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller and fuzzy logic controller into the control trainer system together. The work started up with the development of graphical user interface (GUI) for the control trainer followed by the construction and coding of the control trainer prototype. The work has developed a heat exchanger control trainer GUI with PID and fuzzy logic controller. Information was able to be transmitted wirelessly between the GUI and control trainer prototype using Wi-Fi modules. The tested maximum signal strength was -90 dBm in 50 m when connected to indoor Wi-Fi router. The control trainer was able to achieve simple temperature feedback control of the cold side of the heat exchanger. The user manual included the basic user guide of the developed control trainer user interface. Kp, Ki, Kd of Ziegler-Nichols tuning method obtained in Offline case studies are 90,18, 112.5 whereas 7.2009, 1.1473, and 7.3163 for Cohen-Coon tuning method. The Offline test result shows a better accuracy of control using the fuzzy logic controller with -0.07% of steady-state error. Further improvement could be made to by adding cooling system into the control trainer prototype and apply modern techniques in the GUI control systems.

graphic user interface and digital products as a user interface for interactive operations, will undoubtedly become the key to improving the user experience. "Man-machine interface design" as a new and important subject, in a profound impact on computers, mobile phones, PDA, tablet touch device development, the rapid development of computer digital technology and new products are emerging also graphics interface of the far-reaching change.

This paper presents the development of graphical user interface (GUI) for Humanoid Head Robot Amir-II. The GUI serves as a monitoring tool for the robot operation which includes the visual input from a webcam as its eye and the positioning of the Dynamixel AX-12 robot actuators. Matlab Graphical User Interface Development Environment (Matlab GUIDE) is used in developing the GUI which enables Matlab codes on face tracking, facial expression recognition and servo callbacks to be integrated within the GUI. The humanoid head is programmed to detect a human face within its view and automatically follow the tracked face through the movement of its neck joints. There is also a dedicated control panel within the GUI to capture the facial expression screenshots and save them into the database with their related expression labels.

Application development of a large number of graphical user interface (GUI) screens and reports requires a labor‐intensive process. In the typical scenario, a GUI developer drags each component, such as the textfield, label, and error messages, on each of the new GUI screens or reports. They then set the component properties and perhaps write any validation routines for input data. Using the proposed Observation Panel Bean (OPB), the developer drags only one component per field, and the OPB dynamically builds the GUI components with consistent properties and links the observation field to the needed validation routine. With little development effort these fields are simply selected from the data dictionary and placed on the GUI. The proposed OPB uses Fowler's observation pattern as a high‐level abstraction representing attributes observed about information in the application domain. The panel collaborates with the observation pattern to set the label, error message, and properties of the various components. Yoder's validator pattern collaborates with the observation pattern and the data dictionary to validate the observations. The proposed OPB decreases GUI development time, adds adaptability to GUI design, and increases consistency in GUI component presentation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An important component of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for man-made and natural hazards is the command and control unit’s Graphical User Interface (GUI). All relevant information of an EWS is concentrated in this GUI and offered to human operators. However, when designing the GUI, not only the user experience and the GUI’s screens are relevant, but also the frameworks and technologies that the GUI is built on and the implementation of the GUI itself are of great importance. Implementations differ based on their applications in different domains but the design and approaches to implement the GUIs of different EWS often show analogies. The design and development of such GUIs are performed repeatedly on some parts of the system for each EWS. Thus, the generic GUI framework of a geospatial EWS for tsunamis is introduced to enable possible synergistic effects on the development of other new related technology. The results presented here could be adopted and reused in other EWS for man-made and natural hazards.

Effective learning of complex dynamic systems, their analysis and synthesis are unthinkable without use of simulation tools. For repetitive, comfortable and friendly use it is advantageous to use graphic user interface (GUI) enabling easy evaluation of system behavior: visualization of phenomena, model performance, changes of parameters, input and output signals. Development of GUI is enough bothersome and there were searched ways to satisfy requirements to overcome these difficulties. MATLAB presents GUI a comfortable tool for development of virtual models. In the paper, we share methodology, procedures and our experiences at design and utilization of virtual models for dynamic systems developed in the MATLAB GUI environment.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a common feature for modern software systems, while there are still many legacy systems that do not have GUIs, but only provide text and commands for user interaction. In this paper, we report our experiment on using runtime models to support the rapid, generation-based development of simple GUIs for such legacy systems. We construct runtime models for the target system as an intermediate representations of the underlying system state, and in this way wrap the low-level interaction mechanisms of the legacy systems. After that, we visualize the models with a graphical editor. Due to the causal connection between runtime models and the runtime system state, users can monitor and control the system state by reading and writing the models, and in this way, using the graphical model editor as the GUI of the system. Based on the existing framework for runtime model construction and model visualization, it is possible to achieve the rapid development process of such GUIs in the form of high-level specification and automated generation. We experiment with this idea by using two existing frameworks, Sm@rt and GMF, to develop a series of GUIs for an electricity simulation system named GridLAB-D. We also enhance the existing Sm@rt framework with cache mechanisms in order to suit GUIs.

This paper introduces graphical user interface (GUI) modelling approach and it positions in information system (IS) development process. The overview of graphical user interface design methods and methodologies is presented. The main objective of the proposal is the consistency of IS development process, which includes requirements specification, system design and implementation phases. The GUI modelling process is based on the data flows specification. Detailed explanation of modelling steps is presented. Paper includes an illustrative example of the web based GUI development according to the proposed process.

Autonomous control of Flapping Wing Vehicles (FWVs) through sophisticated software units is challenging due to its inherent complex motion characteristics. This article emphasize on the development of graphical user interface (GUI) for the control of FWVs to achieve superior maneuverability. A vision based computer control interface is developed for manual as well as autonomous performance of FWVs using Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB). In order to accomplish the real time altitude and yaw control of FMVs, a color detection algorithm is established. Simulation tests are carried out interfacing MATLAB GUI with proteus simulator. The color based control algorithm is tested in our lab environment and proven to be consistent. The proposed control interface serves as an effective solution towards interfacing aerial robots with system software modules.

Towards end-user development of graphical user interfaces for internet of things

This paper proposes a Visual Basic based Graphical User Interface (GUI) to determine energy saving using Option C, the whole facility measurement that is adherence to the IPMVP. The tool provides user to choose either to use a single variable linear regression or multiple linear regression model to calculate energy savings. Two approaches of calculating energy saving for both single and multiple linear regressions have been presented, i.e. 1) energy cost avoidance and 2) normalized savings. The GUI has been tested using a case study in an office building in Malaysia. Two independent variables have been considered in the analysis, i.e. 1) Cooling Degree Days (CDD) and 2) number of working days in a month. For the analyses, four types of energy saving analyses have been presented in the case study, 1) Single linear regression with cost avoidance for each independent variable, 2) Single linear regression with normalized saving for each independent variable, 3) Multiple linear regression with cost avoidance, 4) multiple linear regression with normalized saving. Results show that the GUI is able to calculate the energy saving as recommended by the IPMVP. This tool is useful for facility owner to calculate energy saving created by the ECMs installed in the building as well as for the Energy Service Company (ESCOs) to report a proper energy saving for Energy Performance Contract (EPC).

In development of software applications Graphical User Interface (GUI) plays an important role. It contains many test cases where some are useful and others are unusable test cases. Testing is used to recover bugs from the software. GUI needs to perform regular testing because it often requires frequent changes which depend on requirements of the users. This type of application requires regression testing which can be tested frequently when the modification occurs. The old version has a test suite and the modified version has a new suite. We focus on the part where the modified test suite is affecting the old test suite by making them unfeasible. The empirical study of these test cases is that to make the unfeasible test cases to feasible test case like reusing of the test paths by varying input values. We probably find where the input values are making the old test suite to reuse in the modified test suite. This approach can make more efficient by reducing the cost of regression testing and consumption of less time for the new modified application.