SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “natural user interfaces”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1988

An intelligent multi-media human-computer dialogue system

Sophisticated computer systems are being developed to assist in the human decision-making process for very complex tasks performed under stressful conditions. The human-computer interface is a critical factor in these systems. The human-computer interface should be simple and natural to use, require a minimal learning period, assist the user in accomplishing his task(s) with a minimum of distraction, present output in a form that best conveys information to the user, and reduce cognitive load for the user. In pursuit of this ideal, the Intelligent Multi-Media Interfaces project is devoted to the development of interface technology that integrates speech, natural language text, graphics, and pointing gestures for human-computer dialogues. The objective of the project is to develop interface technology that uses the media/modalities intelligently in a flexible, context-sensitive, and highly integrated manner modelled after the manner in which humans converse in simultaneous coordinated multiple modalities. As part of the project, a knowledge-based interface system, called CUBRICON (CUBRC Intelligent CONversationalist) is being developed as a research prototype. The application domain being used to drive the research is that of military tactical air control.

Neal, J. G.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Paraview-MCP

This project provides a streamlined way for users to interact with and control powerful scientific visualization software (ParaView) through a conversational interface. By developing an automated "Model Context Protocol" (MCP) server with a Python-based ParaView manager, the system allows users to seamlessly load and visualize complex datasets, explore visualization options with AI assistance, and optimize visualization output in a close loop. This is achieved by issuing intuitive, natural-language commands. The result is a user-friendly interface that integrates high-level conversation and scriptable data visualization, making scientific visualization tools more accessible to a broad audience.

Liu, Shusen [Lawrence Livermore National Laborator↗

NASA NTRS1989

Adding intelligence to scientific data management

NASA plans to solve some of the problems of handling large-scale scientific data bases by turning to artificial intelligence (AI) are discussed. The growth of the information glut and the ways that AI can help alleviate the resulting problems are reviewed. The employment of the Intelligent User Interface prototype, where the user will generate his own natural language query with the assistance of the system, is examined. Spatial data management, scientific data visualization, and data fusion are discussed.

Campbell, William J.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Gesture-Based Robot Control with Variable Autonomy from the JPL Biosleeve

This paper presents a new gesture-based human interface for natural robot control. Detailed activity of the user's hand and arm is acquired via a novel device, called the BioSleeve, which packages dry-contact surface electromyography (EMG) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) into a sleeve worn on the forearm. The BioSleeve's accompanying algorithms can reliably decode as many as sixteen discrete hand gestures and estimate the continuous orientation of the forearm. These gestures and positions are mapped to robot commands that, to varying degrees, integrate with the robot's perception of its environment and its ability to complete tasks autonomously. This flexible approach enables, for example, supervisory point-to-goal commands, virtual joystick for guarded teleoperation, and high degree of freedom mimicked manipulation, all from a single device. The BioSleeve is meant for portable field use; unlike other gesture recognition systems, use of the BioSleeve for robot control is invariant to lighting conditions, occlusions, and the human-robot spatial relationship and does not encumber the user's hands. The BioSleeve control approach has been implemented on three robot types, and we present proof-of-principle demonstrations with mobile ground robots, manipulation robots, and prosthetic hands.

BioSleeve↗

NASA NTRS1995

Visual interface for space and terrestrial analysis

The management of large geophysical and celestial data bases is now, more than ever, the most critical path to timely data analysis. With today's large volume data sets from multiple satellite missions, analysts face the task of defining useful data bases from which data and metadata (information about data) can be extracted readily in a meaningful way. Visualization, following an object-oriented design, is a fundamental method of organizing and handling data. Humans, by nature, easily accept pictorial representations of data. Therefore graphically oriented user interfaces are appealing, as long as they remain simple to produce and use. The Visual Interface for Space and Terrestrial Analysis (VISTA) system, currently under development at the Naval Research Laboratory's Backgrounds Data Center (BDC), has been designed with these goals in mind. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to perform queries, visualization, and analysis of atmospheric and celestial backgrounds data.

Dombrowski, Edmund G.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Khoros software specification format and interoperability

Khoros defines formats for User Interface Specification (UIS) and Program Specification (PS) files. From such files, its code generator, Ghostwriter, creates source files and documentation. The great advantage of the system is that the code fragments that make up part of the PS file are purely generic. All Khoros-related code is created by the code generator; this includes all user interface code. As a matter of fact, both specification files are very generic in nature. Thus, one could imagine using it as the basis for other software systems. A case is made that writing a code generator that would create IRAF-compatible code from the Khoros UIS and PS files is fairly trivial. Another aspect of the Khoros system conventions concerns the way execution commands are generated by the user interface and the actual syntax of those commands. The protocols are such that interoperability at the level of executable modules is readily possible.

Rots, A. H.↗

NASA NTRS2019

Simplifying NASA Earth Science Data and Information Access Through Natural Language Processing Based Data Analysis and Visualization

NASA Earth science data collected from satellites, model assimilation, airborne missions, and field campaigns, are large, complex and evolving. Such characteristics pose great challenges for end users (e.g., Earth science and applied science users, students, citizen scientists), particularly for those who are unfamiliar with NASA's EOSDIS and thus unable to access and utilize datasets effectively. For example, a novice user may simply ask: what is the total rainfall for a flooding event in my county yesterday? For an experienced user (e.g., algorithm developer), a question can be: how did my rainfall product perform, compared to ground observations, during a flooding event? Nonetheless, with rapid information technology development such as natural language processing, it is possible to develop simplified Web interfaces and back-end processing components to handle such questions and deliver answers in terms of text, data, or graphic results directly to users.In this presentation, we describe the main challenges for end users with different levels of expertise in accessing and utilizing NASA Earth science data. Surveys reveal that most non-professional users normally do not want to download and handle raw data as well as conduct heavy-duty data processing tasks. Often they just want some simple graphics or data for various purposes. To them, simple and intuitive user interfaces are sufficient because complicated ones can be difficult and time-consuming to learn. Professionals also want such interfaces to answer many questions from datasets. One solution is to develop a natural language based search box like Google and the search results can be text, data, graphics and more. Now the challenge is, with natural language processing, can we design a system to process a scientific question typed in by a user? In this presentation, we describe our plan for such a prototype. The workflow is: 1) extract needed information (e.g., variables, spatial and temporal information, processing methods, etc.) from the input, 2) process the data in the backend, and 3) deliver the results (data or graphics) to the user.

Liu, Zhong↗

NASA NTRS1988

The second generation intelligent user interface for the crustal dynamics data information system

For the past decade, operations and research projects that support a major portion of NASA's overall mission have experienced a dramatic increase in the volume of generated data and resultant information that is unparalleled in the history of the agency. The effect of such an increase is that most of the science and engineering disciplines are undergoing an information glut, which has occurred, not only because of the amount, but also because of the type of data being collected. This information glut is growing exponentially and is expected to grow for the foreseeable future. Consequently, it is becoming physically and intellectually impossible to identify, access, modify, and analyze the most suitable information. Thus, the dilemma arises that the amount and complexity of information has exceeded and will continue to exceed, using present information systems, the ability of all the scientists and engineers to understand and take advantage of this information. As a result of this information problem, NASA has initiated the Intelligent Data Management (IDM) project to design and develop Advanced Information Management Systems (AIMS). The first effort of the Project was the prototyping of an Intelligent User Interface (IUI) to an operational scientific database using expert systems, natural language processing, and graphics technologies. An overview of the IUI formulation and development for the second phase is presented.

Short, Nicholas, Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The second generation intelligent user interface for the crustal dynamics data information system

For the past decade, operations and research projects that support a major portion of NASA's overall mission have experienced a dramatic increase in the volume of generated data and resultant information that is unparalleled in the history of the agency. The effect of such an increase is that most of the science and engineering disciplines are undergoing an information glut, which has occurred, not only because of the amount, but also because of the type of data being collected. This information glut is growing exponentially and is expected to grow for the foreseeable future. Consequently, it is becoming physically and intellectually impossible to identify, access, modify, and analyze the most suitable information. Thus, the dilemma arises that the amount and complexity of information has exceeded and will continue to exceed, using present information systems, the ability of all the scientists and engineers to understand and take advantage of this information. As a result of this information problem, NASA has initiated the Intelligent Data Management (IDM) project to design and develop Advanced Information Management (IDM) project to design and develop Advanced Information Management Systems (AIMS). The first effort of the Project was the prototyping of an Intelligent User Interface (IUI) to an operational scientific database using expert systems, natural language processing, and graphics technologies. An overview of the IUI formulation and development for the second phase is presented.

Short, Nicholas, Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Scheduling the future NASA Space Network: Experiences with a flexible scheduling prototype

NASA's Space Network (SN) provides telecommunications and tracking services to low earth orbiting spacecraft. One proposal for improving resource allocation and automating conflict resolution for the SN is the concept of flexible scheduling. In this concept, each Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) will possess a Space Network User POCC Interface (SNUPI) to support the development and management of flexible requests. Flexible requests express the flexibility, constraints, and repetitious nature of the user's communications requirements. Flexible scheduling is expected to improve SN resource utilization and user satisfaction, as well as reduce the effort to produce and maintain a schedule. A prototype testbed has been developed to better understand flexible scheduling as it applies to the SN. This testbed consists of a SNUPI workstation, an SN scheduler, and a flexible request language that conveys information between the two systems. All three are being evaluated by operations personnel. Benchmark testing is being conducted on the scheduler to quantify the productivity improvements achieved with flexible requests.

Happell, Nadine↗

NASA NTRS1988

Presentation planning using an integrated knowledge base

A description is given of user interface research aimed at bringing together multiple input and output modes in a way that handles mixed mode input (commands, menus, forms, natural language), interacts with a diverse collection of underlying software utilities in a uniform way, and presents the results through a combination of output modes including natural language text, maps, charts and graphs. The system, Integrated Interfaces, derives much of its ability to interact uniformly with the user and the underlying services and to build its presentations, from the information present in a central knowledge base. This knowledge base integrates models of the application domain (Navy ships in the Pacific region, in the current demonstration version); the structure of visual displays and their graphical features; the underlying services (data bases and expert systems); and interface functions. The emphasis is on a presentation planner that uses the knowledge base to produce multi-modal output. There has been a flurry of recent work in user interface management systems. (Several recent examples are listed in the references). Existing work is characterized by an attempt to relieve the software designer of the burden of handcrafting an interface for each application. The work has generally focused on intelligently handling input. This paper deals with the other end of the pipeline - presentations.

Arens, Yigal↗

NASA NTRS1995

A user-system interface agent

Agent-based technologies answer to several challenges posed by additional information processing requirements in today's computing environments. In particular, (1) users desire interaction with computing devices in a mode which is similar to that used between people, (2) the efficiency and successful completion of information processing tasks often require a high-level of expertise in complex and multiple domains, (3) information processing tasks often require handling of large volumes of data and, therefore, continuous and endless processing activities. The concept of an agent is an attempt to address these new challenges by introducing information processing environments in which (1) users can communicate with a system in a natural way, (2) an agent is a specialist and a self-learner and, therefore, it qualifies to be trusted to perform tasks independent of the human user, and (3) an agent is an entity that is continuously active performing tasks that are either delegated to it or self-imposed. The work described in this paper focuses on the development of an interface agent for users of a complex information processing environment (IPE). This activity is part of an on-going effort to build a model for developing agent-based information systems. Such systems will be highly applicable to environments which require a high degree of automation, such as, flight control operations and/or processing of large volumes of data in complex domains, such as the EOSDIS environment and other multidisciplinary, scientific data systems. The concept of an agent as an information processing entity is fully described with emphasis on characteristics of special interest to the User-System Interface Agent (USIA). Issues such as agent 'existence' and 'qualification' are discussed in this paper. Based on a definition of an agent and its main characteristics, we propose an architecture for the development of interface agents for users of an IPE that is agent-oriented and whose resources are likely to be distributed and heterogeneous in nature. The architecture of USIA is outlined in two main components: (1) the user interface which is concerned with issues as user dialog and interaction, user modeling, and adaptation to user profile, and (2) the system interface part which deals with identification of IPE capabilities, task understanding and feasibility assessment, and task delegation and coordination of assistant agents.

Wakim, Nagi T.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Generating Control Commands From Gestures Sensed by EMG

An effort is under way to develop noninvasive neuro-electric interfaces through which human operators could control systems as diverse as simple mechanical devices, computers, aircraft, and even spacecraft. The basic idea is to use electrodes on the surface of the skin to acquire electromyographic (EMG) signals associated with gestures, digitize and process the EMG signals to recognize the gestures, and generate digital commands to perform the actions signified by the gestures. In an experimental prototype of such an interface, the EMG signals associated with hand gestures are acquired by use of several pairs of electrodes mounted in sleeves on a subject s forearm (see figure). The EMG signals are sampled and digitized. The resulting time-series data are fed as input to pattern-recognition software that has been trained to distinguish gestures from a given gesture set. The software implements, among other things, hidden Markov models, which are used to recognize the gestures as they are being performed in real time. Thus far, two experiments have been performed on the prototype interface to demonstrate feasibility: an experiment in synthesizing the output of a joystick and an experiment in synthesizing the output of a computer or typewriter keyboard. In the joystick experiment, the EMG signals were processed into joystick commands for a realistic flight simulator for an airplane. The acting pilot reached out into the air, grabbed an imaginary joystick, and pretended to manipulate the joystick to achieve left and right banks and up and down pitches of the simulated airplane. In the keyboard experiment, the subject pretended to type on a numerical keypad, and the EMG signals were processed into keystrokes. The results of the experiments demonstrate the basic feasibility of this method while indicating the need for further research to reduce the incidence of errors (including confusion among gestures). Topics that must be addressed include the numbers and arrangements of electrodes needed to acquire sufficient data; refinements in the acquisition, filtering, and digitization of EMG signals; and methods of training the pattern- recognition software. The joystick and keyboard simulations were chosen for the initial experiments because they are familiar to many computer users. It is anticipated that, ultimately, interfaces would utilize EMG signals associated with movements more nearly natural than those associated with joysticks or keyboards. Future versions of the pattern-recognition software are planned to be capable of adapting to the preferences and day-today variations in EMG outputs of individual users; this capability for adaptation would also make it possible to select gestures that, to a given user, feel the most nearly natural for generating control signals for a given task (provided that there are enough properly positioned electrodes to acquire the EMG signals from the muscles involved in the gestures).

Wheeler, Kevin R.↗

NASA NTRS1993

NELS 2.0 - A general system for enterprise wide information management

NELS, the NASA Electronic Library System, is an information management tool for creating distributed repositories of documents, drawings, and code for use and reuse by the aerospace community. The NELS retrieval engine can load metadata and source files of full text objects, perform natural language queries to retrieve ranked objects, and create links to connect user interfaces. For flexibility, the NELS architecture has layered interfaces between the application program and the stored library information. The session manager provides the interface functions for development of NELS applications. The data manager is an interface between session manager and the structured data system. The center of the structured data system is the Wide Area Information Server. This system architecture provides access to information across heterogeneous platforms in a distributed environment. There are presently three user interfaces that connect to the NELS engine; an X-Windows interface, and ASCII interface and the Spatial Data Management System. This paper describes the design and operation of NELS as an information management tool and repository.

Smith, Stephanie L.↗

NASA NTRS1985

COSMIC/NASTRAN-PATRAN Interface

A three dimensional solid modeling and finite element pre and postprocessing program, PATRAN, uses the latest interactive computer graphics technology, provides a visual means to define a finite element model and its environment, and reviews its resultant model behavior. The capabilities provided by the PATRAN-COSMIC/NASTRAN interface are discussed. While the translator capabilities give some indication of the interface quality between the two programs, there are other attributes to be considered. The ideal interface would be a user transparent union of the two programs so that the engineer could move from one program to the other fluently and naturally. Hence, a valid assessment of the interface completeness must consider how close the current capabilities are to the idealized case. An example problem is presented to demonstrate how COSMIC/NASTRAN and PATRAN can be used together to meet the requirements of an actual engineering application.

Libby, D. H.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Autonomy Voice Assistant for NPAS (NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems)

A prototype voice interaction system, Autonomy Voice Assistant (AVA), is described in this paper. AVA is designed to seamlessly integrate into the NASA Platform for Autonomous Systems (NPAS), an autonomy software platform, and to enable an operator to interact with NPAS autonomy applications through voice conversations. By integrating VA with NPAS, a major enhancement to NPAS applications is facilitated, enabling interaction through natural language expressions. An AVA prototype has been designed incorporating two principles:(1) self-containment (no external data or computations required), and (2) a readily modifiable, reconfigurable, and flexible architecture. By using voice messages in an NPAS application, an additional layer of user interface capability is enabled, thereby enhancing a user’s overall experience. Advancements, over the past several decades in speech recognition and natural language processing technologies has made it possible for AVA to implement robust messaging capabilities while still being lightweight. The main objective of incorporating a voice assistant like AVA is to augment the number and effectiveness of interactions a user has with a system that typically uses mouse-based interaction, while simultaneously enriching the user experience and providing heightened system awareness.

Lucian Murdock↗

NASA NTRS1994

Virtual Environments in Scientific Visualization

Virtual environment technology is a new way of approaching the interface between computers and humans. Emphasizing display and user control that conforms to the user's natural ways of perceiving and thinking about space, virtual environment technologies enhance the ability to perceive and interact with computer generated graphic information. This enhancement potentially has a major effect on the field of scientific visualization. Current examples of this technology include the Virtual Windtunnel being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. Other major institutions such as the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and SRI International are also exploring this technology. This talk will be describe several implementations of virtual environments for use in scientific visualization. Examples include the visualization of unsteady fluid flows (the virtual windtunnel), the visualization of geodesics in curved spacetime, surface manipulation, and examples developed at various laboratories.

Bryson, Steve↗

NASA NTRS1994

Virtual Environments in Scientific Visualization

Bryson, Steve↗