A tilt-controlled photo browsing method for small mobile devices is presented. The implementation uses continuous inputs from an accelerometer, and a multimodal (visual, audio and vibrotactile) display coupled with the states of this model. The model is based on a simple physical model, with its characteristics shaped to enhance usability. We show how the dynamics of the physical model can be shaped to make the handling qualities of the mobile device fit the browsing task. We implemented the proposed algorithm on Samsung MITs PDA with tri-axis accelerometer and a vibrotactile motor. The experiment used seven novice users browsing from 100 photos. We compare a tilt-based interaction method with a buttonbased browser and an iPod wheel. We discuss the usability performance and contrast this with subjective experience from the users. The iPod wheel has significantly poorer performance than button pushing or tilt interaction, despite its commercial popularity.

This paper presents a photo browsing system on mobile devices to browse and search photos efficiently by tilting action. It employs tilt dynamics and multi-scale photo screen layout for enhancing the browsing and the search capability respectively. The implementation uses continuous inputs from an accelerometer, and a multimodal (visual, audio and vibrotactile) display coupled with the states of this model. The model is based on a simple physical model, with its characteristics shaped to enhance controllability. The multi-scale layout holds both local and global view for users to both control photos and look at the surrounding context in a single framework. We show how dynamics of the physical model can be shaped to make the handling qualities of the mobile device fit the browsing task. We implemented the proposed algorithm on Samsung MITs PDA with tri-axis accelerometer and a vibrotactile motor. The experiment used seven novice users browsing from 100 photos. We compare a tiltbased interaction method with a button-based browser and an iPod wheel. We discuss the usability performance and contrast this with subjective experience from the seven users. The proposed tilt dynamics improves the usability over conventional dynamics. The iPod wheel has mixed performance comparing worse on some metrics than button pushing or tilt interaction, despite its commercial popularity.

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Probabilistic resolution method for Japanese zero-subjects is described. It is designed to be used for the back-end processor of an automatic shortening system of long Japanese sentences in a Japanese to English machine translation system. Ordinary probabilistic resolution method uses (1) normal distribution model in the continuous probability space. In this article, we propose 3 new models. They are (2) quasi-normal distribution model in the continuous space,(3) 1st order log-linear distribution model in the discrete space and (4) 2nd order log-linear distribution model in the discrete space. For these four models, we make an experiment to measure the resolution accuracy. The test sample is from television broadcasting news. The measured accuracy by the cross validation test are 73%, 78%, 78% and 81% for (1), (2),(3) and (4) models, respectively. The unresolved examples show that semantic agreement between subject and predicate should be observed more accurately.

The development of multi-channel digital broadcasting has generated a demand not only for new services but also for smart and highly functional capabilities in all broadcast-related devices. This is especially true of the television receivers on the viewer's side. With the aim of achieving a friendly interface that anybody can use with ease, we built a prototype interface system that operates a television through voice interactions using natural language. At the current stage of our research, we are using this system to investigate the usefulness and problem areas of the spoken dialogue interface for television operations.