CONTENTS ======== This file describes the contents of: https://ftp.isds.tugraz.at/pub/theses/ Theses ------ [listed in reverse chronological order] melkaouakibi-2023-bsc.pdf Mohamed Amine El Kaouakibi: “Extending Diamond: A Web Application for Tree Testing and Card Sorting”; Bachelor's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria 27 Sep 2023. [69 pages] Abstract: Information architecture (IA) seeks to organize and label content for a web site or application using information hierarchies and metadata. Two of the main techniques in IA involve testing with representative test users, namely card sorting and tree testing. In card sorting, users are asked to sort concepts into groups and then give the groups names. This helps the information architect to craft a corresponding information hierarchy. In tree testing, a proposed information hierarchy is presented to test users and they are asked to find particular items in the hierarchy. Diamond is a free, open-source web application for card sorting and tree testing. It is written in TypeScript using the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node). Diamond is designed to be self-hosted by potential study owners. It provides the essential functionality required to set up, carry out, and assess the outcomes of card sorting and tree testing studies. poberrauner-2022-msc.pdf Peter Oberrauner: “RespVis: A Browser-Based, D3 Extension Library for Creating Responsive SVG Charts”; Master's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria 12 May 2022. [131 pages] Abstract: RespVis is an open-source, browser-based library for rendering responsive information visualizations and charts as composite SVG documents, whose elements are styled and positioned via CSS. It is implemented as a NodeJS package in TypeScript and is designed as an extension of D3, thus offering the flexibility of D3’s convenient document manipulation API to its users. Visualization authors can use CSS media queries in combination with Flexbox and Grid to position chart components (such as title, axes, legend, and the chart itself) responsively. The main contribution of RespVis is its custom layouter, which enables the various components of a chart to be positioned via any browser-supported CSS layout mechanism. RespVis consists of various packages containing modules to render lower-level visualization components like axes, legends, and series of graphical primitives and higher-level premade visualizations for common chart types like bar charts, line charts, and point charts (scatterplots). The modules provided by RespVis can be used to create responsive visualizations by either composing them from the lower-level components or by responsively changing the configurations of the premade, higher-level visualizations. coser-2022-msc.pdf Christopher Oser: "Responsive Voronoi Treemaps with VoroTree and VoroLib"; Master's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria 23 Feb 2022. [105 pages] Abstract: This thesis presents the VoroTree application and the VoroLib library for interactive Voronoi treemaps. Voronoi treemaps are a space-filling information visualization technique for hierarchical information, based on recursive subdivision of Voronoi regions. VoroTree is a self-contained web application for exploring hierarchical data with Voronoi treemaps. It is also available as a hosted demo application on the web, and can be built as an installable native package for common desktop platforms. VoroLib is a JavaScript library for integrating Voronoi treemaps into other applications. Both projects are open source, built in TypeScript, and responsive. PixiJS is used for drawing and parts of D3 are used for data handling. mlink-2021-msc.pdf Matthias Link: “Sapphire Frontend: A Web-Based Course Grading Management System”; Master's Thesis, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 27 Oct 2021 [194 pages] Abstract: Grading university courses with hundreds of students can be a difficult and time-consuming task. An important aspect of grading a mass course is the need to distribute the grading process among several staff members. Splitting the workload into smaller chunks allows lecturers to delegate parts of the grading process to tutors and ensures timely feedback for students. It is important to provide a fair and comprehensible grading process for everyone involved. Handling online submissions also needs to be considered. It is necessary to reliably determine which student or student group submitted which files at which time. Current solutions range from simple spreadsheet-based solutions to complete course management systems. Even though there are many options available, there is a lack of an integrated yet streamlined grading system for university courses. This Master’s thesis describes the frontend of the Sapphire project, an integrated web-based grading management system. Students are provided with a powerful file management system on a per-exercise basis. A list of ratings is used as the basis for the grading process, allowing lecturers to easily manage the important grading criteria for each exercise and enabling tutors to indicate failed criteria at the press of a mouse button. Sapphire supports lecturers and tutors to effectively manage the grading of large courses and provides students with online submission of exercises and detailed and timely feedback of grading. phipp-2021-msc.pdf Patrick Hipp: “Rslidy: Lightweight, Accessible, and Responsive HTML5 Slide Decks”; Master's Thesis, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 11 Sep 2021 [119 pages] Abstract: Slide decks built for the web can be flexible and feature-rich for presenters, while at the same time being viewable in any web browser on any device worldwide. They are a viable alternative to proprietary presentation software such as PowerPoint and Keynote and offer unique features such as live code execution, responsive tables, and interactive charts. This thesis first discusses the history and development of packages for web-based slide decks and gives an overview of currently available solutions. The four main approaches described are: text-based, JavaScript-based, hosted, and responsive slide decks. Rslidy is a new lightweight open-source package supporting accessible and responsive HTML5 slide decks for the web. Rslidy’s architecture, build system, and implementation are described and its pros and cons are assessed. Finally, potential future improvements and extensions are discussed ckopel-2021-msc.pdf Christopher Alexander Kopel: “Accessible SVG Charts with AChart Creator and AChart Interpreter”; Master's Thesis, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 16 May 2021 [203 pages] Abstract: Presenting visual information to blind users may be regarded as one of the most complex challenges in the field of accessibility. The confluence of data visualisations moving to the web and initiatives towards web accessibility have led to a particularly promising approach: enriching SVG-based charts with underlying data and semantic information in machine-readable form using ARIA roles and properties. This thesis first surveys current approaches to web accessibility, chart accessibility, and the semantic enrichment of SVG charts, concentrating on charts of tabular data, such as line, bar, and pie charts. A number of proposed taxonomies of ARIA roles and properties for accessible SVG charts are discussed and compared, leading to a new aggregate taxonomy, the AChart (Accessible Chart) taxonomy. The remainder of the thesis presents AChart, a suite of open-source software tools written in TypeScript with Node.js, which currently supports bar charts, line charts, and pie charts. AChart Creator is a command-line tool which generates accessible SVG charts from CSV files using the D3 framework and injecting ARIA roles and properties from the AChart taxonomy. AChart Interpreter is a client-side web application which interprets an accessible SVG chart, displays side-by-side graphical and textual versions of the chart, and can read out the chart using synthetic speech. Its user interface is screen reader compatible, so it can be used by blind users to gain an understanding of a chart, as well as by developers and chart authors to verify and validate the accessibility markup of an SVG chart. AChart Summariser is a command-line tool which interprets an accessible SVG chart and outputs a textual summary of the chart. mchegini-2020-phd.pdf Mohammad Chegini: “Visual Data Analysis Supported by Eye-Tracking, Multi-Touch Displays, and Machine Learning”; PhD Thesis, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 26 Nov 2020 [115 pages] Abstract: In recent years, data analysts have been confronted by increasing amounts of data, often in the form of multivariate datasets. Multivariate datasets can be thought of as a table, where dimensions are columns, and records are rows. Machine learning and data mining algorithms can help an analyst to build machine learning (ML) models to find structures in a dataset algorithmically. Alternatively, visualisation techniques such as scatterplot, scatterplot matrix, and parallel coordinates can help an analyst explore and find structures in a dataset visually. Although extensive research has been done around building and visualising an ML model, there is less research linking ML models and visualisations through humancentred interactions. Such a connection has the potential to help an analyst build better ML models by interactively steering the process. However, designing and evaluating such interaction techniques is challenging. In this thesis, visual analytics techniques are proposed, which focus on building and modifying an ML model of a multivariate dataset, using machine learning, visualisation, and interactions. Moreover, the use of novel interaction modalities and devices such as large multi-touch displays, handheld devices, and eye-trackers is explored. As a first step, a novel approach for selecting, searching for, and comparing local patterns within multivariate datasets using scatterplots is presented. An analyst can select a part of a scatterplot from a scatterplot matrix, and search for similar patterns using both model-based (ML regression) descriptors and shape-based descriptors. A relevance feedback module enables the analyst to improve the regression analysis and find relevant patterns more effectively. The second part of the thesis goes beyond simple interaction and exploration using an ML model and focuses on ML model creation and modification. Specifically, an interactive visual labelling technique is presented, which allows an analyst to build and interactively improve an (ML classification) model for multivariate datasets. The technique combines linked visualisations, clustering, and active learning to help an analyst interactively label a multivariate dataset. In the third step, a user study was conducted which showed that such an interactive labelling technique could surpass common active learning algorithms for building an effective ML model. Finally, the fourth part of the thesis explores several novel interaction modalities. It is shown how large multi-touch displays are effective for collaborative analysis of scatterplots. Extending these interactions, analysts can use a secondary handheld device to interact with linked-view information visualisation application to label multivariate datasets. In addition, user eye gaze interaction can be garnered by the system to help re-arrange the axes in a parallel coordinates visualisation. In summary, this thesis uses human-centred interactions to bridge the gap between ML techniques and visualisation techniques. The thesis presents how to (1) interactively search and explore local regression models in a scatterplot space, (2) interactively build and improve an ML model of a multivariate dataset by linked visualisations, clustering, and active learning, and (3) use eye-tracking and multi-touch displays to investigate regression ML models collaboratively, and use eye gaze as an input for interaction with visualisations of a multivariate dataset. edoppelreiter-2020-bsc.pdf Elias Doppelreiter: “A Thinking Aloud Test of the TreeTest Web App for Testing Information Hierarchies”; Bachelor's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 11 Sep 2020. [128 pages] Abstract: This thesis describes an evaluation of a web application called TreeTest [Mehic 2019], which is used for testing information hierarchies. The web application was evaluated using the thinking aloud test method. Tree testing is a technique used to evaluate the structure of information hierarchies, ensuring that all elements in the information hierarchy are easy to find. To perform a tree test, test users are asked to find different elements in the information hierarchy. The interactions of the test users are recorded and analysed using various criteria. Thinking aloud testing is a method for evaluating the usability of a user interface. Representative test users are given various tasks typical for the domain and are encouraged to think out loud while they work. Each test session is recorded and later analysed to create a list of potential issues and problems in the user interface. By asking users to think out loud, it is possible to gain insight into their thoughts and decision-making processes. amehic-2019-msc.pdf Ajdin Mehic: "TreeTest: Online Tree Testing for Information Hierarchies"; Master's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 14 Oct 2019. [96 pages] Abstract: In the field of information architecture (IA), tree testing is a relatively new method for evaluating an information hierarchy. Representative test users are asked to locate items within a plain, bare-bones information hierarchy and their progress is recorded and analysed. Tree testing can be performed using paper cards, locally installed software, or online web applications. TreeTest is an open-source fullstack JavaScript web application for tree testing, based on a MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node). It provides the basic functionality required for creating, running, and analysing the results of a tree testing study. In future, it can serve as the basis for an open-source alternative to existing commercial tree testing applications. coser-2018-bsc.pdf Christopher Oser: "Usability Testing the d3-hypertree Hierarchy Browser" Bachelor's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria 17 Jun 2019. [51 pages] Abstract: This thesis documents the process of testing a web application with the goal of finding relevant usability issues. The application that was tested was authored by Michael d3-hypertree and is part of the Master's thesis "Hyperbolic Browsing: Scalable Hierarchy Browsing in Hyperbolic Space". Testing was done using the Thinking Aloud test method, a popular method for testing software in terms of usability. This thesis starts by describing some origins of the method, followed by a brief explanation of the d3-hypertree and hyperbolic browsing. Then, the exact procedure and how it was adapted and applied for this specific project will be described. In the second half of the thesis the results of the tests will be summarized. These consist of the user's thoughts and remarks as well as what was observed during the tests. Lastly, some possible improvements gathered from insight gained during the project will be proposed. msteininger-2018-bsc.pdf Markus Steininger: "User and Project Management for the Online Card Sorting Tool Sortit" Bachelor's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 01 May 2018. [54 pages] Abstract: Card sorting helps designers include the perspective of users when constructing an information hierarchy, by asking users to organise concepts or phrases into groups and then name the groups. Conducting a card sort by hand can be tedious, so web applications are being developed to support this process. Sortit is an online card sorting tool which aims to support the managers and participants of card sorting projects with an intuitive web-based interface. Sortit uses the full-stack web application framework Meteor together with React and redux to produce a responsive web application. This thesis describes the user and project management elements of Sortit and their implementation. mstefan-2018-pr.pdf Matthias Stefan: "The Project Management and Sorting Interfaces for Sortit" Project Report, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 27 Jan 2018. [41 pages] Abstract: Sortit is an online card sorting tool that allows a project manager to set up and manage a card sorting study. Participants receive a URL and can organize cards into groups using a web-based interface. Sortit uses the JavaScript full stack framework Meteor for its backend and the JavaScript library React for its frontend. Data is stored in the object-oriented database MongoDB. The initial implementation was developed by Haris Ljajić. Upon this work, a project management interface was created for the project manager. An overview page displays basic information about a project, including the cards and current sorts. Sorts can be imported and exported from a CSV file. The import process gives feedback about malformed files. The sorting interface supports drag and drop functionality for the cards and when finished the program prompts the participant to explain the thinking behind their sorting strategy (their mindset). The project uses the coding guideline BEM for its style sheets. Reactstrap is used to integrate Bootstrap 4 for various interface components. jstrauss-2017-msc.pdf Jakob Strauss: "Dynamic Waveform Charts for Real-Time Medical Monitoring" Master's Thesis, ISDS, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 15 May 2017. [74 pages] Abstract: An application was developed to compare different technologies to display dynamic line (waveform) diagrams with a large set of data points. Initially, several different GUI libraries were compared and Qt5 was picked to implement the application. Then, five different renderers for the waveforms were created with Qt native, Qt with OpenGL, Qt with QML and a HTML5 2D Canvas, QtWebView with Pixi.js, and Qt WebView with D3. The goal was to achieve a rendering frame rate of at least 60 frames per second (fps) for flicker-free display on a 60 Hz monitor. A performance comparison showed that only the Qt native and Qt with OpenGL renderers achieved 60 fps. This work was conducted in cooperation with ImPress, a local startup company. mtraub-2016-msc.pdf Matthias Traub: "Using Conversation Metrics for the Automated Orchestration of Video Conference View Modes: Two Comparative Studies" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 14 Dec 2016. [129 pages] Abstract: In the last decade, video conferencing systems have become an essential part of modern communication. Initially predominantly a business application due to its high acquisition cost, video conferencing has made its way from the boardroom to the personal sector and even to hand-helds and mobiles. In addition to the basic combination of audio and video streams, there are many extra capabilities like onscreen drawing, file sharing, and facial recognition. Video conferencing enables real-time, synchronous communication independent of the participants’ location. Although technology has improved, video conferencing systems are still not considered to be as good as face-to-face meetings and therefore constitute a separate communication situation. One of the major problems of video conferences is that each participant has a different perception of the conversational situation and communication. The goal of this thesis is the evaluation of automated orchestration in the Vconect video conferencing system through two comparative studies. In the first study, two different view modes (tiled and full screen) were compared with regard to their impact on the communication and system quality. The study was designed as a repeated measures study with one independent measure being the view mode. A previous study showed that certain view modes are more suitable for particular scenarios. The goal of this study was to see whether this hypothesis holds true in a slow turn-taking scenario. The study was performed with 16 participants split into 4 groups of 4. The study showed no statistically significant preference for a particular view mode, but did reveal a tendency in preference towards tiled view mode, and also revealed other problems with the system. The second comparative study investigated the impact of voice activity detection sensitivity (start delay). Three different degrees of sensitivity were compared within full screen view mode. The thresholds for the three start delays were chosen at 300, 600, and 900 ms according to insights from previous evaluations and simulations. The study was designed as a repeated measures study with one independent measure start delay. The study was performed with 40 participants divided into 10 groups of 4. The analysis of the subjective measures showed that the shortest start delay of 300 ms (highest sensitivity) was rated statistically significantly worse than longer start delays (lower sensitivity) in three aspects. However, overall preference showed only a tendency towards the two longer start delays (lower degrees of sensitivity). hljajic-2016-msc.pdf Haris Ljajić: "sortit: Web Card Sorting Backend" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 23 Aug 2016. [66 pages] Abstract: Card Sorting is a collaborative method in user experience design for understanding how people think about content and categories. It is a technique used to help design and develop an information architectures, such as website navigation paths, workflows, or menu structures. Traditionally, card sorting is performed face-to-face with printed cards and a facilitator. More recently, web-based card sorting applications have become available, allowing card sorting studies to be run online with remote test users. Sortit is a new, web-based card sorting application, which takes advantage of one of the most recent advances in modern web development: full-stack web application frameworks. Full-stack frameworks employ JavaScript at all application levels on both client and server. Sortit makes use of the Meteor framework together with other popular technologies, including React and Redux. mschofnegger-2015-bsc.pdf Markus Schofnegger: "rslidy: Responsive Presentation Slides in HTML5 and CSS3" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 02 Nov 2015. [49 pages] Abstract: This thesis describes rslidy, a new version of an HTML-based web tool, which allows users to create responsive slide presentations. It is based on the idea of Slidy2 written by Dave Raggett, but extends it to be responsive, to work on multiple browsers and platforms, and adds several new features. The new rslidy also uses responsive web design methods like CSS3 Media Queries. In the first part of this thesis, front-end web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript used during the development of rslidy are described. Other web-based slide tools are presented and compared according to their features and implementations. rslidy and its functionality and architecture are explained in the second part. This includes rslidy's code base and its major features. It is shown how to use it for presentations and which settings can be changed. Finally, this thesis describes features still missing in rslidy and shows how they could be implemented during future updates. For example, advanced web technologies like WebSockets for navigating slides remotely are mentioned. mosmic-2015-msc.pdf Majda Osmić: "Aggregated Parallel Coordinates: Multi-Dimensional Information Visualisation in Race Car Engineering" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 21 May 2015. [151 pages] Abstract: In race car engineering, specialised simulation software is used to derive a car setup and a driving strategy for optimal performance during a race. Such software simulations generate complex, highdimensional datasets with a large number of records. To explore such datasets, a corresponding visualisation tool is required. This thesis is the result of cooperation between the AVL’s Racing department and Graz University of Technology. The main goal was to build a visualisation tool optimised for exploration of datasets produced by the AVL’s race car simulation software. Since the complexity of these datasets emerges both from high-dimensionality, as well as the hierarchical structure of the dimensions, several techniques for visualising multi-dimensional and hierarchical data were explored. While some existing techniques are appropriate for visualising particular subsets of the produced data, none of them provide an appropriate mechanism for visualising the hierarchy of dataset dimensions. “Aggregated Parallel Coordinates” is an extension of the standard parallel coordinates technique, which. aside from an effective way to visualise high-dimensional data, supports visualisation and exploration of hierarchies within the dataset dimensions. As part of this thesis, an aggregated parallel coordinates visualisation was implemented as a WPF user control library, which can be added to any WPF application. It provides a comprehensive set of interactions, consisting both of features found in many parallel coordinates implementations, and some unique features especially designed to enhance the process of visual exploration of race car simulation data. The software is already being used as a part of AVL’s race car simulation data visualisation tool called SimBook. mfuchs-2015-bsc.pdf Matthias Fuchs: "Extending the Hierarchical Visualisation System (HVS) with a Radial Tree Visualisation and SKOS Import Functionality" Bachelor's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 24 Apr 2015. [95 pages] Abstract: Information visualisation provides numerous approaches to visually represent hierarchies and interact with them, thereby helping users gain an insight into the extent and structure of the hierarchies. There are also numerous data formats used to store hierarchies, including a number of open, standardized formats. This thesis focuses on both aspects: representing hierarchies visually as well as in an exchangeable data format. The radial tree browser provides various radial tree layouts for hierarchy visualisation and also supports interactivity. It is implemented by extending the Hierarchical Visualisation System (HVS), which is a portable framework for tree visualisation written in Java. HVS is extended with a parser for the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), making both the structure and assigned semantic information of a hierarchical knowledge organisation system realised with SKOS available to HVS and its visualisations. kriechbaumer-2014-bsc.pdf Thomas Kriechbaumer: "Sapphire Back-End: A Web-Based Course Grading Management System" Bachelor's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 28 Feb 2014. [70 pages] Abstract: Teaching a course for hundreds of students is a time-consuming task, considering the preparation time for the classes and exercises and the time for grading. Reviewing and evaluating each student's submissions can take up a great deal of resources and manpower. Spreadsheet-based approaches for managing and grading students, exercises, and points reach their limits of efficiency and scalability. This thesis describes the back-end of the Sapphire project, a web application designed to reduce the amount of effort and time it takes to grade hundreds of students. Sapphire provides an intuitive interface for lecturers, tutors, and students to manage, submit, grade, and review exercise submissions. The main subsystems are an automated importer for all student registrations in a single course each term, a points overview page to present the results of each exercise to the students, giving them feedback on their performance, and a unified evaluation subsystem which allows tutors to easily review and evaluate a single submission based on a list of ratings. This thesis focuses on the back-end of the individual subsystems, as well as the deployment and testing of the whole code base. The overall concept, the model-based relations between the data, and the implementation of Sapphire as a Ruby on Rails web application are documented and explained. bwright.pdf Benedict Wright: "FluidDiagrams: A Cross-Platform, Web-Based Information Visualisation Framework using JavaScript and WebGL" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 24 Jan 2014. [136 pages] Abstract: Information visualisation is the process of transforming data and information into a graphical representation. Visualisation helps the human mind understanding and interacting with large data sets. The aim of this thesis was to create an information visualisation framework using WebGL as its rendering engine. The benefit of using WebGL is to take advantage of the computing power of any installed graphics hardware increase the performance of visualisations. Creating web-based interactive information visualisations can be very cumbersome when not using specialised libraries and toolkits. This thesis first analyses current best practice when creating general web-based applications using JavaScript. The second part looks at current technologies for creating webbased graphics, and using short examples, shows the usage and benefits of current JavaScript libraries. Four existing information visualisation toolkits, JIT, D3, Aperture, and Highcharts are discussed, before introducing FluidDiagrams. FluidDiagrams is a web-based information visualisation framework which uses WebGL for rendering the graphics to the browser. FluidDiagrams was created during this thesis and is based on Three.JS which provides WebGL, Canvas, and SVG rendering engines, depending on the technologies supported by the browser and the underlying operating system and hardware. This enables faster and richer visualisations, since the rendering process is shifted to the graphics card wherever possible. FluidDiagrams was used during the course Information Visualisation [706.057] in SS2013 at Graz University of Technology, where multiple visualisations for FluidDiagrams were created. Finally, this thesis gives a brief outlook into possible adaptations and refinements to the FluidDiagrams framework. dladenhauf.pdf Dieter Ladenhauf: "Liquid Diagrams: A Suite of Information Visualisation Gadgets" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 17 Jan 2012. [159 pages] Abstract: The field of information visualisation is no longer only a discipline for academics, but also increasingly for a more general audience, who want to create computer-based visualisations of their own data. Liquid Diagrams addresses this wider audience by providing twelve highly interactive visualisations, which can be exported using high-quality raster (PNG) and vector graphics (SVG). This thesis gives an overview of existing information visualisation solutions. In addition, it describes the modifications and improvements made to the Liquid Diagrams framework and outlines version 2.0, its current state. Enhancements over version 1.0 include extending the user interface, improving performance, introducing 3d effects, and refactoring the architecture of the framework. Two new variants, a standalone version and a gadget version using cookies, were also created. Liquid Diagrams 2.0 contains the visualisations area chart, bar chart, line chart, pie chart, parallel coordinates, star plot, bat's wing diagram, polar area diagram, heatmap (choropleth map), treemap, Voronoi treemap, and similarity map. The similarity map uses a force-directed placement algorithm to place similar data entities close to one another. A special focus of this thesis is on 3d extensions to the pie chart and heatmap gadgets. chackl.pdf Christian Hackl: "Parallel Coordinates: Exploratory Data Analysis with Parallel Coordinates and the Multi-Dimensional Explorer" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 15 Mar 2011. [151 pages] Abstract: Parallel coordinates are an analysis technique in which multi-dimensional data is visualised by arranging axes in parallel to each other on a plane. Each dimension is represented by one axis. Each data record is represented by a polyline connecting to one point on every axis. The corresponding research field of information visualisation is first presented and numerous techniques are discussed. Parallel coordinates are then discussed in detail, including issues of scalability and performance. Previously developed software tools featuring parallel coordinates are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses analysed. The interactive features necessary to perform exploratory data analysis with parallel coordinates are illustrated. A new, general-purpose information visualisation tool, the Multi-Dimensional Explorer (MDE), was developed in C++ and OpenGL. It facilitates exploratory data analysis with high performance and a variety of user interaction features. The thesis documents the modular software architecture of MDE. User and developer guides for MDE are included as appendices. mlessacher.pdf Martin Lessacher: "Liquid Diagrams: A Suite of Visual Information Gadgets" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 11 Oct 2010. [153 pages] Abstract: Until now, information visualisation was largely used by academics and research companies, but is becoming increasingly popular among a more general audience of computer users with a need or desire to visualise their own data. This thesis surveys existing online visualisation solutions and the technologies used to create them. The thesis then describes Liquid Diagrams, an information visualisation framework written in Flex, which enables information visualisation gadgets to be associated with user data and visualisations to be created within the web browser. A suite of nine visualisations is currently implemented: line chart, bar chart, pie chart, parallel coordinates, area chart, star plot, treemap, heatmap (choropleth map), and voronoi treemap. User data stored in a Google spreadsheet (or otherwise encoded within a web page) is used as the data source and is interactively visualised. Users can configure aspects of each visualisation and can then export high-quality raster graphic (PNG) and vector graphic (SVG) images of their visualisations. ahubmann.pdf Alexander Hubmann-Haidvogel: "ThreadVis for Thunderbird: A Thread Visualisation Extension for the Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Sep 2008. [139 pages] Abstract: Good ideas from the field of information visualisation sometimes fail to make it into everyday interfaces used by real people. ThreadVis incorporates the idea of a Thread Arcs visualisation of email conversations (or threads) into the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client. Implemented as a Thunderbird add-on in JavaScript and XUL, the ThreadVis extension displays all messages in an email or newsgroup discussion in a compact visual map. The chronology of and contributors to a discussion can be easily identified. The visualisation supports user interaction in navigating between messages in a thread and is synchronised with the main Thunderbird application. It is also possible to export the visual thread map in scalable vector graphics (SVG) format. Two forms of usability evaluation were used during ThreadVis development. A usage study gathered log data from 25 test participants and analysed user behaviour patterns with the software. A thinking aloud test with six test users was run to provide formative feedback. jkasanicka.pdf Janka Kasanicka: "Comparative Evaluation of Hierarchy Browsers with the Hierarchical Visualisation Testing Environment (HVTE)" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Sep 2006. [222 pages] Abstract: The field of information visualisation has seen tremendous growth over the last decade, with many new methods and approaches presented in the literature. However, evaluations of these new techniques are still rather scarce. This thesis presents a comparative evaluation of four visualisations of hierarchies: TreeView, Information Pyramids, TreeMap, and Hyperbolic Browser. The visualisations are implemented in Java as part of the Hierarchical Visualisation System (HVS), developed at Graz University of Technology. A semi-automated testing environment, The Hierarchical Visualisation Testing Environment (HVTE), was built upon HVS to simplify the running of a series of usability tests and to automate the collection of performance data. HVTE automatically provides participants with tasks in the sequence corresponding to their randomly assigned test case. Task completion times as well as typed answers are collected in a database. A counterbalanced, repeated measures study was designed to compare the four visualisations, with 32 test users each performing 8 tasks. The results showed almost no significant differences in task completion times between the four visualisations. The participants significantly preferred the TreeView in subjective ratings. All participants were familiar with this kind of visualisation and had years of experience working with it. The TreeMap visualisation performed quite well, but was rather unpopular in the subjective ratings. The Pyramids and Hyperbolic visualisations were rated in the middle. wprinz.pdf Wolfgang Prinz: "The Graph Visualization System (GVS): A Flexible Java Framework for Graph Drawing" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Mar 2006. [124 pages] Abstract: A graph describes relationships between entities and is usually represented by a set of nodes (entities) and a set of edges (relations) between the nodes. Metadata such as labels or weights are often associated with the elements of a graph. The field of graph drawing, part of the wider field of information visualization, seeks to visualize the abstract information contained within a graph for the human observer. A drawing of a graph is a graphical image, in two or three dimensions, which reflects the graph's topology and characteristics as closely as possible. Applications of graph drawing include social network and web site visualization, transportation network maps, and document cluster analysis. The Graph Visualization System (GVS) is a modular, flexible, and extensible framework for graph drawing implemented in Java. GVS provides implementations of some of the standard layered and forcedirected graph drawing techniques. In addition, GVS is designed to be used as a demonstrator tool when teaching graph drawing methods. To this end, each of the implemented algorithms is divided into its constituent parts, which can be stepped through (and undone) interactively. mloitzl.pdf Martin Loitzl: "The Heuristic Evaluation Manager (HEM): An Online Collaborative Environment for Heuristic Evaluation" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Feb 2006. [228 pages] Abstract: Heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method, in which a small team of expert evaluators working alone review a user interface according to a small set of principles (or heuristics) and use their experience and judgement to assemble a list of potential usability problems. An evaluation manager then typically synthesises an aggregate list of problems from the individual lists of each inspector. The Heuristic Evaluation Manager (HEM) is a collaborative web application which assists in every aspect of heuristic evaluation. Evaluators are given accounts in an evaluation project and enter their findings and supporting screenshots online. The evaluation manager uses HEM to assemble an aggregate merged list of findings. The evaluators then enter severity ratings for each usability problem into HEM. Finally, HEM supports sorting the findings in decreasing order of severity and generating a draft evaluation report in XHTML. HEM is implemented in PHP4 with XHTML and CSS style sheets and uses a relational database such as MySQL. This thesis gives an overview of the methods of usability engineering in general and usability inspection methods in particular, including the technique of heuristic evaluation and various proposed sets of heuristics. The architecture, implementation, and use of HEM are discussed in detail. The thesis includes HEM user guides and a HEM developer guide as appendices. anuss.pdf Alexander Nussbaumer: "Hierarchy Browsers: Integrating Four Graph-Based Hierarchy Browsers into the Hierarchical Visualisation System (HVS)" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Aug 2005. [129 pages] Abstract: Information visualisation seeks to transform abstract information structures into a visually understandable form. Hierarchical structures are particularly prevalent and widely used. This thesis presents four hierarchy browsers developed using the Java framework provided by the Hierarchical Visualisation System (HVS). The four hierarchy browsers are all graph-based and use node-link visual representations. TheWalker layout browser implements a classic tree drawing algorithm and is used as common basis of the other three visualisations. The hyperbolic browser is based on hyperbolic geometry, which achieves a focus plus context effect and highly efficient usage of two-dimensional space. The Magic Eye browser achieves its focus plus context effect as a result of spherical projection. Finally, the InfoLens browser makes use of a two-way fish-eye distortion technique. wputz.pdf Werner Putz: "The Hierarchical Visualization System: A General Framework for Visualizing Information Hierarchies Using the Example of Information Pyramids" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, March 2005. [141 pages] Abstract: In recent years numerous techniques have been developed for visualizing hierarchies. This thesis describes a framework for the visualization of hierarchically structured information called the Hierarchical Visualization System (HVS). This general framework provides a synchronized, multiple view environment for visualizing hierarchies. A traditional tree view and an implementation of Information Pyramids (the PyramidsBrowser) are provided as example reference browsers in the HVS framework. Other two-dimensional and threedimensional visualization techniques such as Treemaps, Hyperbolic Browser, Cone Trees, Magic Eye View, and the Walker tree layout have also been implemented within HVS. Since pure Java is used for the implementation, HVS is portable to any platform. btatzmann.pdf Bernhard Tatzmann: "Dynamic Exploration of Large Graphs" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, March 2004. [100 pages] Abstract: In a world where information is one of the most important resources, dynamic exploration of large information structures is becoming more and more important. Visualising information as graphs and providing the possibility to browse them is one possibility to make this task easier. This thesis describes a new graph drawing approach, combining both static and dynamic graph drawing algorithms. The static graph drawing algorithm is based on the hierarchical drawing approach introduced by Sugiyama and places nodes on concentric circles around a focused node. The user can browse by changing the focus, which causes a change in the layout of the graph. The transition from the old to the new layout is smoothly animated using a dynamic graph drawing algorithm which moves clusters of nodes as rigid objects. This approach, which has been integrated into an existing graph drawing package called JMFGraph (Java Modular Framework for Graph Drawing), is explained in detail. A modular overview of JMFGraph and a user guide complete the thesis. hkoehler.pdf Harald Koehler: "FAEJ3D: A File Attribute Explorer in Java3D" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, February 2002. [106 pages] Abstract: Information visualization has many advantages compared to a pure textural representation, but why and how can information visualization be used for a certain goal? This thesis gives an overview of the physiological and psychological aspects of seeing and perceiving data. Some popular approaches in information visualization are described. A prototypefile attribute visualizer was implemented in Java3D. The File Attribute Explorer in Java3D (FAEJ3D) displays files as glyphs in 3D space with extrinsic and intrinsic mappings. The user can freely explore the space and change mappings dynamically. A secondary aim was to investigate the suitability of Java3D to such information visualizations. In this regard, it can be said that Java3D still needs to improve, in particular with regard to e ciency and bugs. astedile.pdf Alexander Stedile: "JMFGraph A Modular Framework for Drawing Graphs in Java", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, November 2001. [92 pages] Abstract: This thesis describes JMFGraph. JMFGraph is an open, modular graph drawing framework for displaying and browsing graphs. JMFGraph is implemented in Java following the object-oriented pro-gramming paradigm. The program includes two variations of Sugiyama s hierarchical graph layout algorithm, a standard and a focus-based version. The framework is equipped to support both a static layout mode (global view mode) and a dy-namic mode (local view mode) which creates a graph layout with respect to one focussed node in the displayed graph. By repeatedly moving the focus to different nodes the user may explore the dis-played graph. This navigation method is often called browsing. JMFGraph additionally provides the possibility to visualise intermediate results from sub-algorithms by a user controlled step-by-step execution mode. Interfaces for modular extensions are provided. This extendibility concerns layout algorithms and sub-algorithms, graphical representations for nodes and edges, and modules for inputting graphs from a variety of sources. vsabol.pdf Vedran Sabol: "Visualisation Islands: Interactive Visualisation and Clustering of Search Result Sets", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, October 2001. [186 pages] Abstract: The amount of knowledge available electronically is increasing exponentially. Huge amounts of information are available over the Internet and searching for a specific topic often results in a large number of matches. A significant portion of hits is often not at all of interest and the retrieved information contains no explicit relations between different hits, making it hard to obtain an overview and find relevant information. Visualisation is a powerful technique for distinguishing relevant from non-relevant information and for locating information of interest easily and efficiently. This thesis describes Visualisation Is-lands, a system for topically organising documents returned in a response to a search query according to their similarity. Search results are visualised in the form of an explorable, intuitive, topically organ-ised topographic map, where relationships between documents are encoded by proximity. Topically similar documents are grouped together forming densely populated areas visualised as mountains and labeled with corresponding documents keywords. These areas are separated by lower areas or water containing less similar objects. The topical map visualisation is constructed by applying clustering algorithms on documents in vectorised form, creating groups of similar documents, subsequently positioning the documents in the 2-D viewport space according to the similarity of their vectors by using a force-directed place-ment algorithm, and generating a topographic background image based on computed 2-D document coordinates. To provide platform-independence Visualisation Islands is implemented in Java. eweit.pdf Erwin Weitlaner: "Metadata Visualisation: Visual Exploration of File Systems and Search Result Sets based on Metadata Attributes", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, December 1999. [96 pages] Abstract: Current Internet search tools often provide too many search results, are often lacking in recall and precision, and typically present search results only in the form of a textual list ranked by estimated relevance. This thesis describes the Search Result Explorer, a program which visualises search result sets by plotting matching documents on a two-dimensional display. Metadata attributes of the search results such as document size, modification date, relevance, and number of links can be selectively mapped to the display axes. Further attributes can be mapped to the size and colour of a document's graphic representation in the display itself. The overall result is an explorable visualisation of a search result set with the possibility to compare them regarding to different attributes. A second visualisation tool for file systems, the File Attribute Explorer, served as a prototype and is also described in this thesis. mwelz.pdf Michael Welz: "The Java Pyramids Explorer: A Portable, Graphical Hierarchy Browser", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, September 1999. [119 pages] Abstract: The abundance of hierarchically structured information has lead to the development of numerous techniques to visualise information hierarchies. However, many of these techniques, while visually appealing, do not scale well to very large hierarchies. This thesis presents the Java Pyramids Explorer, which combines a compact three-dimensional information pyramids visualisation with a conventional tree browser, allowing users to rapidly explore even large heirarchies. Written in pure Java, the Java Pyramids Explorer is portable across multiple platforms. jschipf.pdf Juergen Schipflinger: "The Design and Implementation of the Harmony Session Manager", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, December 1998. [107 pages] Abstract: This thesis describes the Harmony session manager. Harmony is a graphical client and authoring tool for the Hyperwave information server. Harmony provides an intuitive interface to Hyperwave's underlying infrastructure, such as hierarchical structuring, rich metadata, sophisticated search functionality, and user management. The Harmony session manager provides the central navigational and authoring functionality of Harmony. The collection browser visualises the hierarchical collection structure in a dynamically generated tree and provides location feedback for all visited documents. The local map visualises hyperlink structures between documents in the form of a dynamically generated graph. Simple and extended search dialogues interface to Hyperwave's powerful search facilities. The Harmony session manager's authoring functionality includes interactive structuring, insertion, and deletion of documents, and interactive editing of document and link metadata. Individual document viewers are started by the Harmony session manager to display document contents. The session manager, in cooperation with the document viewers, supports document content editing and interactive link creation. Finally, extensibility is provided through a programmable API and user-configurable menus. kwagen.pdf Karl Heinz Wagenbrunn: "Rendering and External Authoring Functionality for VRwave", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, November 1998. [135 pages] Abstract: The exponential growth of the Internet and its multimedia cousin, the World Wide Web (WWW), has given birth to many new tools and applications. Two of those tools are the platform independent network programming language Java and the 3D graphics standard for the Internet, the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Combining these two tools allows the description and exploration of rich, distributed, and interactive 3D scenes that are embedded into and linked to the World Wide Web. The VRwave VRML97 browser is written largely in Java and is freely available in source code. A Java layer atop OpenGL provides 3D graphics output. VRwave also supports the Java External Au-thoring Interface (EAI), allowing communication between VRML scenes and external Java programs. This thesis presents an inside look into the implementation of VRwave's rendering functionality and Java EAI support. jwolte.pdf Josef Wolte: "Information Pyramids: Compactly Visualising Large Hierarchies", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, October 1998. [113 pages] Abstract: Visualising and exploring large hierarchies may look like a simple task, but there is currently no single tool available which addresses this task sufficiently. This thesis describes Information Pyramids which are a new technique to visualise large hierarchies. It utilises three-dimensional graphics to display large hierarchies in an compact and appealing way. Square-shaped plateaus arranged on successive planes represent nodes of a hierarchy. The plateaus representing child nodes of a hierarchy node are laid out atop of the parent node plateau. The overall impression is that of pyramids growing on a plane. To develop and test this new technique a file system browser using Information Pyramids was created. It is written in Java and uses the native code interface to existing 3D libraries such as OpenGL and Mesa. mgartler.pdf Michael Gartler: "Design and Implementation of a Course Generator for a Web Based Training System" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, August 1998. [124 pages] Abstract: One of the major Intra- / Internet applications are multimedia content learning systems suitable for employee training. Web Based Training (WBT) utilizes modern information technology and broadband data networks in order to transfer knowledge and courses ('Courseware') in various multimedia formats directly to the employee's working place (on-the-job-training). This thesis illustrates all aspects of WBT and describes existing systems and results in academic research. The main focus is set on Hyperwave as proper WBT platform, hence the WBT-prototype GENTLE (GEneral Network Training and Learning Environment) and its application in the TU-Graz broadband university data network are described in a very detailed way. Furthermore, there is an extensive presentation of an authoring tool used to easily create an empty courseware data structure on the WBT server (GENTLE module 'Course Wizard'). The implementation of the Course Wizard with client-side JavaScript, Perl-CGI, HTML and Hyperwave specific programming techniques (PLACE) gives an insight to the mechanisms of a typical Intranet application. wgoetz.pdf Wolfgang Goetzinger: "Testimplementation einer Audiodatenbank auf dem Hyperwave Information Server" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 1998. [80 pages] In German. Abstract: This Master's thesis describes the implementation of an audio database for the Hyperwave Information Server. The Hyperwave Information Server is a next generation Internet/Intranet document management system and differs from common web servers by many concepts, e.g. full text search, link consistency and user management. These concepts enable the realisation of features, which bring many facilities to the user when accessing the audio database, among other things a survey of the data is given with the help of metadata and audio links. The theoretical part of this thesis describes the possibilities of using audio on the Internet, gives a survey of the use of metadata and describes digital audio techniques with regard to data reduction. The process of realising the audio database on Hyperwave is also described. In doing so the concepts of existing audio databases were evaluated, further ideas concieved and a realisation concept built. The second part of the thesis describes the implementation in detail. iegger.pdf Ingmar Egger: "Usability Evaluation of an Instrumented Version of the Harmony Internet Browser" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Nov. 1997. [122 pages] Abstract: Developing easy-to-use software is one of the most difficult aspects in the software engineering process. This thesis uses a technique called software instrumentation to perform usability tests with real users. In this thesis the implementation steps which were used to produce an instrumented version of Harmony, the native Unix client of the Hyperwave web server, are shown. This version of Harmony was tested in a field test and the whole testing phase including the data transmission process is also described. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the collected data and general trends in the working behavior, particularly the navigation habits, of the test users are presented. Critical aspects of this usability testing method conclude the thesis. smayr.pdf Susanne Mayr: "SearchVis: Visualising Search Result Sets Using a Force-Based Method to Form Clusters of Similar Documents" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Oct. 1997. [107 pages] Abstract: As human knowledge increases, so the volume of electronically available information grows. Finding specific information becomes more difficult and ever more matches are returned in response to a search query. Since quantity is seldom quality, numerous approaches to make sense of search result sets have been proposed. This thesis describes an approach called SearchVis to visualise search result sets, which is based on an approach by Matthew Chalmers described in his 1996 paper 'A Linear Iterative Layout Algorithm for Visualising High-Dimensional Data'. The visualisation concentrates on the similarities between the documents retrieved. An animated, force-based technique produces clusters of similar documents. Through this technique similar documents are attracted and non-similar documents repelled. SearchVis allows the user to adjust the visual discrimination of the clusters using different parameters. It was tested with a varity of test data sets for a wide range of parameter settings. In order to reach as wide an audience as possible, SearchVis was written in Java. agrim.pdf Angela Grim: "Multimedia im Hyperwave: Autoren und Management Werkzeug Amadeus" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, July 1997. [123 pages] In German. Abstract: This thesis describes especially the following topics: Internet, Hyperwave and Multimedia. It deals with a general description of the internet and the most important terms assiociated with it. The next important part presents Hyperwave and its advantages over general WWW-servers. This presentation is followed by a description of the authoring and management tool Amadeus, for which the MediaPlayer - the result of this master thesis - was written for. The focal point of this work is Multimedia. Therefore there is an overview of the most well known kinds of datacompression and the most important dataformats of audio and video. Each of these formats is described very exactly. Finally there follows a description about the MediaPlayer for Amadeus, which was developed within the scope of this thesis. cfessl.pdf Christian Fessl: "Entwicklung einer Querycollection für das Hyper-G Authoring Tool Amadeus" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 1997. [106 pages] In German. Abstract: This thesis is about the development of an understandable and efficient method for storing and retrieving huge amounts of structured data. It deals with the Internet, its organisation and mechanisms. Then there is a description of the Hyperwave-information-management-system. The theory of human computer interaction and the possibilities of information retrieval systems are dicussed. At last there is an exact explanation of the so called "Querycollection" and their usage and implementation. arodiga.pdf Alexander Rodiga: "The HarSearch Similarity Map: Visualising Search Result Sets Using a Maximum Similarity Spanning Tree". Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, May 1997. [119 pages] Abstract: As the size of an information space grows very large, finding specific information becomes increasingly difficult and ever more matches are returned by search queries. Numerous approaches have been proposed to make sense of search result sets. This thesis describes HarSearch, an extension to the Hyperwave client Harmony, which utilises the retrieval mechanisms of the Hyperwave server. HarSearch provides a Similarity Map which takes an innovative approach by visualising search result sets using a maximum similarity spanning tree. The Similarity Map allows users to interactively explore search result sets, in terms of document similarities. ggeiger.pdf Guenther Geiger: "A Digital Audio Player for the HyperWave Internet Server". Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Jan. 1997. [117 pages] Abstract: This thesis describes the Harmony Audio Player, an application for playback and link editing of digital audio documents managed by the HyperWave Internet server and Web document management system. Harmony is the Unix client and authoring tool for HyperWave. The Harmony Audio Player supports numerous diverse digital audio formats and was carefully designed to achieve maximum portability between different Unix platforms, which traditionally provide incompatible audio output facilities. A graphical waveform tool with moving cursor reflects the current playback posi-tion during audio output. Local audio documents can be uploaded onto the HyperWave server, in a man-ner similar to other media types in Harmony. Particularly interesting are the Harmony Audio Player's facilities for editing and following hyperlinks in audio documents - both source and destination anchor regions can be specified interactively. A stand-alone version of the Audio Player is available for general-purpose multi-platform, multi-format audio playback, such as a helper application for a Web browser. gmeszaros.pdf Georg N. Meszaros: "An Investigation of Visibility Techniques to Improve Rendering Speed in 3D Browsers" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, August 1996. [134 pages] Abstract: As VRML becomes the standard for describing 3D scenes on the Internet, many VRML viewers are being developed with proprietary interests or for specific target systems or protocols. VRweb is a VRML viewer available as both binary and source code for multiple platforms. VRweb source code is copyrighted, but is freely available for non-commercial use and therefore providing a good platform for research and experiment. Almost all currently available VRML 3D browsers are built on graphics libraries using depth values in a Z-buffer to achieve correct visibility in the scene. In this thesis I investigate the possibility of improving rendering speed in VRweb through visibility calculation to determine and render only the visible parts. Especially when navigating through virtual environments like buildings or houses it seems convincing that, being in a room, the part of the scene that lies outside the room, does not need to be rendered. In the course of this thesis, VRML and some 3D browsers are introduced before giving a short introduction to 3D graphics, viewing and rendering. The explanation of different visibility approaches is followed by an overview of some 3D graphics libraries. After a closer look at VRweb, the implemented visibility algorithms are discussed. Finally the chosen approach is evaluated and compared with the standard rendering method using a Z-buffer before giving a framework of how to accelerate interactive walkthroughs in buildings using hierarchical viewing volume culling in VRweb. pwolf.pdf Peter Wolf: "Three-Dimensional Information Visualisation: The Harmony Information Landscape" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, May 1996. [105 pages] Abstract: The Harmony Information Landscape is a three-dimensional graphical interface for browsing hypermedia information on a Hyper-G server. It automatically generates a navigable spatial layout that visualises documents on the server, their attributes, hierarchy and hyperlink relationships between them. In the course of this thesis various new features have been added to a first, basic version of the Landscape. This thesis first describes the Landscape's underlying data model defined by Hyper-G, and compares it to other Internet information systems. Then various aspects of spatial information visualisation are discussed. The Landscape's new features and details of their implementation in C++ under the UNIX operating system are introduced. Finally, a user's guide provides a brief overview of the current user interface. cwindisch.pdf Claudia Windisch: "HarAdmin: A Graphical Tool for Hyper-G Server Administration" Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, November 1995. [108 pages] Abstract: This thesis gives a short overview of information systems available on the Internet and a detailed description of Hyper-G, the first second generation hypermedia information system. The biggest problem of distributed information systems is disorientation. Because of the huge amount of information available on the Internet the user has difficulty to gain an overview, to know how much information exists to a certain topic, etc. Hyper-G has navigational, structuring, and search facilities to help cope with this problem. Two particular features are Hyper-G's user accounts and its hierarchical scheme of user groups, which are used to grant or deny access to specific parts of the information space. Hgadmin, a VT100 terminal and HarAdmin, a graphical X-Windows based tool for user and group administration are explained in detail in this thesis. HarAdmin is based on the Hyper-G Client/Server Protocol and on hgadmin. It provides functionality for browsing through the user-group hierarchy, displays all existing users and groups of the current Hyper-G server, and makes it easy to create, delete, and manipulate user accounts and user groups. aschmid.pdf Alfons Schmid: "A Mail Archive Server on Top of Hyper-G", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, November 1995. [110 pages] Abstract: The increasing employment of Internet services, especially that of Electronic Mail, confronts many users with the problem of processing, storing and eventually retrieving large amounts of e-mail. Many tools have been introduced to facilitate these jobs. However, most existing solutions are limited in their utility, because they apply archives - mostly files and directories - which are rigid in their structure once they are created, and they scarcely provide functions to manage large numbers of stored articles. Moreover, most of these tools are unable to properly process multimedia e-mail, the importance of which is steadily growing. This thesis describes the design and implementation of an archive server which does not employ files for storage, but Hyper-G, a Hypermedia Information System. By this special approach, the server overcomes the weaknesses of conventional solutions, and in addition, it offers a lot of advanced functions which are new in the field of mail processing. meyl.pdf Martin Eyl: "The Harmony Information Landscape: Interactive, Three-Dimensional Navigation Through an Information Space", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, October 1995. [108 pages] Abstract: Computer have made it possible to store and process larger and larger amounts of information, but humans have problems to manage such large amounts of data. Hence user interfaces have improved and the use of spatial metaphors and hyperlinks and the 3D representation of information have gained in significance. This thesis first discusses a number of research projects which use spatial metaphors and then introduces you to hypertext and the Harmony Information Landscape which visualizes the hierarchical structure of information as an information landscape. This information is stored on a Hyper-G server which is an Internet-based, large-scale hypermedia system. Blocks representing collections of individual pieces of information are spread out on a plane and one can interactively fly over this virtual landscape. Several different navigation modes are provided. cderler.pdf Christian Derler: "The World-Wide Web Gateway to Hyper-G: Using a Connectionless Protocol to Access Session-Oriented Services", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, March 1995. [105 pages] Abstract: In this thesis, possibilities are studied how session-oriented services on the Internet can be made accessible to users of client programs that use a connectionless application-level protocol. The concepts and properties of two Hypermedia Information Systems, the World-Wide Web (WWW) and Hyper-G, are described and a comparison between these two systems is given. A gateway program was developed which is used as a protocol converter between the session-oriented Hyper-G client-server protocol and the connectionless Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A mechanism was implemented that allows to differentiate HTTP requests and to assign them to Hyper-G sessions. The gateway provides users of World-Wide Web clients with session-oriented access to information residing on Hyper-G servers. bmarschall.pdf Bernhard Marschall: "Integration of Digital Video into Distributed Hypermedia Systems", Master's Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Technology, Austria, March 1995. [81 pages] Abstract: This thesis discusses digital video and its integration into hypermedia systems. It shows some algorithms and formats to compress and store digital video, focusing on the MPEG standard. General topics on hypertext and hypermedia systems are discussed as well as their problems and drawbacks, and ways to overcome them. As a special example the architecture and features of Hyper-G and its Unix/X11 client Harmony are described. Finally, the features and implementation of the Harmony Film Player are described. It fully integrates MPEG movies into the hyperlink structure of Hyper-G/Harmony by allowing links from and to movie documents. Any part of a movie, both temporal and spatial, can be used either as source or destination anchor of a hyperlink. mpichler.pdf Michael Pichler: "Interactive Browsing of 3D Scenes in Hypermedia: The Hyper-G 3D Viewer", Master Thesis, IICM, Graz University of Tech- nology, Austria, October 1993. [130 pages] Abstract: This thesis discusses methods for interactive navigation through virtual 3D scenes in hypermedia systems. Several methods for manipulating the scene and navigating through it have been developed as well as alternatives for hightlighting pickable objects (information links). The implemented 3D viewer has been embedded into the Hyper-G hypermedia system. Program evaluation was done with heuristic evaluation and usability tests.