Character user interface

When initially describing the system context, we avoid describing UI specifics, because these can vary. Detailed interactions via the user interface are better treated as a refinement of the abstract use cases that are being carried out. The basic MVC architecture applies to many forms of user interfaces, including graphical, character-based, touch screen, and voice-response. 

Figure 7 shows part of the user consultation that elicited the inputs listed in Figure 6. The current user interface provides on-line help as well as a menu of numbered valid responses. The user may either type in the number or the listed item. In answer to the user typing " ", the system rephrases the question, redisplays acceptable values, and specifies what other characters are recognized. If this is not enough information, the...

For several years, operating systems were character based. They displayed information on the screen in text format and people interacted with them using command words. Then, a couple of people at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), intrigued with the idea that computers should be friendly and easy to use, started working with a graphical user interface (GUI), which used pictures to represent computer entities (like files, disks, and so on). To interact with the pictures, a special device was introduced into the computer world. This device was the mouse. The mouse translates movements on a horizontal surface into movements of a pointer on the screen. There are two methods of making these translations opto-mechanical and optical. 

Another example of a human-like user interface is the inclusion of emotion (Miller et al., 1999). Current work in this area includes cameras that monitor facial expressions and sensors that detect physiological changes. These signals provide the information necessary for an affective tutor to adjust a program to react to emotions. For example, if the tutor detects confusion, an alternative explanation could be offered. Researchers are also working on user interfaces that express emotion to the user as well. These are based on animated characters that change facial expressions to react to input questions. These advances could be of benefit to individuals who have intellectual disabilities and require more concrete interactions. 

The basic function of a viewing station is the convenient viewing of the data, with a patient selection section. The functions are grouped in a so-called graphical user interface (GUl. Versatile PC based viewing packages are now widely available (see RSNA 2006 for an extensive list), many also offering extended ASCl character sets for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean markets. 

Rickenberg, R., Reeves, B. The Effects of Animated Characters on Anxiety, Task Performance, and Evaluations of User Interfaces. In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 49-56. ACM Press, New York (2000)... 

Rist, T., Andre, E., Baldes, S. A Elexible Platform for Building Applications with Life-Like Characters. In International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, ACM Press, New York (2003)... 

However, the power of any particular screen reader is in the degree to which the other capabilities dictated by the use of the GUI are achieved. The fundamental differences in the ways that a text-only command-line interface (CLI) and a GUI provide output to the video screen present access problems for persons who are blind. These are related to both the ways in which internal control of the computer display is accomplished and the ways in which the GUI is employed by the computer user (Boyd et al., 1990). The CLI-type interfaces use a memory buffer to store text characters for display. Since all the displayed text can be represented by ASCII code, it is relatively easy to use a software program and to divert text from the screen to a speech synthesizer or Braille display. However, this type of screen reader is unable to provide access to charts, tables, or plots because of their graphic features. This type of system is also limited in the features that can be used with text. For example, features such as size, shape, and font or alternative graphic forms are not captured in standard ASCII text code. 

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