technical reports

Theophil, S., and Schödl, A.
Proceedings of the Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Eighteenth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference (AAAI)
July 16-20, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for a new variation of the point feature labeling problem. The goal is to position the largest number of point labels such that they do not intersect each other or their points. First we present an algorithm using a greedy algorithm with limited lookahead. We then present an algorithm that iteratively regroups labels, calling the first algorithm on each group, thereby identifying a close to optimal labeling order. The presented algorithm is being used in a commercial product to label charts, and our evaluation shows that it produces results far superior to those of other labeling algorithms.

think-cell article AAAI06

Hannebauer, M., and Schöch, V.
Chart Creation in Business Consultancies –
A quantitative study on software efficiency.
think-cell technical report TC2003/02, April 2003.

Consulting firms spend a large share of their resources on client communication. Most leading consulting firms employ specialists to translate their consultants' findings and recommendations into convincing client deliverables. These specialists have gained years of experience and developed a best practice building upon the industry standard Microsoft PowerPoint.

Still, our own personal experience in a consulting firm and anecdotal evidence from other consultants and graphics experts indicated a large potential for improving slide creation efficiency.

Starting from these indications, we spent half a year conducting interviews and observing work flows to thoroughly understand the problem. We then used test scenarios to quantify our qualitative impression. We focused heavily on software efficiency. We cooperated with a top-tier strategy consulting firm, and they allowed us to publish this data anonymously.

The main result of this study is that the efficiency in creating and altering charts can be improved by a factor of three to four compared to the current best practice. For details check out the complete study.

think-cell technical report TC2003/02

think-cell chart case study (abbreviated version)

Schöch, V.
A GUI-based Interaction Concept for Efficient Slide Layout
think-cell technical report TC2003/01, March 2003.

A range of research systems have been developed for layout automation, but none of them is suitable for business slide creation. There are also many efficient user interface techniques described in the literature, but to this day few have been employed in popular presentation software. In this report, a field study was conducted that shows which problems arise when Microsoft PowerPoint is used in a professional context. Based on the study, this research presents a new interaction concept for the efficient layout of business slides.

The smart grid is a technique that is used to numerically encode spatial constraints and to arrange smart elements on a slide accordingly. An intuitive interaction concept was developed that allows the efficient specification of smart grid constraints. The concept was implemented in a prototype using efficient algorithms to achieve interactive response times. A dynamic programming algorithm is used to compute intelligent layout suggestions.

The prototype runs as part of a commercial product that enhances Microsoft PowerPoint with constraint-based layout support. In the product, a numeric constraint solver calculates the optimal smart grid layout for a given set of smart elements and placement constraints. A case study verified that the interaction concept as implemented in the prototype increases the efficiency for layout specification by about 20% over PowerPoint alone, even for expert users.

think-cell technical report TC2003/01