Several on-going and proposed projects appear in separate sections below.
Our goal is to integrate various computational applications the processes
controlling and interrelating them into a single overarching framework. A
hypertext engine will use a master schema (bridge laws) connecting
individual schema for each application. This bi-level schema design enables
the engine to track objects through computational transformations across
applications and reports, allowing the reader to apply hypertext
functionality (navigation, annotation and view-oriented operations) to any
object or process in the entire system.
We are extending the HTML language in a very pricipled and robust manner to add any new data type or document-based function (graphics, charting, versioning, etc.) to the HTML markup language. Anyone will be able to define their own HTML extension using our outline. We also are developing a World Wide Web browser/editor that will be able to display any document written in this extended HTML format automatically.
Our goal is to add hypertext features to computation (vs. display-oriented)
information systems to improve their effectiveness and give users direct
access to the interrelationships within applications. To do so we are
developing a general hypertext data model specifically for this domain, GHMI. GHMI specifies and extends the well-known Dexter hypertext reference model to support computational systems.
We are applying this to relational database management systems. The data
model will include a variety of structures for modeling information at
various levels of detail.
This project applies the concept of hypertext through a hypermedia engine
into independent information systems. The engine runs concurrently with
other applications and automatically gives them this hypermedia
functionality. A major contribution of this work is automatically detecting
the location of interrelationships in messages and documents based on a
knowledge of the application's internal structure, and upon the current user
and task. This may involve arbitrarily complex inference. The engine
dynamically infers which message and document contents have
interrelationships, and automatically makes these into hypermedia "buttons".
When the user selects one of these buttons, the engine dynamically
determines the available "links" to related application objects, appropriate
application commands and any user-specified annotations, making all these
accessible to the user. Our goal is for applications to utilize the
hypermedia engine with minimal or no changes.
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The vast majority of World Wide Web documents, which users typically access
through Mosaic and other "viewers," are static, i.e., pre-declared and
unchanging. In this project we are exploring ways to generate World Wide
Web nodes dynamically as users traverse links. This will permit viewers to
act as interfaces to information systems that employ databases and
dynamically generate information.
In analytic (computation-oriented) applications, display and other interface
functionality is second in importance to the application's analytic
capabilities. Many of these systems do not take advantage of hypertext
techniques that give users direct access to application interrelationships.
Hypertext features can provide supplemental support functionality, which
augments both the application's user interface and computational components.
In analytic applications designers often must integrate hypertext "into" the
design of the system's computation and interface modules, instead of
designing these modules "around" hypertext functionality. In this project
we develop design guidelines and methodologies for providing hypertext as
secondary support functionality.
This project studies the logical foundations for representing and reasoning
about people's actions and their effects upon others. We are developing a
logical framework to model actions that affect the epistemic states of
agents, as well as automated reasoning methods for applying the framework
and drawing conclusions. Communications play an important role in human
actions. This research examines how different methods of computer-mediated
communication, such as well as hypertext structuring, multimedia richness
and natural language function as part of social activity. To apply this
research we are developing automated reasoning tools supporting
collaborative decision making, and the process of software specification and
development.
Virtual reality inherently includes multimedia. This project looks at
applying multiple types of media and especially text to virtual reality
environments. To date, very little research has been conducted on how
people "read" information in virtual reality environments. Yet, even in
virtual environments users will need to read annotations and other linked
materials. Therefore, in this project we also study how to represent
interrelationships as links in a virtual reality environment, how users
should select and follow them, and how users will process the information
they find.
This project studies the application of multimedia databases to information
systems containing dynamically changing information. We explore the special
aspects of software engineering that best exploit multimedia databases. We
also explore the use of multimedia databases to support non-textual
hypermedia relationships.
This research concerns developing a comprehensive domain model that fully
describes the people, tasks and computer-related components involved in a
"virtual" organization. The domain model supports the systems analysis and
requirements engineering for all on-going software development projects in
the domain. We use hypertext annotation and links to represent all direct
and implicit relationships in the domain model. We plan to develop a domain
analysis editor that uses hypermedia both within its internal structuring
and as an external presentation facility. This approach uses the hypertext
relationships to project and slice a complete model in order to present it
in an understandable way.
Professor
Michael Bieber Affiliated Researchers and Related Interests
Related Interests: automating hypermedia functionality, decision
support, information systems
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Co-affilitation: Director,
Collaborative Systems Lab, NJIT
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Affiliated Ph.D. Students
Successful Graduates
On-Going Research Projects
Proposed Research Projects
Undergraduate and Masters Student Research Projects
The lab also sponsors a series of undergraduate and masters
student projects,
which are part of the CIS department's curriculum requirements.
Contact Information
For more information on the Hypermedia Information Systems Research Lab,
please contact:
Hypermedia Information Systems Research Lab
Institute for Integrated Systems Research
New Jersey Institute of Technology
University Heights - Newark, New Jersey 07102
Phone: (201) 596-2681
FAX: (201) 596-5777
E-Mail:bieber@cis.njit.edu