2002.08.29 - SLIDE 1IS 202 - Fall 2002

Lecture 02: Info/History/Photo

Prof. Ray Larson & Prof. Marc Davis

UC Berkeley SIMS

Tuesday and Thursday 10:30 am - 12:00 am

Fall 2002

SIMS 202:

Information Organization

and Retrieval

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Lecture Outline

• What Is Information?

• History of Information Search and Organization

• Photo Project Introduction

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Lecture Outline

• What Is Information?

• History of Information Search and Organization

• Photo Project Introduction

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What is Information?

• There is no “correct” definition

• Can involve philosophy, psychology, signal processing, physics

• Cookie Monster’s definition:– “news or facts about something”

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What is Information?

• Oxford English Dictionary– Information

• Informing, telling; thing told, knowledge, items of knowledge, news

– Knowledge• Knowing familiarity gained by experience;

person’s range of information; a theoretical or practical understanding of; the sum of what is known

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Assignment 1 Discussion

• What is information, according to your background or area of expertise?

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Types of Information

• Differentiation by form

• Differentiation by content

• Differentiation by quality

• Differentiation by associated information

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Information Properties

• Information can be communicated electronically– Broadcasting– Networking

• Information can be easily duplicated and shared– Problems of ownership– Problems of control

Adapted from ‘Silicon Dreams’ by Robert W. Lucky

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Intuitive Notion (Losee 97)

• Information must– Be something, although the exact nature

(substance, energy, or abstract concept) is not clear

– Be “new”: repetition of previously received messages is not informative

– Be “true”: false or counterfactual information is “mis-information”

– Be “about” something

• This human-centered approach emphasizes meaning and use of message

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Information from the Human Perspective

• Levels in cognitive processing– Perception– Observation/attention– Reasoning, assimilating, forming inferences

• Knowledge– “Justified true belief”

• Belief– An idea held based on some support; an internally

accepted statement, result of inductive processes combining observed facts with a reasoning process

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Information from the Human Perspective

• Does information require a human mind?– Communication and information transfer

among ants– A tree falls in the forest … is there information

there?– Existence of quarks

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Meaning vs. Form

• Form of information as the information itself• Meaning of a signal vs. the signal itself

– What aspects of a document are information?

• Representation (Norman 93)– Why do we write things down?

• Socrates thought writing would obliterate serious thought• Sounds and gestures fade away

– Artifacts help us to reason– Anything not present in the representation can be

ignored– Things left out of the representation are often what we

don’t know how to represent

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Information

• Consider Borges’ infinite Library of Babel…– It has all possible data combinations of letters– Does it therefore contain all possible

information?– What about all possible knowledge?– What about wisdom?

• Is the Internet a prototype Library of Babel?

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Information Theory

• Claude Shannon, 1940’s, studying communication • Ways to measure information

– Communication: producing the same message at its destination as that seen at its source

– Problem: a “noisy channel” can distort the message

• Between transmitter and receiver, the message must be encoded

• Semantic aspects are irrelevant

Message Source

Desti-nation

ReceiverTrans-mitter

Noise

Channel

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Information Theory

• Better called “Technical Communication Theory”

• Communication may be over time and space

Destination

Noise

Source DecodingEncoding

Message Message

Channel

StorageSourceDecoding(Retrieval/Reading)

Encoding(Writing/Indexing)

Destination

Message Message

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Human Communication Theory?

Destination

Noise

Source DecodingEncoding

Message Message

Channel

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The Conduit Metaphor

• Language functions like a conduit, transferring thoughts bodily from one person to another

• In writing and speaking, people insert their thoughts or feelings in the words

• Words accomplish the transfer by containing the thoughts or feelings and conveying them to others

• In listening or reading, people extract the thoughts and feelings once again from the words

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Toolmakers’ Paradigm

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Lecture Outline

• What Is Information?

• History of Information Search and Organization

• Photo Project Introduction

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Origins

• Very early history of content representation– Sumerian tokens and “envelopes”– Alexandria - pinakes– Indices

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Origins

• Rhetorical mnemonic theory and practice (“memoria”)

• Memory palaces– An organization and retrieval technology for

concepts that combines physical and virtual places (“loci”)

• Examples– Simonides of Ceos– Cicero’s “testes”

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Origins

• Biblical indexes and concordances– Hugo de St. Caro – 1247 A.D. : 500 monks – KWOC– Book indexes (Nuremburg Chronicle)

• Library catalogs• Journal indexes• “Information explosion” following WWII

– Bush and Memex– Cranfield studies of indexing languages and

information retrieval– Development of bibliographic databases

• Index Medicus – production and Medlars searching

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Lecture Outline

• What Is Information?

• History of Information Search and Organization

• Photo Project Introduction

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Photo Project Goals

• Develop an ongoing resource for SIMS (an annotated photo database) that can be used for internal research and teaching, as well for external promotional and informational purposes

• Experience the actual process of information organization and retrieval (especially as regards metadata creation and use)

• Work in small, focused teams performing a variety of tasks in image acquisition, cataloging, and application design

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Photo Project Requirements

• Create engaging and useful application scenarios and photos about life at SIMS

• Create a shared, reusable resource of annotated photos – All photos will be stored in one directory– Design your metadata

• So that all photos would be accessible from all applications• Not only for the needs of your particular application, but also

for the reusability of your photos and metadata

• Protect people’s privacy– If you photograph a clearly identifiable person or

persons and intend to use the photo, make sure to get a signed release form

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Photo Project EquipmentInternal memory 8MB built-in SDRAM

Viewfinder Optical

Image capacity (varies)

VGA: 100 (640x480) CIF: 400 (320x240)

Focal range 23" ~ infinity (0.6m ~ infinity)

Computer Interface USB

Streaming snapshot Up to 100 images

Image format JPG, AVI (through software)

Power source 1 AAA alkaline battery

Camera dimensions 0.6" x 1.97" x 1.97" (1.5 x 5 x 5cm)

Camera weight 1.5 oz. (30g) without batteries

MSRP $39.95

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Moore’s Law

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Moore’s Law for Cameras2000

Kodak DC40

Nintendo GameBoy Camera

$400

$ 40

2002

Kodak DX4900

SiPix StyleCam Blink

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Photography in IS 202Photography

Tutorial

By Kim Chambers

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Introduction

• Each time you take a photo, you make choices, either accidentally or deliberately

• Helpful tips for creating interesting photographs

• In class we will be using tiny “StyleCam Blink” digital cameras

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• Content

• Framing a subject

• Lighting

• StyleCam Blink Camera

Helpful Tips

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Content

• Decide how much of a scene to show

• Get closer to the subject:

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”

ROBERT CAPA

• Use the background when it contributes something

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Close to Your Subject

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Too Far Away From Subject

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Background Contributes to Scene

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Framing a Subject

• How does your subject relate to its surroundings?

• Vertical or Horizontal?

• Hold camera– Vertical for vertical subjects

– Horizontal for horizontal subjects

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Good Use of Vertical Framing

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Bad Use of Capturing Subject

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Lighting

• Natural light (indoors or outdoors) rarely strikes a subject evenly

• There is no flash on this camera

• Make sure you have enough light for your subject

• Indoor photography with the StyleCam benefits from the use of artificial light sources (e.g., lamps, flashlights)

• Avoid backlighting

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Good Indoor Lighting

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Bad Indoor Lighting

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Indoor Backlighting

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Outdoor Light

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StyleCam Blink Camera

• Upload your photos before replacing or removing the battery so you don’t lose all your images

• Moving the camera while taking a photo, taking a photo of a moving object OR shooting in low light = BLURRY PHOTOS

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Blurry

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Once Again…

• Content– Get closer to subject

• Framing a subject– Vertical for vertical– Horizontal for horizontal

• Lighting– Make sure you have enough light– Avoid backlighting your subject

• StyleCam Blink Camera– Fixed focus– No flash– Hold the camera still when taking a photo

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Photo Project Hand Outs

• Photo Project Overview

• Photo Project Groups

• Photo Project Camera Instructions

• Photo Project Release Forms

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Homework (!)

• Read Chapters 1 – 3 of George Lakoff’s Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things

• Meet your project group members and take some pictures with the StyleCam Blink digital camera and upload them

• Please complete the class questionnaire

• Create your SIMS home page and is202 Assignments page

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Next Time

• Cognition, Culture, and Categories