SLIDE 1IS 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

SLIDE 2IS Fall 2002 Lecture Outline What Is Information? History of Information Search and Organization Photo Project Introduction

SLIDE 3IS Fall 2002 Lecture Outline What Is Information? History of Information Search and Organization Photo Project Introduction

SLIDE 4IS Fall 2002 What is Information? There is no “correct” definition Can involve philosophy, psychology, signal processing, physics Cookie Monster’s definition: – “news or facts about something”

SLIDE 5IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 6IS Fall 2002 Assignment 1 Discussion What is information, according to your background or area of expertise?

SLIDE 7IS Fall 2002 Types of Information Differentiation by form Differentiation by content Differentiation by quality Differentiation by associated information

SLIDE 8IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 9IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 10IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 11IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 12IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 13IS Fall 2002 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?

SLIDE 14IS Fall 2002 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 Receiver Trans- mitter Noise Channel

SLIDE 15IS Fall 2002 Information Theory Better called “Technical Communication Theory” Communication may be over time and space Destination Noise SourceDecodingEncoding Message Channel StorageSource Decoding (Retrieval/ Reading) Encoding (Writing/ Indexing) Destination Message

SLIDE 16IS Fall 2002 Human Communication Theory? Destination Noise SourceDecodingEncoding Message Channel

SLIDE 17IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 18IS Fall 2002 Toolmakers’ Paradigm

SLIDE 19IS Fall 2002 Lecture Outline What Is Information? History of Information Search and Organization Photo Project Introduction

SLIDE 20IS Fall 2002 Origins Very early history of content representation –Sumerian tokens and “envelopes” –Alexandria - pinakes –Indices

SLIDE 21IS Fall 2002 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”

SLIDE 22IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 23IS Fall 2002 Lecture Outline What Is Information? History of Information Search and Organization Photo Project Introduction

SLIDE 24IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 25IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 26IS Fall 2002 Photo Project Equipment Internal memory8MB built-in SDRAM ViewfinderOptical Image capacity (varies) VGA: 100 (640x480) CIF: 400 (320x240) Focal range23" ~ infinity (0.6m ~ infinity) Computer InterfaceUSB Streaming snapshotUp to 100 images Image formatJPG, AVI (through software) Power source1 AAA alkaline battery Camera dimensions0.6" x 1.97" x 1.97" (1.5 x 5 x 5cm) Camera weight1.5 oz. (30g) without batteries MSRP$39.95

SLIDE 27IS Fall 2002 Moore’s Law

SLIDE 28IS Fall 2002 Moore’s Law for Cameras 2000 Kodak DC40 Nintendo GameBoy Camera $400 $ Kodak DX4900 SiPix StyleCam Blink

SLIDE 29IS Fall 2002 Photography in IS 202 Photography Tutorial By Kim Chambers

SLIDE 30IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 31IS Fall 2002 Content Framing a subject Lighting StyleCam Blink Camera Helpful Tips

SLIDE 32IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 33IS Fall 2002 Close to Your Subject

SLIDE 34IS Fall 2002 Too Far Away From Subject

SLIDE 35IS Fall 2002 Background Contributes to Scene

SLIDE 36IS Fall 2002 Framing a Subject How does your subject relate to its surroundings? Vertical or Horizontal? Hold camera –Vertical for vertical subjects –Horizontal for horizontal subjects

SLIDE 37IS Fall 2002 Good Use of Vertical Framing

SLIDE 38IS Fall 2002 Bad Use of Capturing Subject

SLIDE 39IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 40IS Fall 2002 Good Indoor Lighting

SLIDE 41IS Fall 2002 Bad Indoor Lighting

SLIDE 42IS Fall 2002 Indoor Backlighting

SLIDE 43IS Fall 2002 Outdoor Light

SLIDE 44IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 45IS Fall 2002 Blurry

SLIDE 46IS Fall 2002 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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SLIDE 50IS Fall 2002 Photo Project Hand Outs Photo Project Overview Photo Project Groups Photo Project Camera Instructions Photo Project Release Forms

SLIDE 51IS Fall 2002 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

SLIDE 52IS Fall 2002 Next Time Cognition, Culture, and Categories