Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:811 comp.cog-eng:1920 comp.graphics:17048 comp.multimedia:277 comp.software-eng:5248 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!cimshop!davidm From: cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.cog-eng,comp.graphics,comp.multimedia,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Images vs. Text Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 91 18:27:46 GMT References: <10292@pitt.UUCP> <1991Apr3.031013.27762@watserv1.waterloo.edu> <1991Apr03.152708.147@convex.com> Sender: davidm@cimshop.UUCP Distribution: alt Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California Lines: 52 In-reply-to: cash@convex.com's message of 3 Apr 91 15:27:08 GMT >>>>> On 3 Apr 91 15:27:08 GMT, cash@convex.com (Peter Cash) said: Peter> In article <1991Apr3.031013.27762@watserv1.waterloo.edu> Peter> ssingh@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Sneaky Sanj ;-) writes: Sneaky> Yes, this makes sense. I can process an image IN PARALLEL. I can see a Sneaky> picture of a horse and immediately I know it is a horse. Peter> Yes, and that's very nice. But what does the picture _mean_? "Rent your Peter> horse here"? "Horse crossing"? "Don't forget to feed the horse"? "The Peter> horse is a large quadruped ruminant mammal"? "Horses were not Peter> indigenous to North America, but were imported by the Conquistadores"? Of course this depends on the representation of the horse in the picture and the context around the picture. For instance: 1. A picture of horses near barn next to another picture of a map representing where the barn is. (I'm sure something could be arrived at to represent "rent".) 2. A picture of a sign with a horse over an X. 3. A picture of a person providing food for a horse. 4. This one shows the problem with language because I don't have any context for the word "ruminant" (I didn't look it up). I think an intelligently designed picture would convey the meaning to me. 5. Picture of world showing horses moving from Spain to North America. If you think about it, pictures can be as much of a language as text. Therefore, the same requirements are on those pictures as are on textual language. That is, you will only understand them if you have the context in which they are being applied (current surroundings and previous experience). Man has had a few thousands years of previous experience to "fine tune" textual language whereas the idea of using pictures is relatively new and, so, doesn't have that refinement. Trying to understand picture (or video!) language can be as much of a problem as trying to read (say) Chinese when you've only learned English unless the pictures (or videos!) has been intelligently designed to play upon universal ideas. Hypermedia systems should not focus on one type of medium (pictures in this case), but rather merge as many different mediums as possible. This will provide much more surroundings by which people can make the connection to previous experience. -- ==================================================================== David Masterson Consilium, Inc. (415) 691-6311 640 Clyde Ct. uunet!cimshop!davidm Mtn. View, CA 94043 ==================================================================== "If someone thinks they know what I said, then I didn't say it!"