Communications Media

Communications Media

Simulation Software Outperforms Traditional Methods in Networking

Students in an online class who learned networking through a commercially available simulation scored higher and retained more course information than students taught with a traditional network-diagramming software package, says a Penn State researcher.

“Those students also demonstrated better understanding of the networking concepts and indicated they spent more time on course assignments,” said Brian Cameron, instructor in Penn State’s School of Information Sciences and Technology (I

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Impatient web searchers measure web sites’ appeal in seconds

Web users are picky and impatient, typically visiting only the first three results from a query, with one in five searchers spending 60 seconds or less on a linked Web document, according to Penn State researchers.

“People make instantaneous judgments about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn’t the give the right impression, users will bypass it,” said Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn State’s information sciences and technology (IST). “A page has to be well-d

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A ‘butler’ in your mobile phone

University of Southampton scientists create a computer agent that aims to make life less complicated

A new computer agent that will work through users’ mobile phones and organise their business and social schedules, has been developed by scientists at the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton.
The agent is an example of how the next generation of World Wide Web will work. An artificial intelligence programme has been devised which a

Communications Media

Organizing Email Archives: New Tool for Researchers Unveiled

Researchers at the University of Southern California have created a new tool for organizing and visualizing collections of electronic mail. It is designed to help legal researchers, historians, archivists, and others faced with challenges in dealing with large email archives.

For examples, consider the following cases:

* A large corporation has just received a subpoena for all email messages on a specific question. Traditional keyword searches return an enormous volume of ma

Communications Media

Experience Full-Body Interaction with New VR Array

The University of Pennsylvania has installed a virtual reality system that allows a participant full-body interaction with a virtual environment without the hassle of bulky, dizzying 3-D glasses. The system will be demonstrated for journalists and others Thursday, May 15.

Key to the installation, dubbed LiveActor, is the pairing of an optical motion capture system to monitor the body’s movements with a stereo projection system to immerse users in a virtual environment. The combination

Communications Media

Mastering Search: Focus on One Engine for Better Results

Web users who stick to one or two search engines and learn those well will have better results for their queries than users who try the same query or various engines, a Penn State researcher says.

“There are no wholesale rules about structuring a query that will work on multiple search engines,” said Bernard J. Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology (IST). “And what works on one engine, such as narrowing a query, can have the opposite effect on other search engine

Communications Media

"Talking windscreens" could help prevent accidents

Drivers are four times more likely to have an accident if they use a mobile phone on the road. However, using a “talking windscreen” rather than a traditional mobile phone while driving could reduce this risk, and so help to prevent accidents, according to Oxford University research just published in Psychological Science.

A growing body of evidence shows that using a hands-free phone is as problematic for drivers as using a hand-held phone. It is probably the distraction of a driver´s atte

Communications Media

New Remote Control System Enhances Mobile Base Station Range

The explosive growth in mobile phones has been supported by a similar growth in the underlying networks of base stations used to connect calls. This has created headaches for network administrators charged with keeping an increasing numbers of base stations active at all times. Now a convenient new power and management cabinet allows administrators to manage the entire operation of base stations remotely, reducing time and costs and improving range.

EUREKA project SAEB98 brought together a S

Communications Media

Understanding Memory Bias in TV News Reporting

One of the most unusual, yet persistent, problems television broadcasters face is what Tom Grimes calls “unitentional defamation.”

“This takes place when TV news viewers’ memory plays tricks on them and they end up ’remembering’ the facts of a TV news story in a way that defames an innocent person portrayed in the news story,” said Grimes, the Ross Beach research chair in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University.

“Peopl

Communications Media

Explore the Future of Collaboration: New Wireless Meeting Space

New digital tools

To survive and thrive in this century, business leaders need to hardwire new technologies into their playbooks to create enduring enterprises.

Many factors, from the need to export beyond national borders to the inexorable shift to intellectual capital, are driving change, but none is more important than the rise of the Internet and digital technologies. Like the steam engine or the assembly line, the Net and digital technologies have already become an adva

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Exploring Human Connections with Self-Service Technology

Although ATMs are convenient, they have taken away from personal interaction during bank transactions. But according to research by a Kansas State University professor, consumers still feel as though they have relational benefits with self-service technology, much as they do when doing business with a human.

The research by Kevin Gwinner, an associate professor of marketing at K-State, shows that the attributes of self-service technology, such as the Internet, kiosks and ATMS, are indirect

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Website-Tests: Optimieren Sie Ihre Online-Werbung Effektiv

Verkaufsargumente für Online Werbung auf Basis valider Zielgruppendaten

Über Log-Files und Monitoring-Tools können Analysen über das Besucher-Verhalten durchgeführt und wichtige Erkenntnisse betreffend der eigenen Website gewonnen werden. Diese sind jedoch ausschliesslich quantitativer Natur und lassen wichtige qualitative Aspekte des Internet-Auftritts unberücksichtigt. Wer jedoch die Besucher sind, was Sie sich von der Website erwarten und wie sie den Web-Auftritt bewerten, bleibt

Communications Media

E-Business Gains From Unfavorable Price Comparisons

New research from the University of Alberta has found that an online business can benefit from listing its competitors’ products, even if some of those comparisons are unfavourable for the firm.

Dr. Gerald Haeubl, the Banister professor of electronic commerce at the U of A’s School of Business, investigated how digital agents, such as the Internet, influence the online shopping experience. Surprisingly, he found that when a company lists its competitors’ prices of identical products—even if

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Good ratings gone bad: study shows recommender systems can manipulate users’ opinions

Study also reports users lose trust in systems that give phony ratings Online “recommender systems” are used to suggest highly rated selections for book buyers, movie renters or other consumers, but a new study by University of Minnesota computer science researchers shows for the first time that a system that lies about ratings can manipulate users’ opinions. Over time, however, users lose trust in unscrupulous systems. The Minnesota research group, led by professors Jos

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New Dielectric Materials Enhance Microwave Communication Signals

A new group of ceramic materials could lead to more reliable and clearer microwave communication signals, according to engineers at South Bank University, London, speaking at the Institute of Physics Congress at Heriot-Watt University on Wednesday 26 March.

A small ceramic component made from a dielectric material is fundamental to the operation of filters and oscillators in several microwave systems, such as satellite TV receivers, military radar systems, Global Positioning System (GPS) dev

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Web’s "Best Meta-Search Engine" Organizes Documents from Anywhere in Any Language

Industry experts at Search Engine Watch recently named Vivísimo the Web’s Best Meta-Search Engine for its ability to instantly organize search results into a computer-generated “index.” The software behind Vivísimo’s search engine can also be applied to any collection of documents, in languages ranging from English and German to Arabic and Korean.

A success story from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research and computer science programs, Vivísimo’s Web site

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