Mnemonic Rendering

Managing large amounts of dynamic visual information involves understanding changes happening out of the user's sight. In this paper, we show how current software does not adequately support users in this task, and motivate the need for a more general approach. We propose an image-based storage, visualization, and implicit interaction paradigm called mnemonic rendering that provides better support for handling visual changes. Once implemented on a system, mnemonic rendering techniques can benefit all applications. We explore its rich design space and discuss its expected benefits as well as limitations based on feedback from users of a small-screen and a wall-size prototype.

The Paper

Watch the Video

Try the Mnemonic Desktop

Instructions:

• Download then launch the Java application by double-clicking on it or typing 'java -jar mnemonic-demo-v1.jar'.
• To change the rendering mode of a window, toggle its top left button:
  Regular rendering
  Pixel persistence
  Pixel flashback
  Persistence+flashback
• You can hide/show window content by:
  • Dragging other windows over it
  • Dragging the window outside the desktop
  • Minimizing/restoring the window
  • Changing its z-order
• After hiding a window, you can accelerate time by depressing the clock or holding the ctrl key:
  
• If you drag a window:
  • using the left mouse button, visibilities underneath will be updated at button release
  • using the right mouse button, they will be updated dynamically (may slow down your system)

Play the Layout-Matching Game

Instructions:

• Download then launch the Java application by double-clicking on it or typing 'java -jar mnemonic-game-v1.jar'.
• The goal of this game is to have the two foreground grids exactly match the two background ones
• Drag the window to see the background grids
• Drag the numbers inside the window to match the background grids:
  
• Mnemonic rendering can be activated on background grids using the method previously described:
  
• You have one minute to exactly match the layouts. Fortunately, an adrenaline-boosting timer is provided: