Object-oriented design

About: Object-oriented design is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5136 publications have been published within this topic receiving 144108 citations.

Link mechanism for linking data between objects and for performing operations on the linked data in an object based system

Abstract: An object based data processing system including an extensible set of object types and a corresponding set of "object managers" wherein each object manager is a program for operating with the data stored in a corresponding type of object. The object managers in general support at least a standard set of operations. Any program can effect performance of these standard operations on objects of any type by making an "invocation" request. In response to an invocation request, object management services (which are available to all object managers) identifies and invokes an object manager that is suitable for performing the requested operation on the specified type of data. A mechanism is provided for linking data from one object into another object. A object catalog includes both information about objects and about links between objects. Data interchange services are provided for communicating data between objects of different types, using a set of standard data interchange formats. A matchmaker facility permits two processes that are to cooperate in a data interchange operation identify each other and to identify data formats they have in common. A facility is provided for managing shared data "resources". Customized versions of resources can be created and co-exist with standard resources. A resource retrieval function determines whether a customized or a standard resource is to be returned in response to each request for a resource.

A generic framework for modeling resources with UML

Abstract: Current wisdom encourages designers to first focus on the logical aspects of their problem and then defer platform and technology issues until the concluding phases of development. This behavior is reasonable, considering that devising logically sound solutions is frequently the most difficult aspect of development. Unfortunately-and this has been understated to date-there are many situations in which this approach is inappropriate. Real-time software design is one domain where this situation is particularly obvious because the domain's requirements force software to interact with the physical world in some way. Recently, a generic object oriented framework has been proposed for modeling both physical and logical resources. Although the framework is generic, it is mainly used with the industry-standard Unified Modeling Language (UML). By providing a standard means for representing resources and their attributes, it becomes possible to seamlessly transfer UML models of real-time systems between design and specialized analysis tools. The author shows how developers can use the OMG's UML to model resources and thus predict crucial system properties before fully implementing a system.

Design of software systems based on axiomatic design

Abstract: The ability to utilize fully automated flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) or develop reliable computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems will depend on our ability to develop reliable and reusable software for large complex systems on a timely basis. To date, software design has not gone very far beyond the ad hoc trial-and-error stage. Consequently, the development of software is slow, expensive, unreliable, and unmanageable. The purpose of this paper is to provide a scientific basis for designing software. The approach used here is that of axiomatic design, which is based on two design axioms: the Independence Axiom and the Information Axiom. The axiomatic approach is based on the recognition of the following common elements in design: the existence of independent domains (i.e. the consumer domain, the functional domain, the physical domain, and the process domain); the need to map between various domains during the design process; the decomposition of the characteristic vectors (i.e. functional requirements, design parameters, and process variables) in their respective domains; the zig-zagging required between the domains for decomposition; and the need to satisfy the design axioms during the design process. The axiomatic approach discussed in this paper provides decision making tools for software design in addition to systematic means of knowledge and data representation, synthesis and analysis of software, and the construction of the module-junction structure diagram.

“Active” and “passive” learning of three-dimensional object structure within an immersive virtual reality environment

Abstract: We used a fully immersive virtual reality environment to study whether actively interacting with objects would effect subsequent recognition, when compared with passively observing the same objects. We found that when participants learned object structure by actively rotating the objects, the objects were recognized faster during a subsequent recognition task than when object structure was learned through passive observation. We also found that participants focused their study time during active exploration on a limited number of object views, while ignoring other views. Overall, our results suggest that allowing active exploration of an object during initial learning can facilitate recognition of that object, perhaps owing to the control that the participant has over the object views upon which they can focus. The virtual reality environment is ideal for studying such processes, allowing realistic interaction with objects while maintaining experimenter control.

Methods and systems for interacting with physical objects

Abstract: A camera, of a handheld computing device, is used to capture a picture of an object. At least some image data corresponding to the captured picture is provided to a processor, which returns processed information corresponding to the object. By reference to this processed information, the system automatically identifies a particular one of plural different software application programs—a program that is particularly relevant to the object, rather than being generally relevant to all objects. Output information is then produced using the identified software application program, which is then presented to the user, e.g., on a screen of the handheld computing device. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.