ASYNCHRONOUS DIALOGUE CONTROL IN A MEDICAL GRAPHIC INTERFACE
R. Marı́n, M. Taboada, G. MOURINO, F. SORIA, José Mira, Ana E. Delgado · Cybernetics & Systems · 1992
Graphic interfaces facilitate the implementation of asynchronous dialogue between human and computer. This paper presents a graphic interface for an application in medicine, based on the declarative definition of graphic templates. The templates are specified from predefined types, and the introduction of data into a template produces a graphic object on the screen. The representational model we have used for the specification of behavior corresponds to finite state automata. Each template has an associated transition table. The control of the interaction process is distributed among the templates. There are an external dialogue between the user and the graphic objects and an internal dialogue between the application programs and the templates. The approach we present is flexible enough to permit the design of an interaction module for real use in a fast and simple way and facilitates iterative design, attaching more importance to the consideration of human factors than to programming.