Nils Klarlund home page

	XML research survey. (draft version). XML: Model, Schemas, Types, Logics and Queries (with Thomas Schwentick and Dan Suciu), revised version to appear in Logics of emerging applications of databases, Eds. J. Chomicki, G. Saake, and R. van der Meyden, Springer Verlag, 2003. Related invited talk at NICTA Inaugural Formal Methods Programme Workshop.
	Language modeling for typing on Q14 and other reduced keyboards. We show that the word error rate for typing on a keyboard where adjacent keys have been clustered in pairs according to the QWERTY layout may be made almost negligible thanks to large language models used in speech recognition. The keyboard is now available on the BlackBerry 7100.
	ShortStep foot keyboard design. A radically different approach to managing computer-related discomfort. Almost every keyboard shortcut is directly accessible through foot keys. The ShortStep keyboard allows you to lean back in your chair while working on repetitive tasks with little or no use of your arms. Concept and software are hosted at SourceForge.
	Making decades-old theory linking automata and logic work in practice. The concept of BDD for encoding Boolean functions plays an important role in verification. Mona is a tool based on a more general theory related to decidable fragments of arithmetic. Applications of Mona include hardware verification, protocol configuration, pointer analysis, parsing, theorem proving, etc.
	Towards a foundation for multimodal, multimedia content definition. Multimedia content—where audio, video, and graphics—are synchronized in sophisticated ways is already common on the Web. Multimodal interfaces extend usability by integrating speech recognition, gestures, etc. A foundation for such work must be based on a programming language that includes concurrency, timing constraints, and built-in undo support. The survey talk (html) [Powerpoint] explains my interests in user interface technology and how they lead to fundamental questions about events and synchronicity.
	Editing talk so enticingly efficient it is a pleasure to learn. Speech recognition as a way of getting your thoughts across the human-machine interface remains an elusive technology. ShortTalk solves the problem in the domain of text composition though a constructed editing language. Slides from talk: ShortTalk and ShortStep—with mid-20th century insights into universal and perfect languages. ShortTalk paper presented at ICME '2003 (also, ICASSP '2003). Now available at SourceForge as open speech software offered by Carnegie Mellon University.
	Usage-driven design. Since overuse injury is a long-term result, most "ergonomic" design remains unproven—despite claims of positive results in trials. I have experimented with input device concepts for over 10 years. It is my hope that the couple of surviving ideas may help other people suffering from computer-induced pain.
	The essentials of XML Clogged by contradictory and complex specifications, XML at heart is a welcome practical manifestation of tested ideas in computer science. With the DSD work, we try to influence the XML community through proposals rooted in programming language and automata theory. DSD 2.0 by Anders Møller can be found at the DSD Web site.
	Understanding infinite computations in terms of finite ones. In my Ph.D. thesis, I argued that infinite computations that involve liveness are best understood as limits of finite ones. The finite approximations are characterized by a progress value. For various levels of topological complexity, it is possible to formulate such measures of progress. Applications include reasoning about fairness and analyses of automata on infinite objects.