APPENDIX D. GLOSSARY

AFOSR

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

APEC

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (organization of East Asian and Pacific countries)

ARO

Army Research Office

ATM Forum

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) standards setting group

Birefringence

Reflection of light in two slightly different directions to form two rays

CAI

Computer-aided instruction

CISTA

Computer-integrated speech training aid

CMU

Carnegie-Mellon University

Codec

Coder/decoder (i.e., for video or audio)

CSCW

Computer-supported collaborative work

DSP

Digital signal processing

ECB

Electrically controlled birefringence

EPROM

Erasable programmable read-only memory

GUI

Graphical user interface

Haptic feedback

Force and tactile feedback

Hiragana

Phonetic Japanese character set

Hyperlink

Electronic pointer from one location to another (see WWW)

I/O

Input/output

ITU-T

International Telecommunications Union standard

Kanji

Pictograph Japanese character set

Katakana

Phonetic Japanese character set

LCD

Liquid crystal display

LSI

Large-scale integrated (circuits, devices)

Macromind

Multimedia authoring package sold by Macromedia

Middleware

Software interposed between basic functionalities such as those provided by database management systems and operating systems on the one hand and end-user applications on the other hand

MIMD

Multiple instruction, multiple data -- a type of architecture for parallel computers

MIPS

Million instructions per second

MMI

Man-machine interface

MPT

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)

MPEG

Moving Pictures Experts Group (develops standards for data compression)

MUD

Multiuser dungeon, or multiuser dimension, a real-time computer-based system often set within an imagined setting and configured as a set of rooms

NACSIS

National Center for Science Information Systems (Japan)

NEDO

New Energy Development and Industrial Technology Organization (Japan)

NII

National information infrastructure

NTT

Nippon Telephone and Telegraph

Psychophysics

Branch of psychology that deals with perception of physical stimuli such as light and sound

QWERTY keyboard

Common English-language keyboard, with letters Q, W, E, R, T, and Y comprising the upper left row of the letter pad

RISC

Reduced instruction set

RWC

Real World Computing Program (Japan)

SIMD

Single instruction multiple data -- a type of architecture for parallel computers

Smart set top box

TV cable control box with embedded computer to provide enhanced functionality (e.g., news-on-demand, child security, intelligent menus, etc.)

TN

Twisted nematic (type of flat panel display device)

Touch-screen

Display screen that is also an input device (sensitive to pointing with finger or stylus)

UDTV

Ultra-definition television

UIST

Annual conference on user interface software and technology

ULSI

Ultra large-scale integrated (circuits, devices)

UNIX

Computer operating system

Videophone

Telephone with video

VR

Virtual reality

WWW

World Wide Web (collection of hyperlinked information on the Internet that can be accessed via popular browsers such as Netscape and Mosaic)