User requirements database for computer graphics

The University of Lowell's Graphics Research Laboratory (ULowell, in Lowell, MA, USA) and the Fraunhofer-Arbeitsgruppe Graphische Datenverarbeitung (AGD, in Darmstadt, FRG) are developing a User Requirements Database for Computer Graphics. This database is being built in cooperation with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN). Four questionaires are being designed to help build the requirements database. Each of them pertains to a different topic. They are: the New Application Programmers Interface (API), GKS Review, Imaging and User Interface Management Systems. The questionaires are for users of graphics systems including application developers, implementors of standards and hardware developers. All of the aquired responses will be stored in the database for future reference. The database will provide a service to computer graphics users by providing a vehicle for them to express their desires for existing and future standards. This fills a need in the standardization process in which the ISO has had little user input. The database will be beneficial to the industry by providing an unbased, centralized collection of user needs allowing quick feedback and analysis. It would be costly and time consuming for individual companies to accumulate this information on their own. This ongoing service will provide a continuous and accurate survey of user needs