Contents

XID IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

Analyze Feature

Attribute Menus

Attribute Marking

Attributes

Common Attributes

Data Distribution Display

Database Selection

Distinctive Attributes

File Menu Commands

Help Menu Commands

Item/Species List

Menus of Submenus

Summary of Marks

View Menu Commands

Viewing Item/Species Data

Viewing Item References

XID Database Files

XID Identification System

XID SYSTEM GUIDE AND TUTORIAL

User's Guide and Tutorial


XID Identification System


The XID Identification System allows the user to identify an unknown item or species by describing the attributes which are present and evident. The user can describe attributes that a specimen has or does not have. As each attribute is specified, the system eliminates possibilities that do not match the description given by the user.

The identification process starts with opening a database. Then the user enters a system of menus. Expand the menus by clicking the box with the plus (+) mark to the left of "Menu Structure". There are two types of menus: attribute menus and menus of submenus. By navigating through the menus, the user can describe the attributes of the unknown specimen. The system also has an analysis feature that recommends attribute menus to proceed with, and provides shortcuts to go to those menus.

At any time, the user can examine the list of remaining items or species. Several functions to assist in the identification process follow.

Help Menu Commands


The Help Menu provides selections to help you with the program. This help system frequently refers to "items" for simplicity, when it could be referring to either items or species, depending on whether scientific names are enabled in the database. Also, "XID" is sometimes used to refer to the XID Identification System program.

Help: Enters this help system at the table of contents.

About XID: Displays the program title, version and copyright notice.

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View Menu Commands


The View Menu has the following three commands:

Toolbar: This shows or hides the toolbar. Note: the toolbar may be dragged to the top, bottom or either side.

Status Bar: This shows or hides the status bar at the bottom.

Split This facilitates moving the divider between the panes of the window.

XID Database Files


Each XID Database consists of one file, with the extension ".xid". Only the image files that are in the same directory with the XID database can be opened by the program.

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Database Selection


See File Menu Commands.

File Menu Commands


The File menu has two forms, depending on whether or not a database has been opened, and additional selections in the Authoring System.

Open XID Database: Opens a browse window that shows only XID Database files. In this window, highlighting a database filename calls up the database description, which can help in deciding whether to open it.

Open: Opens an XID database. This can also be done using the toolbar button that looks like an open file folder. To view all types of files in the browse window, change "Files of type" at the bottom of the browse window.

Close: Closes an XID database. This selection is not available unless a database is open.

Print and Page Setup: Allow printing of the report in the active window on the right, and formatting of the printed document. The right pane may be printed at any time. This includes the User's Guide. To remove strange titles and footers on printed copy remove the lines in Page setup dialog.

Recent File List: This is a list of up to four most recently opened XID databases. The most recently opened database is preceded with the number 1, the next with 2 and so on. The databases are shown by their filename (not by the database title). Selecting a file causes it to be opened. This can be a convenient shortcut.

Exit: This terminates the program.

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Attributes


An item or species has attributes or characteristics that differentiate it from other items or species. For example, the color red is an attribute that an apple can have, but a banana can't. The XID system groups related attributes together in attribute menus. A menu of colors, for example, is a menu of attributes. Apples can have the colors red, yellow and green, whereas bananas only have yellow and green.

Every item or species in an XID database has data indicating what attributes it can have and which ones it never has. If an XID user is trying to identify an apple, and the color yellow is specified, the system can not rule out the possibility that the item is a banana. However, if the color red is specified, the system knows that the item is not a banana. If the apple is yellow, it will have to be described by some other attribute, such as its shape, to be distinguished from a banana.

Attribute Menus


An attribute menu contains a group of related attributes. The XID user marks the attributes to describe an unknown specimen. A typical attribute menu would be "Color", where the attributes in the menu would be "Red", "Green, "Blue", etc. Another type of attribute menu could be "Height", where the attributes would be ranges of numbers. There can also be menus like "Wings", where the attributes could be "Has Wings" and "Does Not Have Wings".

Attribute menus are often grouped together in other menus, which are menus of submenus.

Attributes are indented from their menu title and have a blue box with a number in it immediatley to their left. This number is the number of species remaining in the database that have that attribute.

Menus of Submenus


The data in an XID database is a collection of attributes that each item or species in the database can have. These attributes are organized into attribute menus that are used to describe unknown specimens. The attribute menus are usually organized into other menus, which are menus of submenus.

A typical menu of submenus might be "Dimensions", which might contain attribute menus such as "Height", "Width" and "Thickness".Another menu of submenus might be "Appearance", where the attribute menus might be "Color", "Shape", or "Pattern".

The selections in a menu of submenus can be attribute menus or other menus of submenus. Typically the selections are related. The menus are grouped by the database author to make it easy to find useful attribute menus.

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Attribute Marking


The Menu Structure tree allows the XID user to specify the attributes or characteristics of the unknown specimen being identified. Attributes can be marked YES or NO to specify that the specimen does or does not display that attribute. If there is uncertainty about an attribute, two or more can be marked with OR to specify that the specimen has one or the other.

To mark an attribute, highlight the text by clicking it once. You can then mark it with any of the three marks (YES, NO, OR). This can be done by clicking the right mouse button or left-clicking the small box to the left of the attribute to access the context menu of choices. You can also click the appropriate icon on the tool bar, or mark the attribute as "YES" by double-clicking it.

Marking YES eliminates all items or species that never have that attribute. For example, if the user is in a "Flower Color" menu, and the unknown is a plant with a yellow flower, marking YES on "Yellow" will narrow the list of remaining species to the ones that can have yellow flowers.

If the user is not sure whether a plant's flower is yellow or orange, both "Yellow" and "Orange" could be marked with OR. This way, there will be fewer species eliminated, but there will be less chance of making a mistake. It is not possible to mark only one attribute in a menu with an OR mark. When the first attribute is marked as OR (by highlighting it and clicking the Mark Or button), a window with the list of attributes appears in which to check all those to be marked as OR.

The more attributes that are marked with OR, the fewer items or species are eliminated. If "Yellow" and "Orange" are marked with OR in the example above, any species which can have yellow flowers or orange flowers will remain in the list of possibilities.

If the user is sure that the specimen does not have an attribute, it can be marked as NO. This eliminates any item or species that only has attributes (in this menu) that are marked NO. In the example above, specifying that the specimen does not have yellow flowers will only eliminate the species that only have yellow flowers. Generally, a NO mark by itself does not eliminate very many items or species, but it can still be useful.

After marking an attribute, note that some of the attributes and menus may turn red. This indicates that the menu or the attribute is no longer of any use in separating between the remaining species, either because the attribute is true for all remaining species or because it is not true for any of them. This is intended to save the user wasted effort.

The Mark Clear option in the context menu can be used to delete any mark of a highlighted attribute. Access the context menu by clicking the right mouse button or left-clicking the small box to the left of the attribute. You can also clear a mark by highlighting the attribute and clicking the eraser icon in the tool bar (between the "N" and the "OR"). "YES" marks can also be cleared (toggled) by double-clicking the attribute.

The "Clear all marks" item in the "Database" menu (or the brush icon in the tool bar) which is the Clear All Marks button, clears all marks that have been made in the menus, allowing the identification process to be started over again. Since all of the marks are erased, all of the items or species become possible again.

The Report option presents any special information that the database author has included to help the user understand the terminology or details about the currently highlighted attribute. This information can help the user determine whether or not the specimen has that attribute. The information can be comprised of text, an image, or both. Right-click on any menu or attribute title to access the "Report button.

Above the species list is a message giving the number of items or species in the database, in the form of number remaining/number in database. To view a list of the remaining items or species, scroll the green names in the list at the lower left of the screen. Any red names at the bottom of the list are those that have been removed from consideration by the marks made so far. Images of the remaining items or species may be viewed by clicking the yellow Gallery button on the toolbar, or the blue Item/Species List button above it which presents images and/or additional information about the remaining items or species. The image and information for any species in the species list can also be displayed by clicking its name.

Choosing the Analyze option causes the program to examine the remaining items or species. The program determines which attribute menus would probably be most useful in further narrowing the list of remaining items. By clicking Analysis and selecting an attribute menu from the list that is displayed, the attribute menu in the tree is highlighted and the user can go directly to that menu. This is the most efficient way to use the program.

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Data Distribution Display


Each attribute in the Menu Structure has in front of it the number of species or items which have that attribute. The data reflects only the list of remaining species/items that have not yet been eliminated from consideration in the process of identifying a species or an item. Note that an item can have more than one attribute within a menu. It is also possible in certain cases for an item not to have any of the attributes in a menu.

The distribution display also shows the attributes that none of the remaining items have. Note that these attributes are shown in red in the attribute marking menu. If the specimen to be identified has an attribute that is red, the specimen is either not in the database or it has been eliminated by an incorrect mark.

If an XID user's specimen definitely has an attribute for which the distribution is zero, either an incorrect mark has been made elsewhere or the specimen is not represented in the database. To determine if the item is in the database, all marks should be cleared by using the Clear All Marks button in the attribute menu marking form so that all items are possible; if the distribution for the attribute is still zero, the specimen is not represented in the database.

Analyze Feature


The Attribute Menu Analysis report displays a list of Attribute Menu titles in order of decreasing probability of usefulness. It is accessed by the "A", or Analyze button on the toolbar, or by the Analyze selection in the Database menu above. An attribute menu is considered most useful if it is easy to use and is likely to significantly reduce the number of remaining items or species when an attribute in it is marked as YES. Selecting a title from the list opens that attribute menu in the Menu Structure tree. The attributes can then be marked to reflect the specimen to be identified. This is the easiest way to get to an attribute menu. The Analyze feature is often the quickest route to achieving an identification.

To open the menu in the menu tree click on underlined text on the right pane.

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Summary of Marks


The system can show a summary of the marks that have been made at any point in the identification process. To see it, click the "check mark" symbol on the tool bar, or select "Marked attributes & eliminated items" from the Database menu above. If the XID user doesn't think that any of the remaining items or species represent the unknown specimen, this summary can be helpful in determining which of the marks might be incorrect.

This form has two sections. The first section shows all of the attributes that have been marked , and the type of mark (YES, NO, or OR). The attributes are shown along with the title of the attribute menu that contains them. For OR marks, remember that the OR logic works within one attribute menu at a time. If the marks specify yellow flowers OR blue flowers and 2-3 feet tall OR 3-5 feet tall, any species that never has yellow or blue flowers is eliminated, regardless of its height.

The second section shows all of the items or species that have been specifically eliminated by an "X" mark made in the XID Item/Species List.

Distinctive Attributes


For each remaining item or species in the database, the system can display what attributes it can have that are most unusual among the collection of remaining items/species. This can be very helpful to the XID user in effectively reducing the number of possibilities. It can also be useful to database authors in verifying their attribute data.

To look at the unusual attributes for an item, highlight the item in the Item/Species List and click the right mouse button (if the "Species description options box comes up select "Cancel", and then select Distinctive Attributes. The system shows the item's attributes starting with the most unusual. The number to the left of the attribute is the number of remaining items that can have it. If the number is 1, and an XID user's specimen has it, the identification process is complete (unless the specimen is not represented in the database). If the specimen has an attribute that has a low number, marking it as YES will often greatly reduce the number of remaining items. Highlighting that attribute menu in the Distinctive Attributes list will cause the attribute menu in the Menu Structure to be highlighted, making it easy to then open the menu and mark the attribute.

This screen shows almost all of the item's attributes; the only ones not shown are the ones that are common to all the remaining items. Moving the scroll bar to the bottom of the list of distinctive attributes will bring up an image of the highlighted species that may be in the database, and clicking on the image will allow you to call up more information on the species.

XID users should remember that if an attribute is in an item's Distinctive Attributes list, but the unknown specimen doesn't have that attribute, the item should not necessarily be eliminated. The specimen might not have all of the attributes that the individual item or species can display.

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Common Attributes


It is sometimes useful to be able to call up a list of the attributes that are shared by all of the remaining items or species. This information can reveal interesting relationships among the items that might not otherwise be apparent. To show the attributes common to those remaining species/items, select Common Attributes from the pulldown Database menu above.

If an XID user's specimen has one of these attributes, marking that attribute as YES will not reduce the number of possibilities. These attributes will have a distribution number the same as the number of remaining species. If an attribute has already been marked as YES, it will be in this list.

This feature can be useful to database authors in testing their attribute data if any relationships among attributes are known.

Item/Species List


The Item/Species List is in the lower left corner of the screen. Remaining items are alphabetized at the top of the list in green, items or species eliminated by marks made in the attribute menus are alphabetized in red at the bottom of the list.

XID databases can contain "species", with scientific names (in "genus species" format, like Homo sapiens) or "items" without scientific names. In the discussion below, the word "item" can also pertain to "species".

When a database has species with both scientific and common names defined, the list can be displayed alphabetically by either scientific or common names. To change the setting for how the names are to be shown, call up the dialogue box either by selecting Species List Report from the Options menu above and making your selection.

After eliminating most of the items in the database, this list can give the XID user information about the remaining possibilities to help with making a positive identification. For each item in the list, this form provides access to literature references, help text supplied by the database author, images, and all of the attribute data. It is also possible to see which of an item's attributes are unusual among the remaining items. At any time the images of all the remaining species can be displayed in the "Gallery" or with the "Species list report".

Right-click a name in the list. Unless the "Don't show ..." box is marked in "Options", "Species description", the dialogue box appears allowing a choice of information to call up, including an image, written descriptive information, the name of an image file, the attribute data checked as true for the item/species, a list of all attributes that includes those not marked as true for the intem/species, a list of references with page numbers where the item can be found, a list of all references in the database including those that do not contain information about the item or species, and a feature to allow the user to toggle directly to the same information in the previous or next species/item in the list.

To see which of an item's attributes are unusual among the collection of remaining items, right-click the name and then click the Distinctive Attributes selection. If the "Species description options" box comes up, click cancel.

It is possible to mark (or unmark) an item in this list with an "X" eliminate mark with the "X" button on the toolbar, or by right-clicking the item/species, and then selecting "Toggle Eliminated" (if the "Species description options" box comes up, click cancel). The XID user can use this feature when there is an item in the list that is known to not represent the unknown specimen. Items marked this way are shown in tan lettering among the red items at the end of the list. Eliminating items this way is reflected in the outcome of the Analyze and Distinctive Attributes functions, causing both to be more helpful. The "X" Eliminate mark may be removed in the same way it is made. To quickly locate an item/species that has been eliminated in this manner, clicking the check mark button on the tool bar will call up an image of it on the right; clicking on the image allows one to select "Find item in list", which will move the list to the item and highlight it. You can also select "Toggle eliminated" to uneliminate the species.

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Viewing Item/Species References


The XID user can look at reference data for an item or species by going to the Item/Species List, right-clicking the item or species, and then selecting References or References All.

The selection "References" shows each of the references entered by the database author for the item or species. If there are no references, the list will be empty. For each reference, the title is shown along with a page number or other information. "References All" shows all references whether or not there is data entered for that item/species. The reference data provides a means of confirming an identification, or a way to eliminate some of the remaining species. It can also help in obtaining detailed information about the specimen.

The "References" section (below "Menu Structure") allows you to see the ISBN # for the references used in the program, so that you can order those which you would like to add to your library. You can also "drag and drop" the references in the list so that those which you own will appear at the top.

Viewing Item/Species Data


To view the attribute data for an item or species, highlight the item/species in the Item/Species List, right-click the name, and select Data or Data All.

Data All shows all of the attributes that that item or species can have. The data is organized as in the menu structure for the database.

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