Increasing Human-Computer Interaction

Introduction:

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the study of interaction between people, as the users, and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection between the field of computer science, behavioral sciences, and design. It is thus a very wide and broad field of study which involves a cross-sector thinking offering enormous potential for the future of Enterprise IT.

It must be understood, however, that interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface) layer, which includes both software and hardware, for example, general-purpose computer peripherals and large-scale mechanical systems, such as aircraft and power plants.

HCI Goals:

A basic goal of HCI is to improve the interactions between users and computers by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's needs. A long term goal of HCI is to design systems that minimize the barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's task. Specifically, HCI is concerned with:

• methodologies and processes for designing interfaces (i.e., given a task and a class of users, design the best possible interface within given constraints, optimizing for a desired property such as learning ability or efficiency of use)

• methods for implementing interfaces (e.g. software toolkits and libraries; efficient algorithms)

• techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces

• developing new interfaces and interaction techniques

• developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of interaction

Enablers:

The means by which humans interact with computers continues to evolve rapidly. Human-computer interaction is affected by the forces shaping the nature of future computing. These forces include:

• Decreasing hardware costs leading to larger memories and faster systems

• Miniaturization of hardware leading to portability

• Reduction in power requirements leading to portability

• New display technologies leading to the packaging of computational devices in new forms

• Specialized hardware leading to new functions

• Increased development of network communication and distributed computing

• Increasingly widespread use of computers, especially by people who are outside of the computing profession

• Increasing innovation in input techniques (i.e., voice, gesture, pen), combined with lowering cost, leading to rapid computerization by people previously left out of the "computer revolution."

• Wider social concerns leading to improved access to computers by currently disadvantaged groups

Consequences:

• Group interfaces Interfaces to allow groups of people to coordinate will be common (e.g., for meetings, for engineering projects, for authoring joint documents). These will have major impacts on the nature of organizations and on the division of labor. Models of the group design process will be embedded in systems and will cause increased rationalization of design.

• User Tailorability Ordinary users will routinely tailor applications to their own use and will use this power to invent new applications based on their understanding of their own domains. Users, with their deeper knowledge of their own knowledge domains, will increasingly be important sources of new applications at the expense of generic systems programmers (with systems expertise but low domain expertise).

• Mixed media Systems will handle images, voice, sounds, video, text, formatted data. These will be exchangeable over communication links among users. The separate worlds of consumer electronics (e.g., stereo sets, VCRs, televisions) and computers will partially merge. Computer and print worlds will continue to cross assimilate each other.

Future Development:

1. Ubiquitous communication

A post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even be aware that they are doing so. This model is in an advancement from the desktop paradigm. This paradigm is also described as pervasive computing or ambient intelligence

Examples of Ubiquitous communication:

At their core, all models of ubiquitous computing (also called pervasive computing) share a vision of small, inexpensive, robust networked processing devices, distributed at all scales throughout everyday life and generally turned to distinctly common-place ends. For example, a domestic ubiquitous computing environment might interconnect lighting and environmental controls with personal biometric monitors woven into clothing so that illumination and heating conditions in a room might be modulated, continuously and imperceptibly. Another common scenario posits refrigerators "aware" of their suitably-tagged contents, able to both plan a variety of menus from the food actually on hand, and warn users of stale or spoiled food. Contemporary devices that lend some support to this latter idea include mobile phones, digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags, GPS, and interactive whiteboards.

2. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW)

The goal of collaborative/cooperative learning is the creation of a mutual knowledge structure which is derived from group consensus. For example, a work group engaging in the process of design would ideally need to pool their individual knowledge in order to create a new product. They will eventually want to create a shared meaning, which would allow them to take action together to carry out the design.

CSCW emphasis is, thus, placed on the use of computing systems in support of the collaborative work of a group of people. CSCW addresses "how collaborative activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems." On the one hand, many authors consider that CSCW and groupware are synonyms. On the other hand, different authors claim that while groupware refers to real computer-based systems, CSCW focuses on the study of tools and techniques of groupware as well as their psychological, social, and organizational effects.

Examples of CSCW:

Collaborative software (also referred to as groupware or workgroup support systems) is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals. Such software systems as email, calendaring, text chat and wiki belong to this category. It has been suggested that Metcalfe's law — the more people who use something, the more valuable it becomes — applies to such software.

3. Augmented reality

A common staple of science fiction, augmented reality refers to the notion of layering relevant information into our vision of the world. It deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. Existing projects show real-time statistics to users performing difficult tasks, such as manufacturing. Future work might include augmenting our social interactions by providing additional information about those we converse with. Advanced research includes the use of motion-tracking data, fiducial markers recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators

Examples of Augmented Reality:

Commonly known examples of AR are the yellow "first down" line seen in television broadcasts of American football games, and the colored trail showing location and direction of the puck in TV broadcasts of hockey games. The real-world elements are the football field and players, and the virtual element is the yellow line, which is drawn over the image by computers in real time. Similarly, rugby fields and cricket pitches are branded by their sponsors using Augmented Reality; giant logos are inserted onto the fields when viewed on television.

4. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

The evolution of the Computer Human interface may seem to be rooted in the infernal keyboard and its recent travelling companion, the mouse, but much work is being done in the areas of virtual worlds, voice recognition, handwriting recognition and gesture recognition to give us a new paradigm of computing. It now appears we are on the edge of another brave new virtual world – the direct interface between the brain and the computer is here.

A brain-computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs were aimed at assisting augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. The field has since blossomed spectacularly, mostly toward neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement.

Examples of BCI:

Although its current application is mainly popular in the field of health and medical, it still needs a lot research and considerations in order to see whether BCIs application will be also suitable for industry use in the future. It might offer new commercialization opportunities for new ways of working, technology, and human-computer interactions. Although it still seems a bit far, the first step towards the first commercialization of BCI technology device has taken place already as can be seen in the article from Gizmag. Now the German g.tec (Guger Technologies) group has taken the technology out of the lab and into the real world with a complete BCI kit. And amazingly, there’s also a kit for a pocket PC - a super-low-weight biosignal recording system “g.MOBIlab” is used to measure the EEG and the data processing, analysis and pattern recognition are performed on a commercially available Pocket PC or in this case, your windows PC. The first BCI system will enable the composition and sending of messages, and control of a computer game.