Tag: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Utilizing computers had always begged the question of interfacing. The methods by which human has been interacting with computers has traveled a long way. The journey still continues and new designs of technologies and systems appear more and more every day and the research in this area has been growing very fast in the last few decades. The growth in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field has not only been in quality of interaction, it has also experienced different branching in its history. Instead of designing regular interfaces, the different research branches have had a different focus on the concepts of multimodality rather than unimodality, intelligent adaptive interfaces rather than command/action-based ones, and finally active rather than passive interfaces.

Overview

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) involves the planning and design of the interaction between users and computers. These days, smaller devices are used to improve technology. The most important advantage of computer vision is its freedom. The user can interact with the computer without wires and manipulating intermediary devices. Recently, User-Interfaces are used to capture the motion of our hands. The researchers developed techniques to track the movements of hand/fingers through the webcam to establish an interaction mechanism between the user and computer

Sometimes called Man-Machine Interaction or Interfacing, the concept of Human-Computer Interaction/Interfacing (HCI) was automatically represented by the emergence of the computer, or more generally machine, itself. The reason, in fact, is clear: most sophisticated machines are worthless unless they can be used properly by men. This basic argument simply presents the main terms that should be considered in the design of HCI: functionality and usability [1]

One important HCI factor is that different users form different conceptions or mental models about their interactions and have different ways of learning and keeping knowledge and skills (different "cognitive styles" as in, for example, "left-brained" and "right-brained" people). In addition, cultural and national differences play a part. Another consideration in studying or designing HCI is that user interface technology changes rapidly, offering new interaction possibilities to which previous research findings may not apply. Finally, user preferences change as they gradually master new interfaces.

Figure 1: Field of Human-Computer Interaction

Significance

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how people design, implement, and use interactive computer systems and how computers affect individuals, organizations, and society. This encompasses not only ease of use but also new interaction techniques for supporting user tasks, providing better access to information, and creating more powerful forms of communication. It involves input and output devices and the interaction techniques that use them; how information is presented and requested; how the computer’s actions are controlled and monitored; all forms of help, documentation, and training; the tools used to design, build, test, and evaluate user interfaces; and the processes that developers follow when creating Interfaces.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how people design, implement, and use interactive computer systems and how computers affect individuals, organizations, and society. This encompasses not only ease of use but also new interaction techniques for supporting user tasks, providing better access to information, and creating more powerful forms of communication. It involves input and output devices and the interaction techniques that use them; how information is presented and requested; how the computer’s actions are controlled and monitored; all forms of help, documentation, and training; the tools used to design, build, test, and evaluate user interfaces; and the processes that developers follow when creating Interfaces.

The goal of Human-Computer Interaction

The goals of HCI are to produce usable and safe systems, as well as functional systems. Usability is concerned with making systems easy to learn and easy to use [36]. In order to produce computer systems with good usability developers must attempt to:

• Understand the factors that determine how people use technology
• Develop tools and techniques to enable the building suitable systems
• Achieve efficient, effective, and safe interaction
• Put user first

Underlying the whole theme of HCI is the belief that people using a computer system should come first. Their needs, capabilities, and preferences for conducting various tasks should direct developers in the way that they design systems. People need not change themselves in order to fit in within the system. Instead, the system should be designed to match their requirements.

References

[1] Fakhreddine Karray and Milad Alemzadeh, “Human-Computer Interaction: Overview on State of the Art”, International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems, Volume 1, Number 1, March 2008

[2] Kinjal N. Shah and Kirit R. Rathod, “A survey on Human-Computer Interaction Mechanism Using Finger Tracking”, International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – volume 7 number 3– Jan 2014

[3] “Chapter 1: Introduction”, available online at: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/13990/6/06_chapter_1.pdf