New directions in user-system interaction: augmented reality, ubiquitous computing and natural user interfacesMatthias Rauterberg (IPO, Center for User System Interaction, Eindhoven University of Technology)Abstract: The embodiment of computers in the work place has had a tremendous impact on the field of user-system interaction. Mice and graphic displays are everywhere, the desktop workstations define the frontier between the computer world and the real world. We spend a lot of time and energy to transfer information between those two worlds. This could be reduced by better integrating the virtual world of the computer with the real world of the user. The most promising approach to this integration is Augmented Reality (AR). The expected success of this approach lies in its ability to build on fundamental human skills: namely, to interact with real world subjects and objects! We present a new interaction style, called Natural User Interface (NUI). Several prototypical applications already implement NUIs and demonstrate its technical feasibility. |
Creation of New Communications Based on Multimedia TechnologiesRyohei Nakatsu (President, ATR/MIC Research Labs, Kyoto, Japan)Abstract: Nowadays, Internet and mobile telephones are the major tools for telecommunications. What will be the form of communications that comes after the era of Internet and mobile telephones? Although the importance of network and multimedia technologies have been recognized, so far there have been no clear vision on the image of the futurecommunications. I want to introduce here the concept of "Hyper Communications - Communications through Cyberspace-" as the vision for future communications. To realize this, there are several essential technologies. First, we need the technology that could create cyberspaces. Also we need the technology that could lead people into a cyberspace, and the technology that enables the easy manipulation of objects in a cyberspace. Finally we need the technology that enables the interaction between people and computer agents as well as the interaction between people and other people in distant places. In the presentation, I will first explain the concept of Hyper Communications through, then explain various kinds of technologies essential for its realization. Finally I will introduce several of the systems we are studying as examples of Hyper Communications. |
Lovable InterfacesHiroshi Tamura (Tamura Institute for Human Interface, Kyoto, Japan)Abstract: So far advanced technical systems are designed as tools for tasks. Tools are designed so that operators may manipulate them easily at will. They are required to be efficient, exact, safe and reliable. Usability is the useful idea to evaluate the machines as tool. In the next generation, automatic systems or information systems will be filling up the factory, office, shops, home and hospitals. Those systems should no longer be designed as tools. They should be designed as an essential part of environment, shared among users and nonusers. Environment should look and feel natural beyond nature. Shared environment should not be manipulated by limited users. Environment has to be friendly to users and nonuser, attractive and lovable to everybody.Games, Karaoke, pet machines are some of the examples of lovable interfaces. Extensive use of mobile communication is changing communication styles, especially of young. People took phones when they had something necessary to communicate. But now a day, young people take phones, when they nothing to do. They enjoy communication to find out problems and to exchange the situations. Informal private styles of communication are growing, reflecting, the difference in language and traditions. |
Speech in a multi-modal contextEmiel Krahmer (IPO, Center for User System Interaction, Eindhoven University of Technology)Abstract: In recent years there has been an increased interest in multi-modal systems where speech is one of the in- or output modalities. This is partly due to the limitations of current speech technology, but also because multi-modal systems are arguably more natural than uni-modal ones. In addition multi-modality makes it possible to combine the advantages of the respective modalities and at the same time compensate for some of their limitations. In the first part of this talk, we review a number of ongoing, multi-modal IPO projects in the area of spoken dialogue systems. In the second part we zoom in on one specific question: which modalities are preferred in particular contexts when interacting with a multi-modal dialogue system? We describe an experiment with four version of a multi-modal examinator to be used in elementary school. The trade-off between three factors was investigated: (i) the performance of the speech recognition, (ii) the efficiency of the input modality and (iii) the system's output modality. |
Research activities on spoken language translation technologies at ATRSeiichi Yamamoto (President, ATR/SLT, Kyoto, Japan)Abstract: In the coming 21st century, the demand for global communications among speakers of different languages is expected to grow, and consequently, speech translation technologies will be indispensable for such global communications. Based on this reasoning, research on speech translation technologies has been progressing for about 20 years in Japan and a part of these technologies are entering into the stage of practical use. The paper describes the present state of speech translation technologies, focusing on research activities at ATR Interpreting Telecommunications Research Labs, and future research plans of ATR Spoken Language Translation Research Labs. |
Face Recognition by Human and MachineShigeru Akamatsu (ATR/HIP Research Labs, Kyoto, Japan)Abstract: The so-called KANSEI information in Japanese (almost paraphrased as subjective or affective information) conveyed visually by human faces, such as a person's identity, emotional state, impression on personality or social attributes, behavioral intention, and so on, plays an important role in face-to-face communication by humans. Therefore, at ATR Human Information Processing Res. Labs., I have conducted a research project on the KANSEI information processing of facial images. Aiming to build cognitive models of facial images, relationships have been studied between spatio-temporal visual patterns of faces that exist in physical, and mental images of the face perceived from the visual patterns and generated in the brain. These studies include psychological experiments utilizing the latest technologies for image analysis and synthesis by computers. In parallel with the search for cognitive modeling, and also based on some psychological findings, efforts have been made to build computational models for the perceptual and cognitive processing of facial patterns, so that this might lead to advanced manipulations of facial patterns by computer, such as recognizing or synthesizing faces in accordance with human characteristics in face perception. I will describe some of the recent progress in this research project on face recognition by human and machine as well as a brief overview of the research projects at ATR Human Information Processing Research Laboratories. |
Ambient intelligence: a new development in communication technologyEmile Aarts (Philips Research and Eindhoven University of Technology)Abstract: In the near future our homes will have a distributed network of intelligent devices that provides us with information, communication, and entertainment. Furthermore, these systems will adapt themselves to the user and even anticipate on user needs. These consumer systems will differ substantially from contemporary equipment through their appearance in people's environments, and through the way users interact with them. Ambient Intelligence is the term that is used to denote this new paradigm for in-home computing and entertainment. Salient features of this new concept are ubiquitous computing, and natural interaction. Recent developments in technology, the Internet, the consumer electronics market, and social developments indicate that this dream might become reality soon. First prototypes of ambient intelligent home systems have been developed, but the realization of true ambient intelligence calls for much additional research of multidisciplinary teams consisting of technologists, designers, and human behavior scientists. The presentation will elaborate on some of these aspects and show where we stand in the development of ambient intelligence. |
Ambient intelligence: the need for a new concept of usabilityDon Bouwhuis (Department of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology)Abstract: Ambient intelligence refers to the reactivity of the environment in response to behaviour of a person in that environment. Many devices in our environment are already provided with considerable computational power, that enables them to perform meaningful functions. Advanced types of mouse contain a processor as powerful as that of the DEC VAX and mobile phones nowadays have a functionality that only few users will ever fully exploit. It is foreseeable that almost all electronic devices will similarly become much "smarter" and so present an environment that essentially can display intelligent behaviour with suitable combination of these devices. Such an environment may be self-initiating, and react autonomously to the behaviour of the person. Inasmuch as the person does not always consciously control the environment, the person is no longer a user, but is rather a component of the environment. Traditional measures of usability do not adequately capture this person-environment link. We will present some empirical and theoretical approaches to this problem, involving human-to-human communication and the concept of trust in communication with technical systems. |
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