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Using Embodied Cognition to Create the Next Generations of Body-based User Interfaces

Description du projet

Pour des interfaces utilisateur intuitives basées sur le corps

De nos jours, les utilisateurs ont de plus en plus recours à des interfaces utilisateur (IU) basées sur le corps pour interagir avec les ordinateurs. Ces IU s’appuient fortement sur des indices visuels et nécessitent des mouvements conscients et délibérés. Cependant, l’interaction Homme-Machine (IHM) cherche à intégrer un langage corporel plus intuitif. Le projet BODY-UI, financé par l’UE, vise à surmonter les difficultés actuelles et à mettre au point la prochaine génération d’IU basées sur le corps. Il suivra une nouvelle approche basée sur la cognition incarnée, s’inspirant de la psychologie, des neurosciences, de la robotique et de l’intelligence artificielle. En reconnaissant l’intégration des systèmes sensoriels, moteurs et cognitifs, ce projet interdisciplinaire vise à révolutionner l’IHM en réévaluant les critères et la conception, pour aboutir à une IHM plus homogène.

Objectif

Recent advances in user interfaces (UIs) allow users to interact with computers using only their body, so-called body-based UIs. Instead of moving a mouse or tapping a touch surface, people can use whole-body movements to navigate in games, gesture in mid-air to interact with large displays, or scratch their forearm to control a mobile phone. Body-based UIs are attractive because they free users from having to hold or touch a device and because they allow always-on, eyes-free interaction. Currently, however, research on body-based UIs proceeds in an ad hoc fashion and when body-based UIs are compared to device-based alternatives, they perform poorly. This is likely because little is known about the body as a user interface and because it is unclear whether theory and design principles from human-computer interaction (HCI) can be applied to body-based UIs. While body-based UIs may well be the next interaction paradigm for HCI, results so far are mixed.

This project aims at establishing the scientific foundation for the next generations of body-based UIs. The main novelty in my approach is to use results and methods from research on embodied cognition. Embodied cognition suggest that thinking (including reasoning, memory, and emotion) is shaped by our bodies, and conversely, that our bodies reflect thinking. We use embodied cognition to study how body-based UIs affect users, and to increase our understanding of similarities and differences to device-based input. From those studies we develop new body-based UIs, both for input (e.g. gestures in mid-air) and output (e.g. stimulating users’ muscles to move their fingers), and evaluate users’ experience of interacting through their bodies. We also show how models, evaluation criteria, and design principles in HCI need to be adapted for embodied cognition and body-based UIs. If successful, the project will show how to create body-based UIs that are usable and orders of magnitude better than current UIs.

Régime de financement

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

Institution d’accueil

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 1 853 158,00
Adresse
NORREGADE 10
1165 Kobenhavn
Danemark

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Région
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Liens
Coût total
€ 1 853 158,00

Bénéficiaires (1)