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

Descrizione del progetto

Interfacce utente intuitive basate sul corpo

Oggigiorno, per interagire con i computer, gli utenti utilizzano sempre più spesso interfacce utente (UI) basate sul corpo. Queste ultime sono fortemente basate su indicazioni visive e richiedono movimenti consapevoli e deliberati, anche se l’interazione uomo-computer (human-computer interaction, HCI) cerca di incorporare un linguaggio del corpo più intuitivo. Il progetto BODY-UI, finanziato dall’UE, intende superare le criticità attuali e sviluppare la prossima generazione di UI basate sul corpo. BODY-UI seguirà un nuovo approccio basato sulla cognizione incarnata, attingendo alla psicologia, alle neuroscienze, alla robotica e all’intelligenza artificiale. Riconoscendo l’integrazione dei sistemi sensoriali, motori e cognitivi, questo progetto interdisciplinare punta a rivoluzionare l’HCI, valutandone nuovamente i criteri e la progettazione per conseguire una maggiore fluidità.

Obiettivo

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.

Meccanismo di finanziamento

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

Istituzione ospitante

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

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Regione
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 1 853 158,00

Beneficiari (1)