The AMPLIFY project explores how digital technologies can enhance, augment, and amplify human perception. In the last decade, technical sensor systems have been developed that are superior to human perception, e.g. cameras can be built that provide higher spatial and temporal resolution than the human eye and cover a wider spectral range. But a human sense is much more than a sensor.
Technologies can be created that seamlessly augment and enhance human perception and cognition. In this project, we aim to increase our understanding of such technologies on a technical and conceptual level, but also in terms of their impact on the individual, the perception of an individual using such technologies, and also on a societal level.
Augmenting, amplifying, and extending human perception will open new perspectives for human interaction with the environment, and these advances have the potential to revolutionize human perception without creating information overload. They will enhance what they see, hear, and feel - this goes beyond perception and is fundamental to our experience and ultimately the way we think.
The project has four main objectives: (1) foundations for implementing new human senses, (2) foundations for augmenting human senses, (3) user interfaces for explicit and implicit control, and (4) measures for quantifying the effectiveness and quality of perceptual augmentation. Using a human-centered and experimental approach that relies heavily on the creation and study of functional prototypes, we conduct research in human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing to achieve our goals. We employ an iterative design process with key elements of inspiration, exploration, and validation.
At its core, the project is a computer science research topic, but has strong interdisciplinary aspects. The key driver for innovation is the idea of amplifying the human mind and improving human perception, which is at the intersection of understanding humans and creating new technologies. Inspiration comes from human psychology and neuroscience. For the technical exploration and to create fundamental and usable systems, we need expertise in computer science and electronics. Our interdisciplinary research team includes scientists and students with backgrounds in neuroscience, psychology, electronics, and computer science.
During the development of the prototypes, we focused on the feasibility of creating artificial human senses that provide new perceptual channels to the human mind without increasing the experienced cognitive load of the person. Our focus was on creating intuitive and natural control mechanisms for the augmented senses using eye gaze, muscle activity, and brain signals.
In a human-centered research process, we have created a large number of prototypes and used them as a means of exploring and advancing our understanding of human augmentation. The specific prototypes and the empirical work with them are a vehicle for our conceptual research in human-computer interaction.
Through our publications, events, and workshops, we have fostered an international community researching human perceptual and cognitive augmentation and enhancement. In addition to the many technical contributions we have made, we have also advanced the methodology of human-computer interaction by discovering the placebo effect for AI-based technological augmentations.
