Foggy interfaces and other human machine interactions

Apr 16, 2014

Menno van Doorn

It’s probably the most important conference on Human-Computer Interfaces: The CHI2014. A short promo of what can be expected this years on conference.

One of the projects that will be presented is from the University of Bristol and is called “MisTable”. The project is headed by Professor Sriram Subramanian and Dr Diego Martinez Plasencia, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, and contains a tabletop system that combines a conventional interactive table with personal screens built using fog, between the user and the tabletop surface.

You should have a look at this video and get some understanding what a “See through and reach trough” screen is. The see-through feature provides a direct line of sight of the personal screen and the elements behind it on the tabletop.  The reach-through feature allows the user to switch from interacting with the personal screen to reaching through it to interact with the tabletop or the space above it.

There’s a great diversity of talks and papers presented at the CHI2014. Some of them are real R&D, like MisTable. Some of them are more on analyzing behavior in social media or internet-of-things interactions. For instance one paper is on “The design of Eco-Interaction Technologies”. The Univeristy of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon found out that users of Google Nest fall back in their old behavior (and don’t save energy anymore). But can that issue be solved by a better design? Multiple reasons for you to visit CHI2014.

About the author

Menno van Doorn

Director and Trend Analyst VINT | Netherlands

Menno is Director of the Sogeti Research Institute for the Analysis of New Technology (VINT). He mixes personal life experiences with the findings of the 19 years of research done at the VINT Research Institute. Menno has co-authored many books on the impact of new technology on business and society.

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