Heiko Horst Hornung

Adjustable interactive rings for iDTV

Literature has shown that the remote control, the main artifact for interaction with the television system, is not adequate to mediate the interaction with Interactive Digital Television (iDTV). This work presents and discusses a new proposal of artifact for interaction with iDTV applications. The paper presents in details the product design and the interaction language for the new digital artifact which presupposes its use by everyone, in the widest possible extension. Additionally, we show the prototype of these new hardware devices and an evaluation with prospective end users of the solution described in this paper.

Gesture-Based Interaction in Domotic Environments: State of the Art and HCI Framework Inspired by the Diversity

Applications for the control and automation of residential environments (domotics) are an emerging area of study within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). One of the related challenges is to design gestural interaction with these applications. This paper explores socio-technical aspects of gestural interaction in intelligent domotic environments. An analysis of literature in the area revealed that some HCI-related aspects are treated in a restricted manner that neglects socio-technical dimensions. We propose a framework for discussing related challenges in an integrated manner, considering the dimensions people, gestural mode of interaction, and domotics. Some of these challenges are addressed by literature outside the area of domotics. Many open research questions remain, e.g. how to design gestural vocabularies that minimize ambiguity and consider cultural and social aspects. The proposed framework might contribute to answering these questions thus to designing meaningful interaction that is intuitive and easy to learn.

Towards a conceptual framework for interaction design for the pragmatic web

In the current World Wide Web, useful information on web sites is often mixed with a lot of information that is not relevant to a user at a particular moment, or is presented in a format that is not optimal for a particular person using a specific artifact. In this paper we argue that to solve problems related to information relevance, presentation and flexibility of use, approaches are required that provide users with uniform ways of accessing and using information and services that are relevant to them at a particular moment in a way that suits their competences and needs. Informed by the Pragmatic Web and hence the questions of how and why people actually access information and services, this work proposes to set a basis for a conceptual framework to better understand, reason about, and design interaction in the Web.

Challenges for Human-Data Interaction – A Semiotic Perspective

Data has become ubiquitous and pervasive influencing our perceptions and actions in ever more areas of individual and social life. Data production, collection and editing are complex actions motivated by data use. In this paper we present and characterize the field of study of Human-Data Interaction by discussing the challenges of how to enable understanding of data and information in this complex context, and how to facilitate acting on this understanding considering the social impact. By understanding interaction with data as a sign process, and identifying the goal of designing human-data interaction as enabling stakeholders to promote desired and to avoid undesired consequences of data use, we employ a semiotic perspective and define research challenges for the field.

Pragmatic Aspects of Collaborative Problem Solving: Towards a Framework for Conceptualizing Dynamic Knowledge

Knowledge production in the Social Web can be understood as a dynamic socio-cultural process. Mechanisms that support users to explore this knowledge in an effective and efficient way may bring various benefits. However, the construction of these interaction mechanisms depends on further research on multidisciplinary fields. The interpretation of the content by users is influenced by meanings and intentions, as well as by the understanding of the evolution of these aspects over time. This paper analyses the evolution of meaning and intentions in collaborative problem solving. The analysis is informed by Semiotics and Speech Act theories. From this analysis, the paper proposes a conceptual framework for multidisciplinary research in three interconnected perspectives: interactive, conceptual and technical.

Prospecting a New Physical Artifact of Interaction for iDTV: Results of Participatory Practices

A literature review has indicated that the remote control, the main physical artifact of interaction with the television system, in its current form is not adequate to the interaction between users and applications of Interactive Digital Television (iDTV), especially in a scenario of diverse user profiles as found in Brazil. This paper describes participatory practices carried out with the intention of defining a new physical artifact of interaction for iDTV. Based on the results of these participatory practices and previous research results, we provide a definition of an artifact that can be adapted to diverse contexts of use.

Exploring adjustable interactive rings in game playing: preliminary results

In recent years new forms of interaction have been proposed by academia and industry for the contexts of use of interactive Digital Television (iDTV) and games. One of these proposals is called Adjustable Interactive Rings (AIRs), which is a technology resulting from a research project that was originally designed to be used with iDTV applications. Taking into account the design features of the physical artifact of interaction developed, it seems possible to conjecture its use in other contexts then the iDTV. In this paper, we present preliminary results of an experiment conducted with users in order to investigate the suitability of AIRs in the context of playing computer games.

Designing to Promote a New Social Affordance for Energy Consumption

The relation between energy consumption and its environmental impact is weak or even almost inexistent in the Brazilian scenario due to sociocultural reasons. This work takes advantage of an experimental smart grid deployment scenario to propose the concept of Social Eco-feedback Technology. It aims at establishing this relation by promoting a new social affordance (behavior pattern), favoring a new way of perceiving energy. The concept of affordance and artifacts of the Organizational Semiotics are extended to encompass both the analysis of actual and intended behavior through a new technology design.

Towards a Design Rationale for Inclusive eGovernment Services

The tendency of computer use spreading out into more and more areas of life has the potential to bring benefits to peoples lives. Examples are electronic government services in areas such as public health or social assistance. The same phenomenon, however, could leave behind people who face different barriers regarding the access to those services, for example people with disabilities, low literacy or low computer skills. This work sheds light on the question of how to facilitate the interaction with those services considering people with diverse physical and intellectual conditions. This study analyzes design ideas utilized in four prototypes of a registration service and explored by user representatives. The results of this analysis inform a design rationale in order to support designers in making design decisions tailored to the respective application and social usage context.

Recommendations for Gesture-Based Residential Interactive Systems Inspired by Diversity

Gestural interaction is becoming an important mode of interaction with residential systems, be it with or without using physical artifacts such as remote controls or cell phones. When constructing respective gestural vocabularies social implications need to be considered. The importance of the residential environment to users and the heterogeneity of user profiles make the theme diversity an important concern in the development of these applications. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to describe the recommendations for diversity that support the inclusive design of residential interactive systems based on gestures.