The Technological Singularity is the merging of humans and machines into a superintelligence. Perhaps the most well-known example of human-computer interaction is the movie “Minority Report.” Getting there requires advances in human-computer interaction.
It has always seemed that no matter how fast a computer, our brains are always waiting. One of the holy grails of computer science may, for the foreseeable future, be to get computers to operate at the speed of human thought. Of course, computers have data crunching ability millions, billions, and maybe trillions of times better than humans. But human-computer interaction (HCI) can improve significantly as computer technology advances and the interfaces between humans and computers are more direct and efficient.
At the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, researchers study design, implementation, and use of interactive computer systems and the ways in which computers influence individuals, organizations, and society. One example of a frontier being advanced is the creation of computational models of active vision that can be used in visual searches in human-computer interactions. Another is the creation of human-machine interfaces that promote collaboration through the use of gesture controls that allow humans to “work” in a more natural way. Another frontier is the monitoring and study of human brain activity and determining how thoughts and brain activity are connected.
Human-computer technology is advancing quickly because companies, research institutes, and universities are making it a priority by funding research and coordinating activities with the private sector. For example, computer scientist Ehsan Hoque at the University of Rochester recently was awarded a World Technology Award from the World Technology Network for his innovations in this area. Google is spending billions on artificial intelligence and universities are creating more tenure-track positions in human-computer interaction, programming in digital media, media design, etc.
The following video is an overview of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
