In this paper we review the major approaches to Multimodal Human Computer Interaction, giving an overview of the field from a computer vision perspective. In particular, we focus on body, gesture, gaze, and affective interaction (facial expression recognition and emotion in audio). We discuss user and task modeling, and multimodal fusion, highlighting challenges, open issues, and emerging applications for Multimodal Human Computer Interaction (MMHCI) research.

Design is a rich domain in which to investigate barriers and biases in computer-supported communication because it involves many different modes of communication in social-technical contexts. This chapter briefly describes different design approaches. It analyzes the biases and barriers of two different types of design communities: communities of practice and communities of interest. To address the communication challenges between diverse design communities, boundary objects are needed to establish common ground and shared understanding in the context of complex design tasks. We explore the unique possibilities that computational media have to support our conceptual framework. Our work is based on the fundamental belief that there is no media-independent communication and interaction—that tools, materials, and social arrangements are always involved in some way in these activities. The possibilities and the practice of design are functions

Open source communities have successfully developed a great deal of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability.

The power of the unaided, individual mind is highly overrated: The Renaissance scholar no longer exists. Although creative individuals are often thought of as working in isolation, the role of interaction and collaboration with other individuals is critical to creativity. Creative activity grows out of the relationship between individuals and their work, and from the interactions between an individual and other human beings. Because complex problems require more knowledge than any single person possesses, it is necessary that all involved stakeholders participate, communicate, collaborate, and learn from each other. Distances (across spatial, temporal, and technological dimensions) and diversity (bringing stakeholders together from different cultures) are important sources for social creativity. This paper describes conceptual frameworks and sociotechnical environments (derived from the systems that we have developed over the last decade) in which social creativity can come alive. Keywords design, social creativity, spatial distance, temporal distance, technological distance, diversity, communities of practice, communities of interest, division of labor

Abstract not found

on the concept of "Information and Communicate Activities Navigation (ICAN)" and an authoring support system for Weblog (blog). ICAN regulates the human activities from a viewpoint of information and communication support. We introduce the idea of "Collect" and "Relate" in the ICAN table into the information retrieval and the search method which uses contents and human relationship produced by daily blogging. Our egocentric methods provide more subjective search result than the conventional engines. We apply the methods to improve the quality of the small contents made with Weblog tools.

This article documents the authors ’ attempt to develop a quick, inexpensive, and reliable method for demonstrating user testing to an audience. The resulting method,

After software has been released the opporttmities for users to influence development can often be limited. In this paper we review the research on post-deployment usability and make explicit its connections to open source software development. We describe issues involved in the design of end-user reporting tools with reference to the Safari web browser and a digital library prototype.

The exponential growth of user demands, the limitations of the Third Generation of Mobile Communication Systems (3G) and the emergence of new mobile broadband technologies on the market have brought researchers to a throughout reflection on the Fourth Generation (4G). Many prophetic visions have appeared in literature presenting the future generation as the ultimate boundary of the wireless mobile communication without any limit in its potential, but practically not giving any designing rules and thus any definition of it. In this paper we hence propose a methodology that considers the user as the "angular stone in the design of 4G" and identifies his functional needs and expectations, reflecting and illustrating them in everyday life situations. This way, fundamental but exemplary user scenarios where new services are significant assets for the user are extrapolated. The latter implicitly reveal the key features of 4G, which are then explicated in a new framework -- the "user-centric" system -- that, through a satellite hierarchical vision, derives the various level of interdependency among them. Finally, an example of a new 4G application is also given in order to demonstrate the validity of the overall methodology.

Many applications require comparison between alternative scenarios; most support it poorly. A subjunctive interface supports comparison through its facilities for parallel setup, viewing and control of scenarios. To evaluate the usability and benefits of these facilities, we ran experiments in which subjects used both a simple and a subjunctive interface to make comparisons in a census data set. In the first experiment, subjects reported higher satisfaction and lower workload with the subjunctive interface, and relied less on interim marks on paper. Subjects also used fewer interface actions. However, we found no reduction in task completion time, mainly because some subjects encountered problems in using the facilities for setting up and controlling scenarios. Based on a detailed analysis of subjects ’ actions we redesigned the subjunctive interface to alleviate frequent problems, such as accidentally adjusting only one scenario when the intention was to adjust them all. At the end of a second, five-session experiment, users of this redesigned interface completed tasks 27 % more quickly than with the simple interface.