Anno 2010 - Remembering Our Future: Challenges and Frontiers of Human-Media Technology as the Kernel for Human-Centered Computing

Abstract

Based on a forecast by Battelle, Human-Media Technology is one of "technologyâ s top 10 challenges and opportunities" for the year 2010. The subject hereby is: "Humans live, science finds out how technology conforms". The goal is to develop environments that allow users to cooperate in the most efficient and natural way. Human-centered systems will have to incorporate people as an explicit design component. This lecture will address the main goals in developing such systems based on their general characteristics and the corresponding enabling technologies: Visualization (seeing the unseen), Virtual and Augmented Reality (environment must be immersive), and also Multimedia (to introduce the combination of visual, auditory and voice data). Examples from applications and case studies will support the clarification of ideas and goals. Several videos will be used to show the impact.So far, the human-centered interfaces to accommodate human perception and human response capabilities and limitations will have been presented and discussed. These interfaces allow to integrate the desired amount of immersion and cooperation (CSCW). Based on this, some "hands-on" life demos will be shown to discuss the state of the art of these technologies, like Virtual Tables (responsive workbenches), special I/O technologies, etc. Some of these demos will be stand-alone demos; others will show the potential of telecommunication for collaboration by connecting the floor with other locations to demonstrate CSCW-based visual tele-applications.