Hans Gellersen
Motion coupling as interaction principle
July 9th, 14:00
Amphitheater of the Digiteo Moulon Shannon building (660), How to get to there?
Abstract
Coupling of motion occurs in machines and biological systems alike, and humans are natural in coupling with external motion — for example falling in step when we walk with others, or coordinating complex tasks such as juggling. In this talk I am looking at motion coupling in user interfaces, and propose that there is a powerful principle in leveraging the correspondence of human and machine motion for interaction. I will start by discussing new forms of gaze interaction that are based on the smooth coupling of eye movement with motion stimuli at the interface. This coupling is both natural and distinct in that smooth eye movement is only observed when it has an object to follow, with fundamental implications for interface design. I will then look at bodily motion more generally, and show how motion coupling can be used to dynamically associate any form of user input for control, for example for remote pointing with the head if the hands are busy. Motion coupling challenges how we think about user interfaces and raises fundamental questions about human synchronisation and mimicry, inference of motion correspondence, and conceptual models for interaction.
Biography
Hans Gellersen is a Professor of Interactive Systems at Lancaster University. Hans' research interest is in sensors and devices for ubiquitous computing and human-computer interaction. He has worked on systems that blend physical and digital interaction, methods that infer context and human activity, and techniques that facilitate spontaneous interaction across devices. In his recent work he is focussing on eye movement and gaze interaction.