Introduction

How is the style of human-computer interaction dependent on the devices (controls and dislpays)? What's beyond mouse, pen and game controllers? Can we invent new devices, new styles?

What happens when every light switch, appliance and vending machine has a computer in it and the mapping between what I do and what the device does is completely arbitrary? When should I use buttons, when handles?

What are the ways that we can sense people? What are the requirements for bandwidth, sampling rate, resolution, linearity? What is the role of feedback, sensory mode, dynamics?

How can I quickly prototype working controls with sensors, signal processing and micro-processors? How should we evaluate effectiveness of a new device? What quantitative models and measures of human performance are useful?

Are music controllers a special case or can we learn general lessons from them? What is MIDI and why has it been so important to electronic and computer music? Beyond efficiency and ease of use, what roles can skill and expression play in human-computer interaction?

Send comments about this page to gurevich@ccrma.stanford.edu Last modified: Tue Sep 24 11:16:27 PDT 2002