MIRPUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MUST), MIRPUR

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Human Computer Interaction
BIT-3601

Lecture [02] : Input-output channels (HCI)

Mr. Ghias Hamid

(Lecturer)

Date: April 30, 2020

 Contents
In this lecture we are going to understand the following concepts
 Input-output channels (HCI)
• The Human
• The Human Eye
• Interpreting the signal
• Reading
• Hearing
• Touch or haptic perception
• Movement
• Memory
• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory (STM)
• Long-term memory (LTM)

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) 3

 Input and Output Channels (HCI)

The Human
• A person‘s interaction with the outside world occurs through
information being received and sent: input and output.
• In an interaction with a computer the user receives information that is
output by the computer, and responds by providing input to the
computer
• The user‘s output becomes the computer‘s input and vice versa.
• Input in the human occurs mainly through the senses and output
through the effectors.
• There are five major senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
From these, the first three are the most important to HCI.

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
There are five Input output Channels
1. Vision
2. Hearing
3. Touch
4. Movement
5. Memory

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
1. Vision

 Human vision is a highly complex activity but it is primary source of

information.
 Two stages in vision

• Physical reception of stimulus from the outside world

• Processing and interpretation of stimulus

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
The Human Eye

• Mechanism for receiving light and transforming it into electrical

energy
• Images are focused upside-down on retina
• Retina contains rods for low light vision and cones for colour
vision
• Ganglion cells (brain!) Detect pattern and movement

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
Interpreting the signal
Size and depth
• visual angle indicates how much of view object occupies
(relates to size and distance from eye)
Brightness
• subjective reaction to levels of light
• measured by just noticeable difference

Colour
• 8% males and 1% females colour blind

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
Reading

• During reading, the eye makes jerky movements

• The speed at which text can be read is a measure of its legibility
• Experiments shown that standard font size of 9 to 12 points equal
legible
• Word shape is important to recognition
• Negative contrast improves reading from computer screen
• Reading from a computer screen is slower than a book

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
2. Hearing

• Provides information about environment:

distances, directions, objects etc.
• Auditory system filters sounds
• Can attend to sounds over background noise.

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
3. Touch or Haptic perception
• Provides important feedback about environment
• May be key sense for someone who is visually impaired
• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin
• The skin contains three types of sensory receptor:
• thermoreceptors – respond to heat and cold
• nociceptors – respond to heat and pain
• mechanoreceptors – respond to pressure, vibrations
• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
4. Movement
• Speed and accuracy of movement are important considerations in
design of interactive system
• Primarily in terms of time taken to move to a particular target on a
screen
• Time taken to respond to stimulus:
reaction time + movement time
• Movement time - dependent on age, fitness etc.
• Reaction time - dependent on stimulus type

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
5. Memory

There are three types of memory function:

1. Sensory memories (visual  iconic,
auditory  echoic, touch  haptic)
2. Short-term memory or working memory
3. Long-term memory

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)

1. Sensory memory
• The sensory memories act as buffers for stimuli received through each of
the senses: iconic memory for vision, echoic memory for sounds and
haptic memory for touch
• These memories are constantly overwritten by new information coming in
on these channels
• Information is passed from the sensory memory into short-term memory
by attention

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
 Input and Output Channels (HCI)
2. Short-term memory (STM)
• STM acts as a scratch-pad for temporary recall of information
• It is used to store information which is only required fleetingly
• Has a limited capacity

3. Long-term memory (LTM)

• long-term memory is our main resource
• Here we store factual information, experiential knowledge, procedural
rules of behavior – in fact, everything that we ‘know’.
• It differs from short-term memory in a number of significant ways.
• First, it has a huge capacity.
• Secondly, it has a relatively slow access time
• Thirdly, forgetting occurs more slowly in long-term memory, if at all.

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 References
1. Human-Computer Interaction, by Alan Dix, 3rd Edition , Chapter 01, Section 1.2, Section 1.3

2. https://www.studocu.com/in/document/anna-university/human-computer-interaction/lecture-
notes/hci-notes-all-units-1/3707695/view

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Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
THANKS