Human and Computer Interaction

Chapter three
The computer
 INTRODUCTION
In order to understand how humans interact with computers,
we need to have an understanding of both parties in the
interaction.
The previous chapter explored aspects of human capabilities
and behaviour of which we need to be aware in the context of
human–computer interaction.
This chapter considers the computer and associated input–
output devices and investigates how the technology influences
the nature of the interaction and style of the interface.
We will concentrate principally on the traditional computer but
we will also look at devices that take us beyond the closed
world of keyboard, mouse and screen. As well as giving us
lessons about more traditional systems, these are increasingly
becoming important application areas in HCI.
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 The Computer
 A computer system is made up of various
elements. Each of these elements affects the
interaction

• Input devices: text entry and pointing

• Output devices: Screen(small and large), digital
paper
• Physical interaction: sound, haptic, bio-sensing
• Paper: as output(print) and input(scan)
• memory – RAM & permanent media, capacity & access
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 Interactivity
 Long years ago
• Batch processing: information was entered into the computer in a
large mass – batch data entry.
 Punched card stacks or large data files prepared
 long wait
 Minimal interaction with the machine

o Now
• Computers are highly interactive that the user can and should
interact with the computer at anytime and everywhere.
• Every devices we use in our daily life is being computerized.
• Rapid feedback
• Doing rather than thinking
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 Text entry devices
 Keyboards(QWERTY,DVORAK etc)
 Chord Keyboards

 Phone pads

 Handwriting recognition

 Speech recognition

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layout – QWERTY

08/18/2021
 Standardised layout
 but …
 non-alphanumeric keys are placed differently
 minor differences between UK and USA keyboards

 QWERTY arrangement not optimal for typing

 Alternative designs allow faster typing but large social
base of QWERTY typists produces reluctance to change.

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Alternative keyboard layouts
Alphabetic
 keys arranged in alphabetic order
 not faster for trained typists
 not faster for beginners either!

Dvorak
 common letters under dominant fingers
 biased towards right hand
 common combinations of letters alternate between hands
 10-15% improvement in speed and reduction in fatigue
 But - large social base of QWERTY typists produce market
pressures not to change

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 Special keyboards
 Designed to reduce the fatigue for RSI
 Used for one handed use

 E.g Maltron left- handed keyboard

 Chord Keyboards

 Only a few keys-four or five keys are required

 Letters are typed as combination of keypresses

 Compact size

 Ideal for portable applications

 Short learning time

 Fast
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 Social resistance and fatigue after extended use
 Handwriting recognition

 Text can be input into the computer using a pen

and a digesting tablet
 Natural interaction

 Technical problems

• Capturing all useful information-stroke path,

pressure , etc in a natural manner
• Segmenting joined up writing into individual
letters
• Interpreting individual letters is very difficult

• Coping with different styles of handwriting

o Used in PDAs and tablet computers 9
 Speech recognition

08/18/2021
 Improving rapidly
 Most successful when

single user –initial training and learns peculiarities

Limited vocabulary systems
Problems
External noise interfering
Imprecision of pronunciation
Large vocabularies
Different speakers
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Positioning, Pointing and Drawing
 Mouse
 Touch pad

 Trackballs

 Touch screens

 Eyegaze

 Cursors

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 The Mouse
 Handheld pointing device
 very common
 easy to use
 (usually from 1 to 3 buttons on top, used for making a selection,
indicating an option, or to initiate drawing etc.)

Two methods for detecting motion

 Mechanical
 Ball on underside of mouse turns as mouse is moved
 Can be used on almost any flat surface

 Optical
 light emitting diode on underside of mouse
 may use special grid-like pad or just on desk 12
 less susceptible to dust and dirt
 Touchpad
 Small touch sensitive tablets
 Stroke to move mouse pointer

 Used mainly in laptop computers

 Good acceleration settings important

Trackball
 A ball is rotated inside static housing

 Like an upside down mouse

 Relative motion moves cursor

 Indirect device,fairly accurate

 Very fast for gaming

Thumbwheels
Used for accurate CAD 13
Used for fast srcolling
 Touch-sensitive screen
 Detect the presence of finger or stylus on the screen
 Works by interrupting matrix of light beams,
capacitance changes or ultrasonic reflections
 Advantages
 Fast,and requires no specialized pointer

 Good ford menu selection

 Suitable for use in hsotile environment clean and safe

from damage
 Disadvantage
Finger can mark the screen
Imprecise(finger is a fairly blunt instrument)
Lifting the arm can be tiring 14
 Eyegaze
 Control interface by eye gaze direction
 E.g look at a menu item and to select it

 Uses laser beam reflected off retina( a very low

power laser).
 Potential for hands-free control

 High accuracy requires headset

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 Cursor keys
 Four keys (up, down, left, right) on keyboard.
 Very, very cheap, but slow.

 Useful for not much more than basic motion for

text-editing tasks.
 No standardised layout, but inverted “T”, most
common

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 Display Devices

Bitmap screens(CRT and LCD

 Large and situated displays

 Digital paper

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 Scanner
Takes paper and convert it into bitmap
Shines light at paper and note intensity of
reflection
Typical resolutions from 600-2400
are used in document storage and retrieval system
Doing away with paper storage

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 OCR(OPTICAL CHARACTER
RECOGNITION)

 OCR converts bitmap back into text

 Different fonts: create problems for simple
template matching algorithms
 More complex systems segment text,decompose
it into lines and arcs

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 MEMORY

08/18/2021
 Short term speed
 Long term speed

 Capacity

 Compression formats

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 SHORT TERM MEMORY(RAM)
 Random Access Memory(RAM)
 on silicon chips

 100 nano-second access time

 Usually volatile

 Data transferred at around 100 mbytes/sec

some non-volatile RAM used to store basic setup

information

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 LONG TERM MEMORY-DISKS
 Magmetic disks
• Floppy disks store around 1.4 mbytes

• Hard disks typically more than 40 gigabytes

• Access time ~10ms

 Transfer rate 100kbytes/s

 optical disks

 Use lasers to read and sometimes write

 More robust than magnetic media

 CD-ROM. DVD,CD-R,CD-RW

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Thank you!

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