Communication and computing technology is advancing at an accelerated pace. Humans are finding it difficult to keep pace with these changes, and yet these new technologies are supposedly made for the benefit of humans. The Human Communication Technology (HCT) Research Laboratory researches a number of key issues which put people "back in the loop" and allow us to communicate experiences to computer systems and each other more effectively. An awareness of people's different cognitive, physical and emotional capabilities provides a foundation for acquiring, analyzing, representing, storing, retrieving, transmitting, communicating and ultimately synthesizing human experience. Faster processing machines, bigger data capacity, new algorithms, multimedia and multimodal systems will be combined with developments in medicine psychology, sociology and art to enhance the communication abilities between people and machines.
Our innovation stems from the integration of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. We seek to incorporate human experience as the critical entity processed by people and systems. This focus on experience leads to novel ways of thinking about how our machines facilitate and support communication between people and machines. These concepts in turn allow the exploration, creation and development of new technologies, as well as radically new metaphors for work and play. As the functionality of our machines out-paces our needs, the focus on human experience becomes even more critical.
More information on the Human Communication Technologies group can be found on their website.
Sid Fels | Professor |
Gregor Miller | Research Associate / Sessional Lecturer |