Man-machine interfaces (MMIs)

“Interfaces for all the senses”

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■  Technological innovation is at the heart of companies’ strategies. One of the concerns of developers is to make the new “intelligent” and communicative products they develop easier to pilot. A single example of this complexity of products and systems: vehicles at the start of this century use more electronic technologies than the first Airbus planes that flew some twenty years ago.

■  However, the complexity of using a new product is a major obstacle to its being accepted on the market. A recent advert from a major Internet access supplier showed a sweet grandmother, with her hand held out towards her computer, trying to control it in vain with a mouse like a TV remote control; elderly people are discouraged by such complexity. Along the same lines, everyone has, at some time, had trouble trying to programme a video recorder.

■  Ergonomics of the man-machine interface has thus become an essential element when designing products. A product will never be bought if it cannot be controlled simply and if it has not been designed to be recognised by the products with which it has to exchange useful operating data.

■  Complexity can also be dangerous. The emerging convergence of ICTs may lower safety related to communicating products. In the e-vehicle, the driver’s attention will be taken up with the growing quantity of audio and visual information that it receives and emits. Telematics was the focus of the latest Convergence2000 and SAE 2001congresses and many people are concerned with its impact on safety. To enable a driver to stay concentrated on the road, some developers envisage measuring the driver’s mental load with objective criteria, and Ford has just invested some 12 million euros in a simulator which assesses virtually the driver’s performance in a “communicative” environment.

■  We must, however, put the complexity of a PC, a car or a home automation command unit into perspective, compared to an industrial or tertiary installation. Although these installations are operated by highly professional people, the safety level is closely linked to ease of use.

■  Thus, MMIs are becoming an essential element of safety, comfort and perceived added value for a large number of products. Man-Machine Interfaces are part of our daily life. They help disabled people, they help us to manage the growing flow of information that enters and leaves our vehicles and houses, they help us to handle our mobile telephones with more and more functions and smaller dimensions, they help surgeons in the Internet age, they make it possible to dialogue with e-trainers and take our children to virtual and fun worlds.

■  MMIs are visual, haptic, vocal, auditory, olfactory and already facilitate collaborative work; PCs are “wearable” and can integrate our clothing or other daily accessories that we wear or carry.

■  Successful solutions in one sector can now be transferred to new fields. To make these technology transfers easier, which involve transferring information and exchanging experience, Innovation 128 proposes to conduct, starting in January 2002, a new technological watch programme dedicated to MMIs.

■  We are currently witnessing an explosion of R&D projects that are due to leave laboratories. The very rapid evolution of technologies for new sensors, software and hardware, cognitive science and ergonomics cannot go unnoticed by any Innovation Project manager; the very high impact of the emergence of new MMIs cannot be denied and it will soon be an obligation for us all.

■  The information selected and validated as part of this programmes will be forwarded to participants on CD-ROM and/or will be directly accessible via Internet.

Main themes

■  Technologies and MMIs: Visual interfaces (hardware and software)

  • screens: OLEDs, HMD, CrystalEyes, etc.
  • real-time simulation
  • increased reality, virtual reality
  • perception and display of data
  • computer graphics, graphic library
  • 3D animation, 3D rendering

■  Technologies and MMIs: Peripherals and haptic interfaces

  • force feedback: cyberglove, joystick, pen
  • form feedback
  • tactile sensations
  • full body motion interface
  • voice and auditory interfaces
  • voice recognition
  • voice synthesis
  • natural language
  • 3D sound
  • recording (compression-decompression)

■  Technologies and MMIs: Olfactory interfaces

  • olfactory grammar
  • odour inputs
  • artificial noses

■  Technologies and MMIs: New sensors and MMI (hardware and software)

  • 3D mouse
  • biological sensors
  • intelligent fabrics
  • 3D sound capture
  • movement sensors (head, eyes, gestures, browsing)
  • face recognition

■  Technologies and MMIs: Multi-user interface

  • simultaneous translation, multi-lingual interfaces
  • comprehension and integration of social context
  • shared environment, network

■  Technologies and MMIs: Wearable computers

■  Technologies and MMIs: Evaluation, Cognition and Ergonomics

  • non-verbal language, metaphoric language
  • substitution of meaning
  • physiological and psychological factors
  • realism Vs Abstraction
  • assessing and measuring the performance of the MMI

■  Applications and feedback of MMI in:

  • vehicles
  • buildings
  • steering complex systems
  • telecommunications
  • e-commerce
  • leisure
  • information management (data visualisation)
  • training
  • handicaps
  • medicine
  • architecture

■  The international MMI guide

  • Internet Bookmark
  • International events