Principles of Human-

Computer Interaction –
The Computer

Introduction
For us to understand on how human interacts with computer, this unit discusses on
how to consider the computer and associated input–output devices and
investigates how the technology influences the nature of the interaction and style
of the interface.
Essential Question
How human interacts with computer?

Intended Learning Outcomes

Understand the Computer, Human-Computer Interaction, and the
process of human-computer interaction.

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 LESSON 2: Principles of Human-Computer Interaction – The Computer

Activity 1: DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT

This is a pre-assessment test that aims to know your prior knowledge about the topic. Answer
the following at your best and you will be answering them at the end of the lesson.

I. Multiple Choice: Encircle the LETTER of the correct answer.

1. This is one of the common input devices that is used for entering textual data and commands.
A. KEYBOARD B. MOUSE C. TRACKBALL D. LIGHT PEN
2. It is an advanced computer pointing device that uses light-emitting diode (LED), an optical sensor,
and digital signal processing (DSP, movement is detected by sensing changes in reflected light.
A. KEYBOARD B. MOUSE C. TRACKBALL D. LIGHT PEN
3. These are thin flexible materials that can be written to electronically, which keep their contents
even when removed from any electrical supply.
A. DIGITIZING TABLET B. MOUSE C. TOUCH SCREEN D. DIGITAL PAPER
4. This is a more specialized device typically used for freehand drawing but may also be used as a
mouse substitute.
A. DIGITIZING TABLET B. MOUSE C. TOUCH SCREEN D. DIGITAL PAPER
5. A weighted ball faces upwards and is rotated inside a static housing, the motion being detected
in the same way as for a mechanical mouse, and the relative motion of the ball moves the cursor.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. JOYSTICK D. TOUCH SCREEN
6. A device that uses another method of allowing the user to point and select objects on the screen,
but they are much more direct than the mouse, as they detect the presence of the user’s finger,
or a stylus, on the screen itself.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. JOYSTICK D. TOUCH SCREEN
7. Consisting of a small palm-sized box with a stick or shaped grip sticking up from it, it is a simple
device with which movements of the stick cause a corresponding movement of the screen cursor.
A. TRACKBALL B. JOYSTICK C. RAM D. TOUCH PAD
8. These are operated by stroking a finger over their surface, rather like using a simulated trackball.
A. TRACKBALL B. JOYSTICK C. RAM D. TOUCH PAD
9. A device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to
paper.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. PRINTER D. TOUCH PAD
10. It is a very high-speed memory, which makes it ideal for storing active programs and system
processes.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. PRINTER D. TOUCH PAD

II. Expand the following ACRONYMS:

1. RAM 6. HDD
2. ROM 7. LAN
3. LCD 8. WAN
4. LED 9. CRT
5. CPU 10. VR

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 LESSON INPUTS:

COMPUTER

 A computer is a programmable machine that can execute a programmed list of instructions and
respond to new instructions that it is given.
 This term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use.
 When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" refers to the computer itself -- not the
monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

A typical Computer System

There is the computer ‘box’ itself, a keyboard, a mouse, and a color

screen. If we examine the interface, we can see how its various
characteristics are related to the devices used. Some of this
variation is driven by different hardware configurations: desktop
use, laptop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistants).

Photo courtesy of www.flylib.com

Levels of Interaction – Batch Processing

With batch processing the interactions take place over

hours or days. In contrast the typical desktop computer
system has interactions taking seconds or fractions of a
second (or with slow web pages sometimes minutes!). The
field of Human–Computer Interaction largely grew due to
this change in interactive pace.

Richer Interaction – Everywhere Everywhen

Computers are coming out of the box! Information

appliances are putting internet access or dedicated A typical computer system, photo courtesy of
systems onto the fridge, microwave and washing machine: Electrolux

to automate shopping, give you email in your kitchen or simply call for maintenance when needed. We
carry with us WAP phones and smartcards, have security systems that monitor us and web cams that
show our homes to the world.

TEXT ENTRY DEVICES

Whether writing a book like this, producing an office memo, sending a thank you letter after your birthday,
or simply sending an email to a friend, entering text is one of our main activities when using the computer.

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A. The Alpha-Numeric Keyboard

The keyboard is still one of the most common input devices in use today. It is used for entering textual
data and commands. The keyboard is still one of the most common input devices in use today. It is used
for entering textual data and commands. Most keyboards have a standardized layout and are known by
the first six letters of the top row of alphabetical keys, QWERTY.

B. Phone Pad and T9 Entry

With mobile phones being used for SMS text messaging and WAP, the phone keypad
has become an important form of text input. Unfortunately, a phone only has digits
0–9, not a full alphanumeric keyboard. To overcome this for text input the numeric
keys are usually pressed several times.

C. Handwriting Recognition

The most significant information in handwriting is not in the

letter shape itself but in the stroke information – the way in
which the letter is drawn. This means that devices which support
handwriting recognition must capture the stroke information,
not just the final character shape.

D. Speech Recognition
Despite its problems, speech technology has found niche markets:
telephone information systems, access for the disabled, in hands-
occupied situations (especially military) and for those suffering RSI.
Speech recognition offers three possibilities:
1. The first is as an alternative text entry device to replace the
keyboard within an environment and using software originally
designed for keyboard use.
2. The second is to redesign a system, taking full advantage of the
benefits of the technique whilst minimizing the potential problems.
3. Finally, it can be used in areas where keyboard-based input is impractical or impossible. It is in the
latter, more radical areas that speech technology is currently achieving success.

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 POSITIONING, POINTING AND DRAWING

Pointing devices allow the user to point, position and select items, either directly or by manipulating a
pointer on the
screen.

A. The Mouse
It is an advanced computer pointing device that uses light-emitting diode (LED), an optical sensor, and
digital signal processing (DSP) in placement of the traditional mouse ball and electromechanical
transducer. Movement is detected by sensing changes in reflected light, rather than by interpreting the
motion of a rolling sphere.

B. Touchpad
Touchpads are operated by stroking a finger over their surface, rather like using a simulated trackball.

C. Trackball
A weighted ball faces upwards and is rotated inside a static housing, the motion being detected in the
same way as for a mechanical mouse, and the relative motion of the ball moves the cursor.

D. Joysticks
Consisting of a small palm-sized box with a stick or shaped grip sticking up from it, the joystick is a simple
device with which movements of the stick cause a corresponding movement of the screen cursor.

E. Touchscreens
Touchscreens are another method of allowing the user to point and select objects on the screen, but they
are much more direct than the mouse, as they detect the presence of the user’s finger, or a stylus, on the
screen itself.

F. Stylus and Light Pen

a. Stylus
For more accurate positioning (and to avoid greasy screens), systems with touch sensitive surfaces
often employ a stylus. Instead of pointing at the screen directly a small pen-like plastic stick is
used to point and draw on the screen.

b. Light pen
An older technology that is used in the same way is the light pen. The pen is connected to the
screen by a cable and, in operation, is held to the screen and detects a burst of light from the
screen phosphor during the display scan.

c. Digitizing tablet
The digitizing tablet is a more specialized device typically used for freehand drawing but may also
be used as a mouse substitute.

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 DISPLAY DEVICES

Thinking beyond the traditional, systems such as cars, hi-fis and security alarms all have different outputs
from those expressible on a screen, but in the personal computer and workstation market, screens are
pervasive.

A. Bitmap Displays – Resolution and Color

Display is made of vast numbers of colored dots or pixels in a rectangular grid. These pixels may be limited
to black and white (for example, the small display on many TV remote controls), in grayscale, or full color.

B. Technologies
a. Cathode ray tubes
The cathode ray tube is the television-like computer screen still most common as we write this,
but rapidly being displaced by flat LCD screens. It works in a similar way to a standard television
screen.
b. Liquid crystal display
Personal organizer or notebook computer, these displays utilize liquid crystal technology and are
smaller, lighter and consume far less power than traditional CRTs. These are also commonly
referred to as flat panel displays. They have no radiation problems associated with them, and are
matrix addressable, which means that individual pixels can be accessed without the need for
scanning.
c. Large displays and situated displays
There are several types of large screen display.
i. Some use gas plasma technology to create large flat bitmap displays. These behave just like
a normal screen except they are big and usually have the HDTV (high definition television)
wide screen format which has an aspect ratio of 16:9 instead of the 4:3 on traditional TV and
monitors.
ii. Where very large screen areas are required, several smaller screens, either LCD or CRT, can
be placed together in a video wall. These can display separate images, or a single TV or
computer image can be split up by software or hardware so that each screen displays a
portion of the whole and the result is an enormous image.

C. Digital Paper
These are thin flexible materials that can be written to electronically, just like a computer screen, but
which keep their contents even when removed from any electrical supply.

DEVICES FOR VIRTUAL REALITY AND 3D INTERACTION

Virtual reality and 3D visualization require you to navigate and interact in a three-dimensional space.
Sometimes these use the ordinary controls and displays of a desktop computer system, but there are also
special devices used both to move and interact with 3D objects and to enable you to see a 3D
environment.

A. Positioning in 3D space
Virtual reality systems present a 3D virtual world. Users need to navigate through these spaces and
manipulate the virtual objects they find there.

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 B. 3D Displays
Just as the 3D images used in VR have led to new forms of input device, they also require more
sophisticated outputs. Desktop VR is delivered using a standard computer screen and a 3D impression is
produced by using effects such as shadows, occlusion (where one object covers another) and perspective.

PHYSICAL CONTROLS, SENSORS AND SPECIAL DEVICES

These devices may have special displays, may use sound, touch, and smell as well as visual displays, may
have dedicated controls and may sense the environment or your own bio-signs.
A. Special displays - Apart from the CRT screen there are several visual outputs utilized in complex
systems, especially in embedded systems.
B. Sound output – Often designed to be used in conjunction with screen displays, auditory outputs
are poorly understood we do not yet know how to utilize sound in a sensible way to achieve
maximum effect and information transference.
C. Touch, feel and smell - Our other senses are used less in normal computer applications, but you
may have played computer games where the joystick or artificial steering wheel vibrated, perhaps
when a car was about to go off the track.
D. Physical control - each use of very different physical devices you can see controls: the microwave
has a flat plastic sheet with soft buttons, the washing machine large switches and knobs, and the
MiniDisc has small buttons and an interesting multi-function end.
E. Environment and bio-sensing - Although we are not always conscious of them, there are many
sensors in our environment – controlling automatic doors, energy saving lights, etc. and devices
monitoring our behavior such as security tags in shops.

PAPER PRINTING AND SCANNING

 Printing - All the popular printing technologies, like screens, build the image on the paper as a
series of dots. This enables, in theory, any character set or graphic to be printed, limited only by
the resolution of the dots. This resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi).
 Screen and page - A common requirement of word processors and desktop publishing software
is that what you see is what you get (see also Units 4 and 17), which is often called by its acronym
WYSIWYG (pronounced whizz-ee-wig). This means that the appearance of the document on the
screen should be the same as its eventual appearance on the printed page.
 Scanners and optical character recognition - Printers take electronic documents and put them on
paper – scanners reverse this process. They start by turning the image into a bitmap, but with the
aid of optical character recognition can convert the page right back into text. The image to be
converted may be printed but may also be a photograph or hand-drawn picture.

MEMORY

Just like humans, computers rely a lot on memory. They need to process and store data, just like we do.
However, computers store data in digital format, which means the information can always be called up
exactly the way it was stored. Also, unlike our memory, the computer's memory does not get worse over
time.

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While memory can refer to any medium of data storage, it usually refers to RAM, or random-access
memory. When your computer boots up, it loads the operating system into its memory, or RAM. This
allows your computer to access system functions, such as handling mouse clicks and keystrokes, since the
event handlers are all loaded into RAM. Whenever you open a program, the interface and functions used
by that program are also loaded into RAM.

We can think of the computer’s memory as operating at different levels, with those that have the faster
access typically having less capacity. By analogy with the human memory, we can group these into short-
term and long-term memories (STM and LTM), but the analogy is rather weak – the capacity of the
computer’s STM is a lot more than seven items! The different levels of computer memory are more
commonly called primary and secondary storage.
 RAM and Short-term memory - at the lowest level of computer memory are the registers on the
computer chip, but these have little impact on the user except in so far as they affect the general
speed of the computer.
 Disk and long-term memory - For most computer users the LTM consists of disks, possibly with
small tapes for backup. The existence of backups, and appropriate software to generate and
retrieve them, is an important area for user security.
 Understanding speed and capacity.

Table 2.1 Typical capacities of different storage media

STM small/fast LTM large/slower

Media: RAM Hard disk
Capacity: 256 Mbytes 100 Gbytes
Access time: 10 ms 7 ms
Transfer rate: 100 Mbyte/s 30 Mbyte/s

 Compression - In fact, things are not quite so bad, since compression techniques can be used to
reduce the amount of storage required for text, bitmaps, and video. All these things are highly
redundant.
 Storage format and standards - the most common data types stored by interactive programs are
text and bitmap images, with increasing use of video and audio, and this subsection looks at the
ridiculous range of file storage standards.
 Method of access - Standard database access is by special key fields with an associated index. The
user must know the key before the system can find the information. A telephone directory is a
good example of this.

PROCESSING AND NETWORK

A processor, or "microprocessor," is a small chip that resides in computers and other electronic devices.
Its basic job is to receive input and provide the appropriate output. While this may seem like a simple task,
modern processors can handle trillions of calculations per second.

Central Processing Unit

The central processor of a computer is also known as the CPU, or "central processing unit." This processor
handles all the basic system instructions, such as processing mouse and keyboard input and running

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applications. Most desktop computers contain a CPU developed by either Intel or AMD, both of which use
the x86 processor architecture. Mobile devices, such as laptops and tablets may use Intel and AMD CPUs
but can also use specific mobile processors developed by companies like ARM or Apple.

Network Technologies

A network consists of multiple devices that communicate with one another. It can be as small as two
computers or as large as billions of devices. While a traditional network is comprised of desktop
computers, modern networks may include laptops, tablets, smartphones, televisions, gaming consoles,
smart appliances, and other electronics.

Many types of networks exist, but they fall under two primary categories: LANs and WANs.

A. LAN (Local Area Network)

A local area network is limited to a specific area, such as a home, office, or campus. A home network may
have a single router that offers both wired and wireless connections. For example, a computer may
connect to the router via Ethernet, while smartphones and tablets connect to the router via Wi-Fi. All
devices connected to the router share the same network and often the same Internet connection.

A larger network, such as the network of an educational institution, may be comprised of many switches,
hubs, and Ethernet cables. It may also include multiple wireless access points and wireless repeaters that
provide wireless access to the network. While this type of network is much more complex than a home
network, it is still considered a LAN since it is limited to a specific location.

B. WAN (Wide Area Network)

A wide area network is not limited to a single area but spans multiple locations. WANs are often comprised
of multiple LANs that are connected over the Internet. A company WAN, for example, may extend from
the headquarters to other offices around the world. Access to WANs may be limited using authentication,
firewalls, and other security measures. The Internet itself is the largest WAN since it encompasses all
locations connected to the Internet.

Computers that run interactive programs will process in the order of 100 million instructions per second.
It sounds a lot and yet, like memory, it can soon be used up. Indeed, the first program written by one of
the authors (some while ago) ‘hung’ and all attempts to debug it failed.

Networked Computing
 Computer systems in use today are much more powerful than they were a few years ago, which
means that the standard computer on the desktop is quite capable of high-performance
interaction without recourse to outside help.
 However, it is often the case that we use computers not in their standalone mode of operation
but linked together in networks.
 This brings added benefits in allowing communication between different parties, provided they
are connected into the same network, as well as allowing the desktop computer to access
resources remote from itself.
 Such networks are inherently much more powerful than the individual computers that make up
the network: increased computing power and memory are only part of the story, since the effects

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 of allowing people much more extensive, faster, and easier access to information are highly
significant to individuals, groups and institutions.

Activity 2: Formative Assessment

Question I: Encircle the LETTER of the correct answer.
Question II: Expand the given ACRONYMS.

I. Multiple Choice: Encircle the LETTER of the correct answer.

1. This is one of the common input devices that is used for entering textual data and commands.
A. KEYBOARD B. MOUSE C. TRACKBALL D. LIGHT PEN
2. It is an advanced computer pointing device that uses light-emitting diode (LED), an optical sensor,
and digital signal processing (DSP, movement is detected by sensing changes in reflected light.
A. KEYBOARD B. MOUSE C. TRACKBALL D. LIGHT PEN
3. These are thin flexible materials that can be written to electronically, which keep their contents
even when removed from any electrical supply.
A. DIGITIZING TABLET B. MOUSE C. TOUCH SCREEN D. DIGITAL PAPER
4. This is a more specialized device typically used for freehand drawing but may also be used as a
mouse substitute.
A. DIGITIZING TABLET B. MOUSE C. TOUCH SCREEN D. DIGITAL PAPER
5. A weighted ball faces upwards and is rotated inside a static housing, the motion being detected
in the same way as for a mechanical mouse, and the relative motion of the ball moves the cursor.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. JOYSTICK D. TOUCH SCREEN
6. A device that uses another method of allowing the user to point and select objects on the screen,
but they are much more direct than the mouse, as they detect the presence of the user’s finger,
or a stylus, on the screen itself.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. JOYSTICK D. TOUCH SCREEN
7. Consisting of a small palm-sized box with a stick or shaped grip sticking up from it, it is a simple
device with which movements of the stick cause a corresponding movement of the screen cursor.
A. TRACKBALL B. JOYSTICK C. RAM D. TOUCH PAD
8. These are operated by stroking a finger over their surface, rather like using a simulated trackball.
A. TRACKBALL B. JOYSTICK C. RAM D. TOUCH PAD
9. A device that accepts text and graphic output from a computer and transfers the information to
paper.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. PRINTER D. TOUCH PAD
10. It is a very high-speed memory, which makes it ideal for storing active programs and system
processes.
A. TRACKBALL B. RAM C. PRINTER D. TOUCH PAD

UNIT 1 PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION-THE COMPUTER Page | 23

II. Expand the following ACRONYMS:
1. RAM 6. HDD
2. ROM 7. LAN
3. LCD 8. WAN
4. LED 9. CRT
5. CPU 10. VR

Activity 3: Summative Assessment

A typical computer system comprises a QWERTY keyboard, a mouse, and a color screen. There is usually
some form of loudspeaker as well. You should know how the keyboard, mouse, and screen work – if
not, read up on it.

Answer the following:

1. What sort of input does the keyboard support? What sort of input does the mouse support?
2. Are these adequate for all possible applications? If not, to which areas are they most suited?
3. Do these areas map well onto the typical requirements for users of computer systems?
4. If you were designing a keyboard for a modern computer, and you wanted to produce a faster,
easier-to-use layout, what information would you need to know and how would that influence
the design?

Activity 4: Performance Task

Pick a couple of computer input devices that you are aware of (joystick, light pen, touchscreen,
trackball, eyegaze, dataglove, etc.) and note down how each has different attributes that support
certain forms of interaction. You ought to know a little about all of these devices – if you don’t, research
them.

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Sharp, H., Preece, J., & Rogers, Y. (2019). Interaction Design: Beyond
human-computer interaction. John Wiley & Sons.
Dix, A., Finaly, J., Abowd, G., Beale, R. Human-computer interaction 3rd
Edition. Pearson Education Limited.

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