Foundations of

HCI: The Computer

AIDA A. ESCORIAL, MIT

WMSU Institute of Computer Studies

Department of Information Technology
Learning Outcomes
• Demonstrate understanding on the properties of
the devices with which a system is built.
• Classify different physical controls and displays
• Examine a range of input and output devices in
order to understand how these influence
interaction.
• Design a device and analyze how its properties
or attributes influence interaction

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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 &large), digital paper
– virtual reality – special interaction and display devices
– physical interaction – e.g. sound, haptic, bio-sensing
– paper – as output (print) and input (scan)
– memory – RAM & permanent media, capacity &
access
– processing – speed of processing, networks
Interacting with computers

to understand human–computer interaction

… need to understand computers!

what goes in and out

devices, paper,
sensors, etc.

what can it do?

memory, processing,
networks
 A ‘typical’ computer system
•
? •
screen, or monitor, on which there are windows
keyboard
• mouse/trackpad
window 1

• variations
window 2
– desktop
– laptop
– PDA

12-37pm

the devices dictate the styles of interaction that the system supports
If we use different devices, then the interface will support a different style of
interaction
How many computers …
in your house? in your pockets?
– PC – PDA
– TV – phone, camera
– microwave, cooker, washing – smart card, card with
machine magnetic strip?
– central heating – electronic car key
– security system – USB memory

can you think of more? try your pockets and bags

Interactivity?
• In the early days of computing, information was entered into the
computer in a large mass – batch data entry.
– using punched card stacks or large data files prepared
– the interactions take place over hours or days

Now most computing is interactive

– rapid feedback
– the user in control (most of the time)
– doing rather than thinking …
Richer interaction

sensors
and devices
everywhere
TEXT ENTRY
DEVICES

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Keyboards
• Most common text input device
• Allows rapid entry of text by
experienced users
• Key press closes connection, causing
a character code to be sent
• Usually connected by cable, but can
be wireless
layout – QWERTY
• Standardized layout
but …
– non-alphanumeric keys are placed differently
– accented symbols needed for different scripts
– minor differences between UK and USA keyboards

• QWERTY arrangement not optimal for typing

– layout to prevent typewriters jamming!

• Alternative designs allow faster typing but large social

base of QWERTY typists produces reluctance to change.
QWERTY keyboard
Alternative Keyboard Layouts
Alphabetic Keyboards : Ease of Learning
– keys arranged in alphabetic order
– not faster for trained typists
– not faster for beginners either!
DVORAK keyboard: Ergonomics of use
–common letters under dominant fingers
–biased towards right-handed people, in that 56% of keystrokes are
made with the right hand.
– common combinations of letters alternate between hands
–10-15% improvement in speed and reduction in fatigue
Special Keyboards
• designs to reduce fatigue for RSI
• for one handed use
e.g. the Maltron left-handed keyboard
Chord keyboards
• only a few keys - four or 5
• letters typed as combination of keypresses
• compact size
– ideal for portable applications
• short learning time
– keypresses reflect letter shape
• fast
– once you have trained
Phone Pad and T9 Entry
• use numeric keys with
multiple presses
2–abc 6-mno
3-def 7-pqrs
4-ghi 8-tuv
5-jkl 9-wxyz
hello = 4433555[pause]555666
surprisingly fast!

• T9 predictive entry
– type as if single key for each letter
– use dictionary to ‘guess’ the right word
– hello = 43556 …
– but 26 -> menu ‘am’ or ‘an’
Handwriting Recognition
• Text can be input into the computer, using a pen and a
digesting tablet
– natural interaction
Speech Recognition
• Improving rapidly

• Most successful when:

– single user – initial training and learns peculiarities
– limited vocabulary systems

• Problems with
– external noise interfering
– imprecision of pronunciation
– large vocabularies
– different speakers
Numeric Keypads

• for entering numbers quickly:

– calculator, PC keyboard
• for telephones
1 2 3 7 8 9

4 5 6 4 5 6
not the same!!
7 8 9 1 2 3

0 # 0 . =
ATM like phone *
telephone calculator
POSITIONING,
POINTING, AND
DRAWING

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the Mouse
• Handheld pointing device
– very common
– easy to use

• Two characteristics
– planar movement
– buttons
(usually from 1 to 3 buttons on top, used for making
a selection, indicating an option, or to initiate
drawing etc.)
How does it work?
Two methods for detecting motion

• Mechanical
– Ball on underside of mouse turns as mouse is moved
– Rotates orthogonal potentiometers
– 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
– less susceptible to dust and dirt
– detects fluctuating alterations in reflected light intensity to
calculate relative motion in (x, z) plane
Even by foot …
• some experiments with the footmouse
– controlling mouse movement with feet …
– not very common :-)

• but foot controls are common elsewhere:

– car pedals
– sewing machine speed control
– organ and piano pedals
Touchpad
• small touch sensitive tablets
• ‘stroke’ to move mouse pointer
• used mainly in laptop computers

• good ‘acceleration’ settings

important
– fast stroke
• lots of pixels per inch moved
• initial movement to the target
– slow stroke
• less pixels per inch
• for accurate positioning
Trackball and thumbwheels
Trackball
– ball is rotated inside static housing
• like an upsdie down mouse!
– relative motion moves cursor
– indirect device, fairly accurate
– separate buttons for picking
– very fast for gaming
– used in some portable and notebook
computers.

Thumbwheels …
– Thumbwheels are different in that they have two
orthogonal dials to control the cursor position.
– Such a device is very cheap, but slow, and it is
difficult to manipulate the cursor in any way
other than horizontally or vertically.
Joystick and keyboard nipple
Joystick
– indirect
pressure of stick = velocity of movement
– buttons for selection
on top or on front like a trigger
– often used for computer games
aircraft controls and 3D navigation

Keyboard nipple
– for laptop computers
– miniature joystick in the middle of the keyboard
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
– direct pointing device
Advantages:
–fast, and requires no specialised pointer
–good for menu selection
–suitable for use in hostile environment: clean and safe from
damage.
Disadvantages:
–finger can mark screen
–imprecise
•difficult to select small regions or perform accurate drawing
–lifting arm can be tiring
Stylus and light pen
Stylus
– small pen-like pointer to draw directly on screen
– may use touch sensitive surface or magnetic detection
– used in PDA, tablets PCs and drawing tables

Light Pen
– now rarely used
– uses light from screen to detect location

BOTH …
– very direct and obvious to use
– but can obscure screen
Digitizing tablet
• Mouse like-device with cross hairs

• used on special surface

- rather like stylus

• very accurate
- used for digitizing maps
Eyegaze
• control interface by eye gaze
direction
• uses laser beam reflected off
retina
– … a very low power laser!
• mainly used for evaluation
• potential for hands-free control
• high accuracy requires headset
• cheaper and lower accuracy
devices available
• sit under the screen like a small
webcam
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 standardized layout, but inverted “T”, most common
Discrete positioning controls
• in phones, TV controls etc.
– cursor pads or mini-joysticks
– discrete left-right, up-down
– mainly for menu selection
DISPLAY DEVICES

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bitmap displays
• 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.)
Cathode ray tube
• Stream of electrons emitted from electron gun, focused
and directed by magnetic fields, hit phosphor-coated
screen which glows
• used in TVs and computer monitors

electron beam

electron gun

focussing and
deflection

phosphor-
coated screen
Liquid crystal displays
• Smaller, lighter, and … no radiation problems.

• Found on PDAs, portables and notebooks,

… and increasingly on desktop and even for home TV

• also used in dedicated displays:

digital watches, mobile phones,

• How it works …
– Top plate transparent and polarised, bottom plate reflecting.
– Light passes through top plate and crystal, and reflects back to
eye.
– Voltage applied to crystal changes polarisation and hence colour
special displays
Random Scan (Directed-beam refresh, vector display)
– draw the lines to be displayed directly
– no jaggies
– lines need to be constantly redrawn
– rarely used except in special instruments

Direct view storage tube (DVST)

– Similar to random scan but persistent => no flicker
– Can be incrementally updated but not selectively
erased
– Used in analogue storage oscilloscopes
large displays
• used for meetings, lectures, etc.
• technology
plasma – usually wide screen

video walls – lots of small screens together

projected – RGB lights or LCD projector

– hand/body obscures screen
– may be solved by 2 projectors + clever software
back-projected
– frosted glass + projector behind
situated displays
• displays in ‘public’ places
– large or small
– very public or for small group
• display only
– for information relevant to location
• or interactive
– use stylus, touch sensitive screem
• in all cases … the location matters
– meaning of information or interaction is related to the location
Example : Hermes a situated
display
• small displays beside office doors
• handwritten notes left using stylus
•small displays
office owner reads notes using web interface
beside
office doors

handwritten
office owner
notes left
reads notes
using stylus
using web interface
Digital paper
appearance
• what?
– thin flexible sheets
– updated electronically
cross
– but retain display section

• how?
– small spheres turned
– or channels with coloured liquid
and contrasting spheres
– rapidly developing area
VIRTUAL REALITY
AND 3D
INTERACTION
43
 Cockpit controls

•. In many PC games and desktop

virtual reality (where the output is
shown on an ordinary computer
screen), the controls are themselves
virtual.
•simulated form of the cockpit controls
or more prosaic up/down left/right
buttons.
•The user manipulates these virtual
controls using an ordinary mouse (or
other 2D device).
 Data glove
• is a 3D input device
• Consists of a lycra glove with optical
fibers laid along the fingers, it detects the
joint angles of the fingers and thumb.
• As the fingers are bent, the fiber optic
cable bends too;
• increasing bend causes more light to
leak from the fiber, and the reduction in
intensity is detected by the glove and
related to the degree of bend in the joint.
• Attached to the top of the glove are two
sensors that use ultrasound to
determine 3D positional information as
well as the angle of roll, that is the degree
of wrist rotation
VR Helmet

• The helmets or goggles worn in some VR systems have two

purposes:
(i) they display the 3D world to each eye and
(ii) they allow the user’s head position to be tracked
• The head tracking is used primarily to feed into the output
side. As the user’s head moves around the user ought to see
different parts of the scene.
• However, some systems also use the user’s head direction
to determine the direction of movement within the space and
even which objects to manipulate (rather like the eyegaze
systems)
 Whole body tracking

• make the users feel as if they are really

in the virtual world.

• Some VR systems therefore attempt to

track different kinds of body movement

• the movement of the whole body may

be tracked using devices similar to the
dataglove, or using image-processing
techniques
3D displays
1. desktop VR
– ordinary screen, mouse or keyboard control
– perspective and motion give 3D effect
• seeing in 3D
– use stereoscopic vision
– VR helmets
– screen plus shuttered specs, etc.

also see extra slides on 3D vision

VR headsets
• small TV screen for each eye
• slightly different angles
• 3D effect
2. VR motion sickness
• time delay
– move head … lag … display moves
– conflict: head movement vs. eyes
• depth perception
– headset gives different stereo distance
– but all focused in same plane
– conflict: eye angle vs. focus
• conflicting cues => sickness
– helps motivate improvements in technology
3. simulators and VR caves

• scenes projected on walls

• realistic environment
• hydraulic rams!
• real controls
• other people
 PHYSICAL
CONTROLS,
SENSORS, ETC

52
1. Dedicated displays
• analogue representations:
– dials, gauges, lights, etc.

• digital displays:
– small LCD screens, LED lights, etc.

• head-up displays
– found in aircraft cockpits
– show most important controls
… depending on context
2. Sounds
• beeps, bongs, clonks, whistles and whirrs

• used for error indications

• confirmation of actions e.g. Keyclick

3. Touch, feel, smell
• touch and feeling important
– in games … vibration, force feedback
– in simulation … feel of surgical instruments
called haptic devices

• texture, smell, taste

– current technology very limited
BMW iDrive
• for controlling menus
• feel small ‘bumps’ for each item
• makes it easier to select options by feel
• uses haptic technology from Immersion Corp.
57
 4. physical controls

• specialist controls needed …

– industrial controls, consumer products,
etc. easy-clean
smooth buttons

multi-function
control
large buttons
clear dials

tiny buttons
5. Environment and bio-sensing
• sensors all around us
– car courtesy light – small switch on door
– ultrasound detectors – security, washbasins
– RFID security tags in shops
– temperature, weight, location

• … and even our own bodies …

– iris scanners, body temperature, heart rate,
galvanic skin response, blink rate
PAPER PRINTING
AND SCANNING

60
1. Printing
• image made from small dots
– allows any character set or graphic to be
printed,
• critical features:
– resolution
• size and spacing of the dots
• measured in dots per inch (dpi)
– speed
• usually measured in pages per minute
– cost!!
Types of dot-based printers
• dot-matrix printers
– use inked ribbon (like a typewriter
– line of pins that can strike the ribbon, dotting the paper.
– typical resolution 80-120 dpi
• ink-jet and bubble-jet printers
– tiny blobs of ink sent from print head to paper
– typically 300 dpi or better .
• laser printer
– like photocopier: dots of electrostatic charge deposited on drum,
which picks up toner (black powder form of ink) rolled onto paper
which is then fixed with heat
– typically 600 dpi or better.
2. Fonts
• Font – the particular style of text
Courier font
Helvetica font
Palatino font
Times Roman font
• §´  (special symbol)

• Size of a font measured in points (1 pt about 1/72”)

(vaguely) related to its height

This is ten point Helvetica

This is twelve point
This is fourteen point
This is eighteen point
and this is twenty-four point
Fonts (ctd)
Pitch
– fixed-pitch – every character has the same width
e.g. Courier
– variable-pitched – some characters wider
e.g. Times Roman – compare the ‘i’ and the “m”
Serif or Sans-serif
– sans-serif – square-ended strokes
e.g. Helvetica
– serif – with splayed ends (such as)
e.g. Times Roman or Palatino
Readability of text
• lowercase
– easy to read shape of words
• UPPERCASE
– better for individual letters and non-words
e.g. flight numbers: BA793 vs. ba793

• serif fonts
– helps your eye on long lines of printed text
– but sans serif often better on screen
3. Page Description Languages
• Pages very complex
– different fonts, bitmaps, lines, digitised photos, etc.

• Can convert it all into a bitmap and send to the printer

… but often huge !
• PostScript is the most common
4. Screen and page
• WYSIWYG
– what you see is what you get
– aim of word processing
• can try to make them similar
but never quite the same
• so … need different designs, graphics etc, for screen
and print
5. Scanners
• Take paper and convert it into a bitmap

• Two sorts of scanner

– flat-bed: paper placed on a glass plate, whole page converted
into bitmap
– hand-held: scanner passed over paper, digitising strip typically 3-
4” wide

• Shines light at paper and note intensity of reflection

– colour or greyscale

• Typical resolutions from 600–2400 dpi

Scanners (ctd)
Used in
– desktop publishing for incorporating
photographs and other images
– document storage and retrieval systems,
doing away with paper storage
+ special scanners for slides and photographic
negatives
6. Optical character recognition
• The process whereby the computer can
‘read’ the characters on the page.
• It is only comparatively recently that print
could be reliably read, since the wide
variety of typefaces and print sizes makes
this more difficult than one would imagine
– it is not simply a matter of matching a
character shape to the image on the page.
COMPUTER
MEMORY

71
Short-term Memory - RAM
• Random access memory (RAM)
– on silicon chips
– 100 nano-second access time
– usually volatile (lose information if power turned off)
– data transferred at around 100 Mbytes/sec

• Some non-volatile RAM used to store basic set-up

information
Long-term Memory - disks
• magnetic disks
– floppy disks store around 1.4 Mbytes
– hard disks typically 40 Gbytes to 100s of Gbytes
access time ~10ms, transfer rate 100kbytes/s

• optical disks
– use lasers to read and sometimes write
– more robust than magnetic media
– CD-ROM
- same technology as home audio, ~ 600 Gbytes
– DVD - for AV applications, or very large files
virtual memory
• Problem:
– running lots of programs + each program large
– not enough RAM

• Solution - Virtual memory :

– store some programs temporarily on disk
– makes RAM appear bigger

• But … swopping
– program on disk needs to run again
– copied from disk to RAM
– slows t h i n g s d o w n
Compression
• reduce amount of storage required
• lossless
– recover exact text or image – e.g. GIF, ZIP
– look for commonalities:
• text: AAAAAAAAAABBBBBCCCCCCCC 10A5B8C
• video: compare successive frames and store change
• lossy
– recover something like original – e.g. JPEG, MP3
– exploit perception
• JPEG: lose rapid changes and some colour
• MP3: reduce accuracy of drowned out notes
Storage formats - text
• ASCII - 7-bit binary code for to each letter and
character
• RTF (rich text format)
- text plus formatting and layout information
• SGML (standardized generalized markup
language)
- documents regarded as structured objects
• XML (extended markup language)
- simpler version of SGML for web
applications
TYPICAL CAPACITIES OF STORAGE
MEDIA
PROCESSING AND
NETWORKS

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Finite processing speed
• Designers tend to assume fast processors, and make interfaces
more and more complicated

• But problems occur, because processing cannot keep up with all the
tasks it needs to do
– cursor overshooting because system has buffered keypresses
– icon wars - user clicks on icon, nothing happens, clicks on another, then
system responds and windows fly everywhere

• Also problems if system is too fast - e.g. help screens may scroll
through text much too rapidly to be read
Limitations on interactive
performance
Computation bound
– Computation takes ages, causing frustration for the user
Storage channel bound
– Bottleneck in transference of data from disk to memory
Graphics bound
– Common bottleneck: updating displays requires a lot of effort -
sometimes helped by adding a graphics co-processor optimised to take
on the burden
Network capacity
– Many computers networked - shared resources and files, access to
printers etc. - but interactive performance can be reduced by slow
network speed
Networked computing
Networks allow access to …
– large memory and processing
– other people (groupware, email)
– shared resources – esp. the web

Issues
– network delays – slow feedback
– conflicts - many people update data
– unpredictability
Summary
• A computer system comprises various elements, each of
which affects the user of the system.
• Input devices for interactive use, allowing text entry,
drawing and selection from the screen:
– text entry: traditional keyboard, phone text entry,
speech and handwriting
– pointing: principally the mouse, but also touchpad,
stylus and others
– 3D interaction devices.

82
Summary (cont’d)
• Output display devices for interactive use:
– different types of screen mostly using some
form of bitmap display
– large displays and situated displays for shared
and public use
– digital paper may be usable in the near future.
• Virtual reality systems and 3D visualization
which have special interaction and display
devices.

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Summary (cont’d)
• Various devices in the physical world:
– physical controls and dedicated displays
– sound, smell and haptic feedback
– sensors for nearly everything including
movement, temperature, bio-signs.

84
Summary (cont’d)
• Various devices in the physical world:
– physical controls and dedicated displays
– sound, smell and haptic feedback
– sensors for nearly everything including
movement, temperature, bio-signs.
• Paper output and input: the paperless office and
the less-paper office:
– different types of printers and their
characteristics, character styles and fonts
– scanners and optical character recognition.
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Summary (cont’d)
• Memory:
– short-term memory: RAM
– long-term memory: magnetic and optical disks
– capacity limitations related to document and video
storage
– access methods as they limit or help the user.
• Processing:
– the effects when systems run too slow or too fast, the
myth of the infinitely fast machine
– limitations on processing speed
– networks and their impact on system performance.

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REFERENCES
• Dix, A. Finlay J., Abowd, G, and Beale, R. (2004)
Human Computer Interaction 3rd ed., Pearson
Education Limited
• Rogers, Y., Sharp, H and Preece, J. (2007).
Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer
Interaction, Second Edition, Wiley & Sons
• Norman, D. (2013). The DESIGN of EVERYDAY
THINGS. Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus
Books Group

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