Price: 1000 Naira (SEMINAR, ASSIGNMENT)
ABSTRACT
New interactive computing applications are continually being developed in a bid to support people’s changing work and recreational activities. As research focuses on one particular class of interactive systems, high level models of interaction are formulated and requirements emerge that reflect shared features or common functionality among those systems. Within this seminar a new class of interactive system is identified, based on shared requirements for detection, processing and presentation of human physiological information. We have named these systems electro physiologically interactive computer systems (EPICS) and describe in this report both the physiological and technological details behind their operation.
The technology behind this system is really a combination of physiological sensing techniques with interactive computer applications. A review is presented of existing research and development into this exciting new area of human-computer interaction. It is envisaged that the work presented in this seminar will serve as a jumping off point for others interested in exploring the potential of incorporating physiological information into the human-machine relationship.
INTRODUCTION
Electromechanical Human-machine interaction is also known as Electro-physiologically Interactive Computer Systems.The number of digital computers has been increasing since the late 1970s, when mass-produced computers were first introduced to the general public. Nowadays, computers are ubiquitous and many computers are embedded within our environment, clothes, and even our bodies [Tennenhouse, 2000]. Furthermore, the number of computers connected with each other and their surroundings is rapidly increasing. Consequently, the design, implementation, and evaluation of human-computer interaction are becoming more and more complex. One possible solution to this challenge is to introduce perceptive capabilities for the computers themselves [Pentland, 2000]. Being able to perceive their environment and classify the current situation, computers could support the goals of their human operators by anticipating future events and addressing them by taking appropriate actions. This would require that computers could also perceive humans, that is, detect the psychological and the physiological states of persons who are involved.
Although most of the previous research on human-computer interaction has focused on its technological and psychological aspects, psychology and physiology are interconnected and inseparable. Psychophysiology has long studied these connections that provide an opportunity to explore the mind through the functions of the body [Cacioppo, 2000]. For example, mental stress induces changes to heart functioning. The heart muscle generates electric signals that reflect these changes and propagate through the body [Brownley et al., 2000]. The electric signals can then be measured from the surface of the skin using electrocardiographic (ECG) equipment. The intervals between successive heart cycles can be extracted from the acquired ECG data. Finally, the variability of these intervals can be used to evaluate the level of mental stress [Bernardi et al., 2000].
