Thesis Statement(Draft)
One day if all the sensory experiences are transformed into sensory data and they can transfer between the cloud, Internet devices, sensory organs, what will happen? For sensing different “feelings,” Sensory Extension chips will be created, we’ll be able to receive and emit olfactory, gustatory, tactile, visual, and acoustic impressions. With some simple gestural instructions and the help of devices, we are able to save and share our personal moments with others and feel more: People will be able to experience a unique dining experience — or share it via social media. People will even be able to feel the pets they miss or look back to the day they had their first kiss… and then what else could happen? A new google navigation composed with multi-senses? A new search engine? Much more intimate relationships between human, machine, physical and digital environmental information.
Sensory Extension is my thesis topic for exploring a new way of Human Computer Interaction with an emphasis on touch and embodied interaction and further considering how physicality plays a role in digital interactions. Instead of thinking of traditional screen-based interface or graphic-user interface, as the only platform for conducting gestural interaction, what I am proposing is using our body as the interface to design a user-oriented interacting experience which brings a more efficient and confident user experience.
My thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is my research on the current gestures of touch, where I will look at touch in current HCI and the meaning of touch; analyze how it affects our way of understanding information; and how this action provides a rich and distinctive form of awareness. The second part is my exploration of the future possibilities of touch. One day we will be able to use touch to do more things if all of our sensory perceptions can be transferred into touch, and then be able to save and share all of our data memories. When fingers become the portals of our sensory extensions, how will we conduct touch and understand information, memories, and relationships?
When the information that we interact with no longer exists in one location and on a 2D surface, but with multi surfaces, wearables, and in the internet of things, 360-degree information of virtual reality in changeable locations; when the information floats in spaces, we should not limit ourselves by continuing to use the same gestures with 2D surfaces and conventional ways of understanding information, but to recognize our body as the exploring agent and to create a more efficient HCI.
When all the information can be quantified and transferred in between the digital and physical world; as we contact our families and friends via smiling emojis on social online platform; as we progress business activities by entering numbers of bank accounts; as we use digital maps for real-time navigation; when the digital information interlaces with the physical world and digital devices become part of our bodies to explore the world, recognizing our body as the exploring agent becomes more important in HCI. I believe by emphasizing how body movement and gestures play a role in the process of understanding and conducting information in design, users will be more aware of their bodies and bodily movements and therefore can enhance user ownership in these interactions.
The movements of reaching through touching is what I focus on my research. I am intrigued with how movement is able to introduce us to a new way of understanding data by learning its accessibility constructed by the hierarchy of the information created by its spatial position. And also how the user gains awareness of their body and bodily movements to enhance ownership in the interaction with data, which is the process of understanding and conducting information. In the end, by emphasizing on the user’s ownership of the machine, the technology becomes our new body part and the data become our new perceptions. My thesis aims at raising the concern on how user cognitions are grounded in HCI, which is deeply constrained by the bodily nature of cognitive agency. It encourages designers and engineers in HCI to consider the importance of bodily experience and movement in design.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) becomes a topic that many academic disciplines have involved in research. One of the reasons is that HCI becomes an activity highly involving in human daily lives. When the relationship between human and the computer becomes more intimate, the influence of HCI might no longer be confined to user experience within the interaction itself but also with the ecosystem, social dynamics, the economics structure and it changes the way how user see the world and themselves. Rather than solely generating responses to the user inputs, the computer is capable of learning user behaviors and having active connections with users by generating information suitable to user needs in all aspects of our
daily lives. The content of information that the computer engages in becomes more personal when all aspects of life can be transformed into digital data. Personal computer becomes more than an object but a part of the user body, which leads user to experience and to feel differently. The main concentration of the design of HCI is still usability, but it should go beyond that. Machine interface should not be the main subject to be designed, but the design that stands more on the users’ point of view and bridges the knowledge of human original perceptions should be brought into discussions.
New computers constantly have been affecting us on how we experience our surroundings. And they become more as the important media in our interactions with people and environment. It became our third hand to connect with people, and also the third eye to understand the world. We were able to use it to reach the people or the place far away, and also to perceive a new aspect of our lives from these interactions. The interface becomes as a form of an extension of the body. In my thesis, I try to convince how design plays an crucial role in changing user role in interactions with machines and how body influenced humans to perceive the world and themselves. It is important to consider user’s bodily interaction to enhance efficiency and user ownership in the interaction. Humongous load of digital information generated from different devices may overwhelm users, but by setting users in the center of the information and supporting users’ spontaneity can avoid the confusion. To emphasize the user's "I" in the interaction, the user experience should become more internal and subconscious. The gestural interaction should not be designed from the machine but from the knowledge of the body. Our body is easily trained to respond to new senses and multi-tasks with muscle memories and it also brings us new perceptions. And the movement of touch brings ones’ connection with others and also emphasizes the existence of oneself. The computer should learn individual user behavior and adapt it’s interface to human, supports users to accomplish their original intention. Further, by creating a new sense to extend our body for understanding a new knowledge of the information, design and technology can inspire humans to become a braver explore and thinker.