Invisible Interfaces

Thursday 14th October 2010, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Professor Aaron Quigley, University of St. Andrews.

University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB - map (click on Informatics Forum in the list of buildings).

Synopsis

The user interface represents the point of contact between a computer system and a human, both in terms of input to the system and output from the system. Ubiquitous Computing or UbiComp consists of hardware, software, systems and services which act as the computational edifice around which we need to build our user interfaces to afford natural or “invisible” interaction styles. This is driven by the evolution from the notion of a computer as a single device, to the notion of a computing space comprising personal and peripheral computing elements and services all connected and communicating as required. This presentation discusses research and developments in the realisation of User Interfaces for UbiComp systems. Examples are drawn from research and development groups around the world who are exploring mobile and embedded devices in almost every type of physical artefact including cars, toys, tools, homes, appliances, clothing and work surfaces.

About the speaker

Professor Aaron Quigley has been the Chair of Human Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland since July 2010. Professor Quigley's research interests include surface and multi-display computing, human computer interaction, pervasive and ubiquitous computing and information visualisation. He has published over 100 internationally peer-reviewed publications including edited volumes, journal papers, book chapters, conference and workshop papers and holds 3 patents. He is a chartered fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), a senior member of the IEEE, a member of the ACM and is a recipient of the Engineers Australia Excellence in Engineering Education Award. He blogs at http://aquigley.blogspot.com/ and tweets at http://twitter.com/aquigley