FUNDAMENTALS OF

HUMAN COMUPTER INTERACTION

Tamizharasi A
Assistant Professor
/CSE
RMD Engineering
College
What is HCI ?
Point of communication between the user
and the computer

Studies the design and use of computer

technology focused on the interface
between the user and the system
 Overview
Interaction with world
◦ Occurs through information

Interaction with computer

◦ Input and output channels

 Then the information is stored in the memory

Finally the information is processed and

applied.
 Reasoning
 Problem solving
 Skill acquistion
 Error
Input-Output Channels
Human interacts by sending and receiving
information

Human Input
◦ Through Senses

Human Output
◦ Through Effectors
Input via Senses
Vision

Hearing

Touch

Taste

Smell
Output via Effectors (Responders)
Limbs

Fingers

Eyes

Head

Vocal system
Interaction with PC Using Input-
Output Channels
Using a GUI-based computer

Information received by sight

Beeps received by ear

Feel keyboard and mouse with fingers

3 Major elements of Interaction

Vision
Hearing
Touch
Vision
◦ Human Eye
◦ Visual Perception
◦ Reading
Vision
Highly complex activity

Physical and perceptual limitations

2 stages of visual perception:

◦ Physical reception of the stimulus
◦ Interpretation/processing of stimulus

Processingallows construction of images

from incomplete information
Human Eye
 Human Eye
Image Formation

 Cornea and lens

◦ Focuses light into a
sharp image on retina
◦ An upside down image is
formed on the retina.
Photoreceptors
 Rods

 Cones
 Rods
 Situated towards the edges of retina
◦ Dominate peripheral vision

 Highly Sensitive to light

◦ Allow us to see under low level of
illumination

 Unable to resolve fine detail and are

subject to light saturation
◦ Cause of temporary blindness when
moving from dark areas to very
bright ones

 120 million rods per eye

Cones
 Less sensitive to light
◦ Can tolerate more light than Rods

 Basic function is color vision

 Situated in Fovea
◦ Small area on retina where image
is fixated

 Three types of cones

◦ Each sensitive to a different
wavelength
Blind Spot
 Area where optic nerve enters

 No rods or cones in this area

 Visual system compensates for

lack of rods and cones
Nerve Cells
A.k.a. Ganglion Cells

Types
◦ X-cells
 concentrated in fovea
 detection of patterns

◦ Y-cells
 widely distributed in retina
 early detection of movement
 can not detect change in patterns
Notions of Size and Distance
You are standing on a hill

Rocks, sheep and small tree on summit

Farmhouse on hillside

Person walking on track

Small market town in valley

Perceiving Size and Depth
 Size specified by visual angle

 Affected by both
◦ Size of object
◦ Distance from eye
Perceiving Size and Depth
Visual angle
◦ Indicates how much of the field of view is taken by the object
◦ Measured in degree or minutes of arc
 Visual Angle and Perception
Visual Acuity
◦ Visual Acuity is the ability of a person to perceive fine detail

Law of size constancy

◦ Perception of the object size remains constant even if it visual angle
changes
◦ Perception depends on factors other than visual angle
Factors Affecting Visual Perception
Perception of depth
◦ Cues to determine relative positions of objects

Size and height of object

◦ Provides cue for distance

Familiarity
◦ Certain size helps to judge the distance accordingly
Example
A B C D E F .HI J K
Perceiving Brightness
Brightness
◦ Is subjective reaction to levels of light
◦ affected by luminance of object

Luminance
◦ Depends on
 Amount of light falling on object
 Reflective properties of object
◦ Measured by photometer

Contrast
◦ Function of the luminance of an object and the luminance of its background
Perceiving Brightness
Measured by just noticeable difference
caused by luminance

Visual acuity increases with luminance

Perceiving Color
3 components
◦ Hue
 Determined by the spectral wavelength
 Blue (short)
 Green (medium)
 Red (long)
 150 hues determined by eye
◦ Intensity
 Brightness of color
◦ Saturation
 Amount of whiteness in the color

7 million colors can be perceived

Perceiving Color
Color perception best in fovea, worst at
periphery where rods are predominate

3-4% cones in fovea sensitive to blue

light
 Hearing
Provides information about environment :
 distances, directions, objects etc.

Human Ear has 3 components:

 outer ear protects inner
and amplifies sound
 middle ear
transmits sound waves as
vibrations to inner ear
 inner ear
chemical transmitters are
released and cause
impulses in auditory
nerve
outer ear
two parts:
◦ Pinna - attached to the sides of the head
◦ auditory canal - passes the sound waves to
the middle ear.
auditory canal contains wax which
prevents dust, dirt and over-inquisitive
insects reaching the middle ear
Middle Ear
 Passes the Sound waves
along the auditory canal and
vibrate the ear drum which
in turn vibrates the ossicles,
which transmit the
vibrations to the cochlea,
and so into the inner ear.
Inner Ear
The waves are passed into the liquid-
filled cochlea

The delicate hair cells or cilia bends

because of the vibrations in the cochlean
liquid and release a chemical transmitter
which causes impulses in the auditory
nerve.
Processing sound
Characteristics of Sound:

◦ Pitch - frequency of the sound

◦ Loudness - amplitude of the sound
◦ Timbre - type of the sound
 Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to
15kHz

 Different frequencies trigger activity in

neurons in different parts of the auditory
system, and cause different rates of firing of
nerve impulses

 Auditory system filters sounds

– Allows to ignore background noise and concentrate
on important information
 Touch
Also known as haptic perception.

Provides vital information about our environment.

It tells us when we touch something hot or cold, and

can therefore act as a warning.

• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin

Types of sensory receptor
Thermoreceptors
 Respond to heat and cold
Nociceptors
 Respond to pressure, heat and pain
Mechanoreceptors
 Respond to pressure
 2 types:
 Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors - respond to immediate pressure
 Slowly adapting mechanoreceptors - respond to continuously applied
pressure
Kinethesis - awareness of position of body &
limb
 affects comfort and performance.

Three types:
 rapidly adapting - respond when a limb is moved in a
particular direction;
 slowly adapting - respond to both movement and static
position;
 positional receptors - respond only when a limb is in a
static position.
Human Memory
Sensory Memory
act as buffers for stimuli received through
the senses
 iconic memory for visual stimuli,
 echoic memory for aural stimuli
 haptic memory for touch.
These memories are constantly overwritten by
new information coming in on these channels.
Examples – iconic memory
 Moving a finger infront of the eye
 “sparkler”
 Information remains in iconic memory very briefly,
in the order of 0.5 seconds.
 Examples – echoic memory
 direction from which a sound originates

 Information is passed from sensory memory

into short-term memory by attention, thereby
filtering the stimuli to only those which are of
interest at a given time.

 Information received by sensory memories is

quickly passed into a more permanent memory
store, or overwritten and lost.
Short-term memory
working memory
acts as a ‘scratch-pad’ for temporary
recall of information.
used to store information which is only
required fleetingly
Example:
 calculate the multiplication 35 × 6 in your head
 5 × 6 and followed by 30 × 6
Short-term memory can be accessed
– rapid access ~ 70ms

– rapid decay ~ 200ms

Two basic methods for measuring memory

capacity.

 determining the length of a sequence which can be

remembered in order. limited capacity 7± 2 chunks

 allows items to be freely recalled in any order.

Examples
212348278493202

0121 414 2626

HEC ATR ANU PTH ETR EET

chunking information can increase the

short-term memory capacity
Long Term Memory
storefactual information, experiential knowledge,
procedural rules of behavior – Stores everything
we know.

Characteristics:
1. It has huge capacity
2. It has a relatively slow access time of approximately a
tenth of seconds.
3. Forgetting occurs more slow in long- term memory
Long-term memory structure
2 types
 episodic memory
 represents memory of events and experience in a
serial form.
 Can recall an actual events took place at a given
point of our lives.
 semantic memory
 structured record of facts, concepts and skills that we
have acquired.

semantic LTM derived from

episodic LTM
LTM MODELS:
Semantic Network
Semantic memory is structured as a
network.
Items are associated to each other in
classes, and may inherit attributes from
parent classes.
Example:

knowledge about dogs may be

stored in a network as shown
semantic network
LTM MODELS:
Frames
Information organized in data
structures
Type–subtype relationships
DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: Carniverous sound: bark Default
size: 65 cm
Variable
size: colour Variable
colour
Frame slots may contain default, fixed or
variable information.
A frame is instantiated when the slots are
filled with appropriate values.
Frames and scripts can be linked together
in networks to represent hierarchical
structured knowledge.
 LTM MODELS: Scripts
Scripts attempt to model the representation
of stereotypical knowledge about situations.
Eg: knowledge of the activities of dog
owners and vets
A script comprises a number of elements, which, like slots,
can be filled with appropriate information:
 Entry conditions Conditions that must be satisfied for
the script to be activated.
 Result Conditions that will be true after the script is
terminated.
 Props Objects involved in the events described in the
script.
 Roles Actions performed by particular participants.
 Scenes The sequences of events that occur.
 Tracks A variation on the general pattern representing
an alternative scenario.
LTM MODELS: Production rules
Representation of procedural
knowledge.
Condition/action rules
ifcondition is matched
then use rule to determine action

IF dog is wagging tail THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling THEN run away

Long-term memory processes
3 main activities
 storage or remembering of information,
 Forgetting
 information retrieval
Storage of information
rehearsal :
Information is moved from short-term
memory to long-term memory.
 by repeated exposure to a stimulus or the rehearsal of
a piece of information transfers it into long-term
memory.
repetition is not enough to learn
information well. If information is not
meaningful it is more difficult to
remember.
structure, meaning and familiarity
– information easier to remember
Forgetting
2 main theories of forgetting:
 Decay
 Interference.
Decay
 information is lost gradually but very slowly

Interference
 new information replaces old: retroactive
interference
 Ex: remembering your new phone number
 old may interfere with new: proactive inhibition
 Ex: find your self going to your old house instead of
new one.
retrieval
recall
 information reproduced from memory can be
assisted by cues, e.g. categories, imagery

recognition
 information gives knowledge that it has been
seen before
 less complex than recall since the information is
provided as cue
 Thinking

Reasoning
deduction, induction, abduction

Problem solving
Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning
• Deductive reasoning derives the logically
necessary conclusion from the given
premises.
e.g
.
If it is Friday then she will go to work
It is Friday
Therefore she will go to work.

e.g. People from Pampanga cooks well and delicious

She is from Pampanga
Therefore she cooks well and delicious
Deductive Reasoning
• Logical conclusion not necessarily true:
e.g.

If it is raining then the ground is

dry It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
Deduction (cont.)
• When truth and logical validity clash …
e.g. Some people are babies Some babies cry

Inference - Some people cry

Correct?

• People bring world knowledge to bear

Inductive Reasoning
• Induction:
generalize from cases seen to infer information
about cases unseen

e.g. all elephants we have seen have trunks therefore we infer

that all elephants have trunks.

• Unreliable:
– can only prove false not true
• Humans not good at using negative evidence
e.g. Wason's cards.
Wason's cards

7 E 4K
If a card has a vowel on one side it has an even number on the
other
Is this true?

How many cards do you need to turn over to find out?

…. and which cards?

In fact, to test the truth of the statement we need to check

negative evidence
Abductive reasoning
Abduction reasons from a fact to the action or state
that caused it.
e.g.
Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume drunk.
• Unreliable:
– can lead to false explanations
•If an event always follows an action, the user will
infer that the event is caused by the action unless
evidence to the contrary is made available.

•If, in fact, the event and the action are unrelated,

confusion and even error often result.
Problem solving
• Process of finding solution to unfamiliar task
using knowledge.

• There are a number of different views of how

people solve problems.

• Several theories.
 Gestalt Theory
Problem solving is a matter of reproducing known
responses or trial and error.
problem solving both productive and reproductive
Reproductive problem solving draws on previous
experience.
 Hindrance to finding a solution
Productive problem solving involves insight and
restructuring of the problem
Maier’s pendulum problem
Problem space theory
 Proposed by Newell and Simon
 problem space comprises of problem states
 problem solving involves generating states using
legal operators
 The problem has an initial state and a goal state and
people use the operators to move from initial to the
goal.
 heuristics may be employed to select operators
Sample Heuristic
means-ends analysis
the initial state is compared with the goal state and
an operator is chosen to reduce the difference
between the two.

Eg:reorganizing your office and you want to move

your desk from the north wall of the room to the
window
Operators : carry or push or drag them

If
desk is heavy then new subgoal: to make it light.
Operators : removing drawers, and so on.
– operates within human information
processing system
e.g. STM limits etc.
– largely applied to problem solving in
well-defined areas
e.g. puzzles rather than knowledge
intensive areas
Problem solving
(cont.)
• Analogy
– analogical mapping:
• novel problems in new domain?
• use knowledge of similar problem from similar
domain
– analogical mapping difficult if domains are
semantically different

• Skill acquisition
– skilled activity characterized by chunking
• lot of information is chunked to optimize STM
– conceptual rather than superficial grouping of
problems
– information is structured more effectively
Errors and mental
models
Types of error

•slips
– right intention, but failed to do it right
– causes: poor physical skill,inattention etc.
– change to aspect of skilled behaviour can
cause slip

•mistakes
– wrong intention
– cause: incorrect understanding
humans create mental models to explain behaviour.
if wrong (different from actual system) errors can occur
Thank You