Angeliki Antoniou
Date of MSc: 2000-2001
Project Title: Envisaging Mobile Music Data Services for Students Using Participatory Capture Techniques
Pre-MSc Background: Degree in Pre-School Education, BSc in Social with Clinical Psychology, Degree in Music and Piano Diploma
Pre-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics: I really did not know what this was…I only thought the name sounded interesting…
Post-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics: The nature of a truly interdisciplinary field was revealed to me. I realised the importance of a holistic approach to applications’ and systems’ design. The term Cognitive Ergonomics directly targeted the body and mind dichotomy problem, implying that there cannot be a distinction between the two. During the MSc year, it was shown to us how psychology, biology and anatomy, engineering and computing could be combined in order to provide viable solutions to problems, extending our views on collaboration and breaking the barriers of the different fields.
Subsequent-to-MSc View of HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics: 14 years later, I still view the field as a source of inspiration for my personal development and research. Over the years, I realised that the field does not only combine psychology, biology, engineering and computing, but there is room for many others like sociology or art. In this light, HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics can incorporate almost all fields, depending on the individual interests and the problem requirements. For example, art can be used for providing input in a system or it could be the output of the interaction with the computer. In addition, the developments in social media, made sociology, anthropology and communication also directly relevant to the field.
Additional Reflections: I have very fond memories from my time at UCL. It was a unique experience, not only because I got the opportunity to study under a very different educational system than the one I came from (Greek) but also because I met some very interesting and inspiring people. The intensity of the course and the long hours led to the formation of strong friendships and created a group of people that know how to work with each other and trust each others skills. Even to date, I keep in touch with most of my classmates and professors, who have helped me since then with my research.
Over the last years, I am trying to explore the area of Human-Computer Non-Interaction (interaction in this sense is subtle and indirect). Although this might sound strange and contradicting, there have been attempts towards this direction like the notions of the disappearing computer: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” (www.smart-future.net/10.html ). During my studies at UCL, interaction was profound and certain engineering solutions had to be applied in order to maximise usability. I am now concerned with a different engineering approach that will target the absence of interaction (or to be precise, the absence of the user’s conscious interaction with the system). The latest developments in technology and in particularly in augmented reality, now allow us to explore this area further. Still cooperating with UCL (Computing Department) and UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, we have now developed a system called Micro-augmentations that augments the physical environment of a museum and responds to the visitor’s movement without her intention. Also incorporating elements of affective computing, we are now studying users’ behaviour in systems they cannot directly control (sometimes the users do not even realise the application’s existence). Therefore, HCI/Cognitive Ergonomics seems to expand to a realm where the very nature of interaction is now changing. Still, at these early stages of our research, it remains to be seen how the different emerging problems can be solved…