Laboratory: Human-machine interaction
Room 03.213
The Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) laboratory offers the opportunity to both develop and test innovative operating concepts. The laboratory is used for both teaching and research projects.
It enables the user-centred development of software and covers the entire usability engineering lifecycle, i.e. the entire development process from the start of the project with brainstorming, target group analysis, prototyping (rapid prototyping), validation, final implementation and user testing.
In addition to human-computer interaction (HCI), i.e. the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on PCs that are usually used today, the focus is also on applications in vehicles and for mobile devices, entertainment and household electronics and kiosk systems. Examples of innovative concepts being investigated in this laboratory are natural user interfaces, multimodal operating concepts and multi-user interfaces in an environment in which information is distributed on personal, mobile devices.
Further fields of investigation are situation/context-dependent interfaces, culture-dependent user requirements and user interfaces for people with special needs, e.g. due to age or disability. Among other things, the laboratory has a system for eye-tracking. This means that the laboratory is also open for professionally analysing the usability of software from external clients and making improvements.
- touchscreens
- Various mobile devices
- Software: Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Blend, Axure, etc.
- Digital assistants/avatars
- Samsung PixelSense multi-touch table
- Eye tracking system (for tests on the PC, in the vehicle, etc.)
- Occulus Rift VR glasses
- Practical course on human-machine interaction as part of the course "Selected Areas of Applied Computer Science" (2nd semester of the Applied Computer Science programme) in cooperation with the HMI department of Ford. Topics: HMI concepts and prototypes for hybrid vehicles and electronic user manual/help system
- Internship for the MMI and GUI programming course
- Projects for school pupils, Girl's Day: My personal MP3 player, creative workshops on various topics of human-technology interaction
- The lab is also open to students from other universities for internships and final theses. Topics by arrangement.
- Usability study for a SW product (bilateral contract research)
- Development of an automotive HMI set of rules (bilateral contract research)
- Recording basic user needs as part of the UsAHome project
- Concept development for applications on the Samsung PixelSense table
- Concept development for HMI in the automobile
- Process development and consulting on the topic of "barrier-free software"
