Kevin Warwick: Cyborg Life
Theodor Holm Nelson (born 1937) is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the term "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and published it in 1965. He also is credited with first use of the words hypermedia, transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity and teledildonics. The main thrust of his work has been to make computers easily accessible to ordinary people. His motto is: A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.
Ted Nelson promotes four maxims: "most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong". (See chapter II, 3rd paragraph, 3rd and 4th sentence in: "The Curse of Xanadu")
In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for "window, icon, menu, pointing device", denoting a style of interaction using these elements. It was coined by Merzouga Wilberts in 1980.[1] Although its usage has fallen out of favor, it is often used as an approximate synonym of "GUI". WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PARC (see Xerox Alto, developed in 1973) and "popularized by the Macintosh computer in 1984", where the concepts of the "menu bar" and extended window management were added. [2] This style of interaction uses a physical input device to control the position of a cursor and presents information organized in windows and represented with icons. Available commands are compiled together in menus and actioned through the pointing device. This is intended to reduce the cognitive load to remember the possibilities available, reducing learning times.
Other inteded benefits of this style include its ease of use for non-technical people, both novice and power users. Also know-how can be ported from one application to the next, given the high consistency between interfaces.
Since "wimp" in common speech is a derogatory term for a person lacking strength or courage, the acronym WIMP is sometimes used in a likewise derogatory manner[1], especially by those who prefer more traditional command-line interfaces
A command-line interface (CLI) is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks. This text-only interface contrasts with the use of a mouse pointer with a graphical user interface (GUI) to click on options, or menus on a text user interface (TUI) to select options. This method of instructing a computer to perform a given task is referred to as "entering" a command: the system waits for the user to conclude the submitting of the text command by pressing the "Enter" key (a descendant of the "carriage return" key of a typewriter keyboard). A command-line interpreter then receives, analyses, and executes the requested command. The command-line interpreter may be run in a text terminal or in a terminal emulator window as a remote shell client such as PuTTY. Upon completion, the command usually returns output to the user in the form of text lines on the CLI. This output may be an answer if the command was a question, or otherwise a summary of the operation. The concept of the CLI originated when teletype machines (TTY) were connected to computers in the 1950s, and offered results on demand, compared to batch oriented mechanical punch card input technology. Dedicated text-based CRT terminals followed, with faster interaction and more information visible at one time, then graphical terminals enriched the visual display of information. Currently personal computers encapsulate all three functions (batch processing, CLI, GUI) in software.
The CLI continues to co-evolve with GUIs like those provided by Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and the X Window System. In some applications, such as MATLAB and AutoCAD, a CLI is integrated with the GUI, with the benefits of both.
In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. User-centered design can be characterized as a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use an interface, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regards to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users. Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of an interface to understand intuitively what a first-time user of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like.
The chief difference from other interface design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to optimize the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the software developers approach.
Video game addiction, or more broadly video game overuse, is excessive or compulsive use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from, or from other forms of, social contact and focusing almost entirely on in-game achievements rather than broader life events. There is no diagnosis of video game addiction, although it has been proposed for inclusion in the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Globally, there have been deaths caused directly by exhaustion from playing games for excessive periods of time. There have also been deaths of gamers and/or others related to playing of video games.
In 2007, it was reported that Xu Yan died in Jinzhou after playing online games persistently for over 15 days during the Lunar New Year holiday. Later 2007 reports indicated that a 30 year-old male died in Guangzhou after playing video games continuously for 3 days.
In June 2005, one news agency reported that "Xiao Yi was thirteen when he threw himself from the top of a twenty-four story tower block in his home town, leaving notes that spoke of his addiction and his hope of being reunited with fellow cyber-players in heaven. The suicide notes were written through the eyes of a gaming character ..."
In March 2005, the BBC reported a murder in Shanghai, when Qiu Chengwei fatally stabbed fellow player Zhu Caoyuan, who had sold on eBay a "dragon sabre" sword he had been lent in a Legend of Mir 3 game, and was given a suspended death sentence.
In 2005, Lee Seung Seop (Hangul: 이승섭) visited an Internet cafe in the city of Taegu and played StarCraft almost continuously for fifty hours. He went into cardiac arrest, and died at a local hospital. A friend reported: "...he was a game addict. We all knew about it. He couldn't stop himself." About six weeks before his death, his girlfriend, also an avid gamer, broke up with him, and he had been fired from his job for repeated tardiness.
An Earthtimes.org article reported in 2007 that police arrested a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering and robbing an 81-year-old woman. A local policeman was quoted as saying that the boy "...confessed that he needed money to play online games and decided to kill and rob..." the victim. The article further related a police report that the murder by strangling netted the thief 100,000 Vietnamese dong (US$6.20).
United States
Press reports in November 2005 state that Gregg J. Kleinmark, 24, plead "guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter". He "left fraternal twins Drew and Bryn Kleinmark unattended in a bathtub for 30 minutes, in order to go three rooms away and play on his Game Boy Advance console(sic)" while "in the mean time, the two ten-months old kids drowned".
Tyrone Spellman, 27, of Philadelphia, was convicted of third-degree murder for killing his 17-month old daughter in a rage over a broken Xbox. He "killed Alayiah Turman with at least five blows to the head" that "cracked the toddler's skull several times".
Ohio teen Daniel Petric shot his parents, killing his mother, after they took away his copy of Halo 3 in October 2007. In a sentencing hearing after the teen was found guilty of aggravated murder, Judge James Burge said "I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever". On 16 June 2009, Petric was sentenced to 23 years to life.
Canada
Brandon Crisp, an Ontario 15-year-old, ran away from home on Thanksgiving Monday in 2008 after his parents took away his Xbox 360 due to falling grades and excessive play of Call of Duty 4. He was last seen alive on a bicycle trail. His body was found weeks later, about 3 miles away, by a party of hunters. An autopsy determined that he died in a fall from a tree.
The Wii Remote, sometimes unofficially nicknamed "Wiimote", is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and optical sensor technology. Another feature is its expandability through the use of attachments. The attachment bundled with the Wii console is the Nunchuk, which complements the Wii Remote by providing functions similar to those in gamepad controllers. The controller was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show on September 16, 2005, with the name "Wii Remote" announced April 27, 2006. It has since received much attention due to its unique features and the contrast between it and typical gaming controllers. It has also gained significant attention from hackers using it to control non Wii-related devices through Wii homebrew.
Don Norman lives two lives: theory and applications. As a cognitive scientist, he studies, teaches, and writes about the relationship between technology and people. In his applied life, he helps companies make products that appeal to the emotions as well as to reason.
Business Week calls him a “cantankerous visionary” — cantankerous in his quest for excellence. Upside Magazine named him one of the “Elite 100” for 1999. Dr. Norman brings a unique mix of the social sciences and engineering to bear on everyday products. Although is a strong advocate of human-centered design and simplicity and perhaps best known for his book, The Design of Everyday Things, he now wants to ensure that products appeal to the emotions as well as to reason.
Dr. Norman is cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm that helps companies produce human-centered products and services. Norman serves as advisor and board member to numerous companies and non-profit organizations in the area of policy and education. Among others, he serves on the editorial advisory board of Encyclopedia Britannica and on the board of overseers of Chicago’s Institute of Design
Norman has also been Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computer and an executive at both Hewlett Packard and UNext (a distance education company).
Norman received a B.S. degree from MIT and an MS degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Electrical Engineering. His doctorate, from the University of Pennsylvania, is in Psychology. He has received two honorary degrees: a doctorate in Industrial Design and Engineering from the Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) and the S. V. della laurea ad honerem from the University of Padua (Italy).
Prof. Norman was one of the founders of the Cognitive Science Society and has been chair of the society and editor of its journal, Cognitive Science. He has been a faculty member at Harvard University. He is now Professor of Computer Science, Psychology, and Cognitive science at Northwestern University and Prof. Emeritus of both Cognitive Science and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, where he was founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology. He is a member of The Industrial Designers Society of America, and fellow of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, The American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Cognitive Science Society. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford).
In 2006, Norman received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer & Cognitive Science from the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia). In 2005, he received the Franklin V. Taylor Award for “outstanding contribution to the field of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology” from the American Psychological Association. In 2002 he received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from SIGCHI, the professional organization for Computer-Human Interaction and the “Mental Health Award for contributions to business” from the Journal Psychology Today.
Dr. Norman was the lead negotiator for Apple in the discussions between the computer and television industries in the development of an Advanced Digital TV system for the United States.
The term GUI is historically restricted to the scope of two-dimensional display screens with display resolutions capable of describing generic information, in the tradition of the computer science research at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The term GUI earlier might have been applicable to other high-resolution types of interfaces that are non-generic, such as videogames, or not restricted to flat screens, like volumetric displays.
Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both software and hardware; for example, characters or objects displayed by software on a personal computer's monitor, input received from users via hardware peripherals such as keyboards and mice, and other user interactions with large-scale computerized systems such as aircraft and power plants. The Association for Computing Machinery defines human-computer interaction as "a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them."[1] An important facet of HCI is the securing of user satisfaction (see Computer user satisfaction).
Because human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human factors are relevant. Engineering and design methods are also relevant. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI, people with different backgrounds contribute to its success. HCI is also sometimes referred to as man–machine interaction (MMI) or computer–human interaction (CHI).
Ergonomics is the science of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability.
The International Ergonomics association of men define ergonomics as follows.
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
Ergonomics is employed to fulfill the two goals of health and productivity. It is relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines.
Here's an interesting video on ergonomics
Sensible Soccer Before there was FIFA or Pro Evo, the only way to indulge your football game fantasies through a computer (and a mouse if you were skilled enough) was courtesy of this 2D great. With hundreds of teams to dabble with, there was always a mate near by claiming to be the supreme Sensible champ.
T3 magazine was one of the resources given to us during the lecture. This magazine provides manay great article relating to several forms of technology such as phones and games. Above is an article I found interesting
