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CPSC 781: Advanced Topics in Human Computer Interaction

This advanced course in Human Computer Interaction considers different topics across years.

Fall, 2012: Proxemic Interactions in Ubiquitous Computing

This year's focus is on Proxemic Interactions, a particular aspect of Ubiquitous computing. Contents are structured around:

• introductory readings related to conceptual and technical concepts in ubiquitous computing;
• specialized readings on social, conceptual and technical concepts in proxemic interaction;
• a major independent project that you define that develops a proposal, design, implementation and critique of a system for proxemic interactions.
• learning and teaching software systems and other methods for various ubicomp-related technologies, including learning by doing through simple exercises.
• student-led presentations, seminars and discussions about papers and topics of interest.

This will be a demanding, time-intensive course. You are expected to take the lead in defining and pursuing projects and course subls -topics. You will gather and distill academic materials, and define and implement major projects. I strongly encourage projects that are tightly related to your thesis research or your direct interests, and / or that can generate research results such as publications and/or thesis chapters.

Typical students

Typical students attending this course are those pursuing Human Computer Interaction as part of their computer science thesis research, where their research will include (or is related to) aspects of ubiquitous computing. If you are thinking of attending, you should be fully comfortable and adept at programming at a level expected of a computer science graduate students.

If you have no background in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), feel free to ask me about this course. I caution that this is not an introductory HCI course. Rather, it is an advanced course on a highly specialized topic in HCI. If you don not have any HCI background, you may still be able to get through the material, but you will have to work much harder and will likely not get as much out of it due to its specialized nature. If you are looking for a basic introduction to HCI, or interface design, or basic HCI methods, I suggest you take or sit in on CPSC 481.

Come speak with me if you are unsure.

Course Particulars