Inaugural Lecture of CITM Studies: "The Future of Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction"

In this talk, Stephen Brewster will present some of the research going on in my group on multimodal human-computer interaction, using our senses and control capabilities to enrich interactions with technology. Most of our interactions involve us looking at screens and pressing buttons, but humans are capable of much more than this. I will show examples of how new technology can help us do new things in new situations. For example, I will discuss how we can use levitation and haptics to create new forms of physical displays, and how we can use Virtual Reality to change the way we experience travel as passengers.

The speaker

Stephen Brewster is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on multimodal HCI, or using multiple sensory modalities and control mechanisms (particularly audio, haptics and gesture) to create a rich, natural interaction between humans and technology. His work has a strong experimental focus, applying perceptual research to practical situations. A long-term focus has been on haptics and virtual reality and how we can design better user interactions for users.

Current work is looking at ultrasound haptics and VR/AR applications for passengers in autonomous vehicles. Other areas of interest include accessibility, wearable devices and in-car interaction. His work has over 18,000 citations. He is a Member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy, an ACM Distinguished Speaker, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was General Chair of ACM CHI 2019, the biggest conference in the field of HCI, which was held in Glasgow.