Presented to the Human Computer Interaction
Institute on November 19, 1997
Using Household Appliances to Control Humans,
Robots, and Cyborgs
Even prior to the advent of computers people have been surrounded
by interfaces to technology. Examples include light switches, the knobs on
a stove, and the buttons or dial of a telephone. Reusing these household
interfaces takes advantage of a common language to leverage previous
skills, connotations, and emotional impressions.
In this talk we chronical the development and application of the
Telephone/Television Hybrid Interface (TTHI). Ubiquitous in both developed
and developing nations, the television and telephone unite to provide
remote perception and remote action to convey real-time remote experience,
or telepresence. The projection of human will into remote environments is
explored through this interface as direct manipulation of the human body,
manipulation of that body as a tool to perform tasks, operation of a robot
to explore these remote envirnments, and cooperation with a cyborg to
experience emotion.
We will
present five recent projects at the Centre for Metahuman Exploration
as examples. The TTHI has been used to directly stimulate human
muscles ("The Interactive TV Show"), move a human arm ("Inverse
Human"), control a teleoperated voter ("Absentee Ballot"), drive a
NASA robot ("RoverTV"), and pet a rabbit ("Petting Zoo").
Martin C. Martin