Evolving Patterns of Human Interactions Michael Bolei Sudhanshu Kumar Semwal Department of Computer Science Department of Computer Science University of Colorado University of Colorado Colorado Springs, USA Colorado Springs, USA [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—Technology provides a way to communicate, and that Similarly, the provider had no real way to monitor the receiver desire is clearly one of the driving factors for which devices are (or in the case of broadcasting, many receivers) to know what created for human-to-human communication. In this paper, we effect that their stream of content might be having. specifically address the interactions technology developed facilitating human-human communication. As we survey this The availability of different communication methods has technical field patterns emerge just as devices or technologies also dramatically increased, largely due to the ubiquity of low- were developed, and rejected. We are now left with phones cost computing, as well as high-availability networking. In the which can be compared to mobile computers, and computer past, widespread information distribution was limited to a small tablets which can easily make a phone call. The desire to provide subset of people who had access to production facilities, similar functions on the go has led to homogeneity of the product broadcasting towers, printing presses, and so on. Now, anyone which just a few years ago were quite different. As we look at this with access to the Internet from a variety of devices including from complex systems point of view and review what has cameras, phones, and computers can generate and share content happened over a larger period of time, we propose that desire to with anywhere from one to a nearly unlimited number of communicate has always been a main attractor and driving force people, taking advantage of free or low-cost services. of development of technology as we summarize how sensorial interactions have been added to technology and/or devices. Our However, as the number of types of communication with analysis show that rejection of technology is based on how the both people and technology has increased, so has the difficulty product is perceived, and that is not easy to predict as an in determining which types of interaction are actually palatable attractor, as successful product in this case, can result in and desired by people. Often, a new type of complex cascading effect and non-linear focus of similar technology. technology will be developed which seems interesting at a glance, and which functions exactly as it is designed to do, only Keywords- patterns: Patterns of Interactions in HCI to be widely rejected by people due to some unforeseen problem. In addition, this can cause a misunderstanding as to I. INTRODUCTION why the technology was rejected, causing it to be temporarily Over the past several decades, technology has greatly abandoned due to thinking that people dislike the entire idea, expanded the ways in which people interact with it, other when it was actually only a small, fixable issue which had people, and the world as a whole. While interactions in the caused the rejection. For example, mobile-tablet computers are past may have been largely limited to one-way simple audio or currently attracting a large amount of attention, and are selling video communications across bulky devices, modern very well to consumers. However, this is not the first time technology has allowed for a large increase in the amount of tablet computers have been developed and brought to the interactivity, while also increasing the types of interaction to market. Around a decade ago, very similar devices were include a variety of ways to convey information using all five created and sold, but were largely ignored and ultimately failed senses. In addition, reach of interactions has grown to draw people in. This is a demonstration of how seemingly dramatically. The results of performing a simple action, such small issues, such as a touch versus stylus interface, or size of as talking or gesturing, can cause immediate reactions from screen, can cause widespread acceptance or rejection of a other systems or people around the world. technology, though it is often difficult even in hindsight to see With the massive growth in popularity of the Internet, the why people liked or disliked it. Similar stories can be told for number of ways in which people interact via technology has things like video-phones, or PDAs, and even the Internet which exploded with clouds on the way. In the past, most interactions have existed in various forms for decades, but took several were focused around entirely one-way communications, such generations of attempts before finding a combination which as radio or television broadcasts. In these cases, a simple would cause widespread, and often very sudden, adoption of stream of information was delivered to a user, who would then the new technology. In most cases, the only way to see how passively experience it. The provider of the stream could well something will do is to implement the idea, then test it dynamically change what information they were providing at with real people, and keep trying. With each iteration of such any time, but it was impossible for the receiver of the tecnhology, the device or technology becomes an attractor and information to signal to the provider to do anything specific. certain features start to emerge as expectations, as new features manually operated switchboards. In the modern system, are added. landline phones still continue to use analog connections in order to maintain backwards compatibility, but only for the II. DESIRE TO COMMUNICATE AND TELEPRESENCE connection from the phone to the telephone office it is connected to. Telepresence is the concept of allowing someone to feel Cellular phones are now very common, with people often and act as if they are at a remote location and and is our focus. choosing to forego landline phones entirely. Although This now encompasses a very wide range of technologies, from primitive phones did make use of analog technologies, these simple audio and video presentation, to using various forms of versions have all but disappeared. Almost all modern cell robotics and mobile phones which allow someone to perform phones use digital connections between the phone and the physical actions despite not being physically there themselves. tower, leaving the only analog components of the system being For telepresence [1,2] using phone, only an attempt at the actual speaker and microphone on the phone itself. conveying a single sense, sound, is used. Due to this, the b) Internet Phone Systems illusion of each group of people being in the same place is obviously quite thin. A simple visual check will let a With the near-ubiquity of the Internet in many parts of participant know that everyone involved in the call is obviously the populated world, people have been developing and using not in the same room. If someone at the remote location is the Internet for audio communication for well over a decade talking, the only effective way to tell who is talking is by the now. These systems avoid using the old phone system entirely, sound of their voice. This can be largely affected by the and communicate directly using IP packets. By using the quality of the speakers, microphone, transmitting equipment, Internet, these systems are able to easily integrate other features line quality, and the familiarity of the people talking to each since the medium is capable of carrying generic traffic for other. Even though the primary content is being transferred anything, as opposed to phone-networks which were originally successfully, the failure to bring the ‘small’ details across as designed around voice alone. Some systems attempt to well causes a dramatic drop in the effectiveness of making integrate both Internet-based voice communication as well as people feel as if they are actually in the same room. the telephone system. These systems typically operate over IP, but contain a phone gateway allowing calls to be connected to Yet another concern is how many people are attempting to the phone system, or to allow calls from the phone system to be connect to each other, the locations they’re connecting from, bridged on to the Internet. and how many locations are involved. In the above scenario, two homogenous purpose-built locations are used, each 2) Compression containing their own group of people. Today, far more Uncompressed digital audio still consumes a complex situations can arise, where multiple locations are considerable amount of space, with an hour of CD-quality involved, each with their own specific sets of capabilities. audio taking up around 700 megabytes. Lossless algorithms, Simpley connecting two people together is no longer such as FLAC, tend to reduce the size by half or better, though considered impressive, or even acceptable. Multi-way this is still relatively large. Far more common are lossy connections between vastly different devices with varying algorithms, which sacrifice perfect quality in order to achieve levels of capabilities are now expected, as well as being able to significant gains in compression, often up to an order of share those capabilities beyond simple voice and video magnitude better than uncompressed. Most of these algorithms transmissions. are based off of psychoacoustic models, in which an audio source is split into different frequency bins, then compressed at A. Audio varying amounts based on how well human ears can hear that Audio has been used to remotely communicate with specific frequency. Frequencies which are outside of normal other people for well over one hundred years and audio has hearing ranges are dropped entirely. Popular algorithms such been the earliest to be delivered to everyone and has been all as MP3 and AAC are intended for use with music, and are pervasive.