Human-Centered Computing: Challenges and Perspectives

Computing is at one of its most exciting moments in history, playing an essential role in supporting many important human activities. The explosion in the availability of information in various media forms and through multiple sensors and devices means, on one hand, that the amount of data we can collect will continue to increase dramatically, and, on the other hand, that we need to develop new paradigms to search, organize, and integrate such information to support all human activities. Human centered computing (HCC) is an emerging field that aims at bridging the existing gaps between the various disciplines involved with the design and implementation of computing systems that support people´s activities. HCC aims at tightly integrating human sciences (e.g. social and cognitive) and computer science (e.g. human-computer interaction (HO), signal processing, machine learning, and ubiquitous computing) for the design of computing systems with a human focus from beginning to end. This focus should consider the personal, social, and cultural contexts in which such systems are deployed. Beyond being a meeting place for existing disciplines, HCC also aims at radically changing computing with new methodologies to design and build systems that support and enrich people´s lives. In this presentation, we discuss the existing challenges in HCC and describe what we consider to be the three main areas of interest: media production, analysis, and interaction. In addition, we identify the core characteristics of HCC, describe example applications.and propose a research agenda for HCC.