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This volume in the Lecture Notes of Artificial Intelligence represents the first book on
human computing. We introduced the notion of human computing in 2006 and
organized two events that were meant to explain this notion and the research
conducted worldwide in the context of this notion.
The first of these events was a Special Session on Human Computing that took
place during the Eighth International ACM Conference on Multimodal Interfaces
(ICMI 2006), held in Banff, Canada, on November 3, 2006. The theme of the
conference was multimodal collaboration and our Special Session on Human
Computing was a natural extension of the discussion on this theme. We are grateful to
the organizers of ICMI 2006 for supporting our efforts to organize this Special
Session during the conference.
The second event in question was a Workshop on AI for Human Computing
organized in conjunction with the 20th International Joint Conference on Artificial
Intelligence (IJCAI 2007), held in Hyderabad (India), on January 6, 2007. The main
theme of IJCAI 2007 was AI and its benefits to society. Our workshop presented a
vision of the future of computing technology in which AI, in particular machine
learning and agent technology, plays an essential role. We want to thank the
organizers of IJCAI 2007 for their support in the organization of the Workshop on AI
for Human Computing.
A large number of the contributions in this book are updated and extended versions
of the papers presented during these two events. In order to obtain a more complete
overview of research efforts in the field of human computing, a number of additional
invited contributions are included in this book on AI for human computing.
One of the contributions in this volume starts with the observation that humans are
social beings. Unfortunately, it is exceptional when we can say that a particular
computer system, a computer application, or a human – computer interface has been
designed from this point of view. Rather, we talk about users that have to perform
tasks in a way that is prescribed by the computer. However, when we take the point of
view of designing systems for social beings, we should talk rather about partners or
participants instead of users, and when we do so, it is also the computer or a
computer-supported environment that plays the role of a partner or a participant.
Human computing, as advocated and illustrated in this volume, aims at making
computing devices and smart environments social partners of humans interacting with
these devices or inhabiting these environments. These devices and environments need
to understand what exactly the specifics of the current interaction flow and the
surrounding environment are. This understanding allows for anticipatory and proactive
feedback and real-time, unobtrusive support of human activities in the environment.
The LNAI volume on AI for Human Computing consists of three parts: a part on
foundational issues of human computing, a part on sensing humans and their
activities, and a part on anthropocentric interaction models.
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