About

Overview

The Human-Computer Interaction Group (HCIG) at THI is an interdisciplinary team composed of computer scientists, media engineers, usability/UX researchers, and psychologists interested in hypothesis-driven experimental research in the broader area of pervasive computing and ubiquitous systems with particular focus on usability research for intelligent user interfaces and user experience design . The group is headed by Prof. Andreas Riener as was founded in January 2016.

Many recent research projects of the group (see “Projects“) are related to the automotive domain (human factors for automated driving). Recently, the HCIG group was also working on the whole range of pervasive computing applications, e. g., multi-modal interaction, adaptive systems, vital state estimation from psycho-physiological measures, intention recognition (e. g. for human-robot interaction), human performance measures, situation awareness, in-vehicle data collection, etc.

The HCIG group is also interested in augmented, mixed, and virtual reality applications to study novel and efficient interaction metaphors, motion/simulator sickness, trust/acceptance of technology, Usability/UX of interfaces, etc. Beside that, and underpinned by the research history of the group and his lead, Prof. Andreas Riener, their interest includes classical human-computer interaction and driving ergonomics, i. e., human factors in user interfaces, usability/UX evaluation, ergonomic aspects, interactive prototyping, ubiquitous systems in general, interface satisfaction, HMIs for highly/fully automated driving , and so on. Beside that, we have a strong interest (and fun) in executing field experiments and running (driving) simulator studies (including Wizard-of-Oz). In a nutshell, the research agenda of the HCIG could be summarized as “development of future interaction concepts and intelligent user interfaces that include cognitive elements to reflect the uniqueness of its user”.

Members of the Human-Computer Interaction Group (as of 08-2019)

  • 3 PostDocs in the fields of
    • Psychology, statistics, and sports
    • Computer science and human factors
    • Qualitative UX research
  • 9 PhD students in the areas HCI, Ergonomics, HRI, UX evaluation, Physiological factors in driving [Stress, Fatigue, Kinetosis], Machine learning/Big data analysis, AR/VR)
  • 3 associated staff members (technology field lead, technicians)

See “People” for detailed member profiles.

Third-party funds raised

The HCI group is keen on working in collaborative projects at various levels, e.g., nationally funded (BMBF, BMVI), european projects (H2020, COST action, Horizon Europe) and is also interested in contract research. To give an overview, the group was involved in following projects recently (more details on the “Projects” page).

  • Projects on national/state level
    • BayIntAn projects to initiate international collaboration (4/4 proposals granted)
    • BMBF “SAFIR”, PI (2016-2020)
    • BMBF “MenschInBewegung”, PI of subproject “Acceptance of automated driving” (2016-2021)
    • BMVI “SAVe”, PI of subproject “Pedestrian-Vehicle Interaction” (2018-2020)
  • EU H2020 project proposals
    • MG3.6-2017 “PReTECT”, full proposal submitted as PI/lead, € 7.6 Mio. (rejected, 02/2018)
    • MG2.1-2018 “AgeAdapt”, co-PI (submitted, 1st stage)
    • MG3.3-2018 “ADAPTATIONS”, co-PI (submitted, 1st stage)
    • MG2.7-2019 “REACCTION”, co-PI (in preparation, due Jan ’19)
    • DT-ART-03-2019 “HAVIT”, co-PI (submitted April 25, 2019)
    • Accompanying projects: EU-Antrag-FH (2/2 proposals granted)
  • Industrial projects with COBE, Deutsche Bahn (DB), IBEO, OPTIS, Audi, BMW, KFV, etc.
  • Further projects are in preparation (LFP, D-A-CH, DFG SPP, SAFIR EP1, Industry/ZIM, etc.)

Third-party funds raised between 09-2015 and 07-2019: > €3.3 Mio.