Homework Day 1 – Simon Hsieh

To me, interaction is all about feedback that could be understood by us. As humans, we imagine that all things work in a human-like way to make sense of the world around us. For example, when a person sees their pet turtle approaching them, they might think that the turtle likes them. While the truth is the turtle knows there’s food every time they see a hand. Thus, when looking at human-machine interaction, we should also try to make machines behave in a way that is as human-like as possible.

In the last class, I was able to recognize most of the electronic components. However, there are a few things in the Arduino set that I’m unfamiliar with, including the infrared and ultrasonic sensors. In the video that we watched, what hit me the most was the possibilities that arise when we add in new ways one could interact with the computer. This is especially true with the case of eye-tracking technologies. Recently, I’ve learned that people are using eye-tracking technologies to help people interact with others in the virtual environment.