Research objectives

The definition of the foundations for new knowledge and the steering of new technological developments on the multisensory, action-driven, intelligent (reactive) interfaces indicated as Enactive Interfaces.

The core research method of the ENACTIVE Network is based on a genuine synergy between the development of tools (instruments, artefacts, etc.) and the development of the knowledge on human performances (cognitive processes, motor-perceptual skills, integration of sensory modalities) considered as strictly connected in mutual advantage. This is particularly true in the context of computerised instruments that provide new tools for the mutual exploration, knowledge and interaction between humans and the physical universe.

The ENACTIVE Network is conducting joint research on the following topics:

Implementation of existing technologies and future technological developments: designing multisensory, action-driven interfaces.

This topic deals with the analysis of standards for the software and hardware needed for Enactive Interfaces and for new sensors and actuators. A fundamental objective of the Network is defining the necessary compromises between effectiveness of the enactive interaction and the current available technology in order to define the necessary steps to be done in the technology domain.

Users modelling

A better understanding of the human behaviour and capabilities regarding perception, action and cognition is mandatory in order to produce devices that take into account human ways of interaction and that exploit human psycho-physical characteristics. This requirement is crucial to the production of a new generation of interfaces that are flexible (suitable for many different tasks of the daily life) and effectively co-operating with the user (natural, intuitive, responsive to his actions). The knowledge about the perception and the completion of movements becomes the structuring dimension of an enactive interface as we want to open the rich potential of intuitive manipulation of entities. To make this possible, an enactive interface has to rely on a general kinaesthetic model of the user as well as on the psychophysical modelling of his abilities in the following domains: haptic, visual, acoustic perception, multisensory integration and perception, motor control, relationship and interactions of perception, action and cognition.

Content (information, representations) modelling and accessing in the motor-perceptual form.

The objective of the research is that of generating tools for the multimodal representation and transmission of information, such as haptic, visual and acoustic rendering of information of different kinds. Different types of contents such as conceptual and formal contents (referred to abstract and concrete objects), and non-deliberative (motor habits and skills, perceptual contents, emotional contents) are considered and mediated.

New applications for Enactive Interfaces.

The development of a new generation of interfaces and the research on non-symbolic, non-iconic forms of interaction in computer mediated environments will open new possibilities for future computer applications, in the domain of learning, storing information, creating, interacting with distant people through Enaction. These applications comprise new uses for computers, but are also directed to new users, e.g. to users that are unable to access to traditional interfaces or that cannot fully exploit conventional interfaces.

Prospecting the major changes in computers and communication processes

The implementation of Enactive Interface places at the centre of the technological development new concepts that overcome those of “input and output systems”, and in particular the genuinely cybernetic concept of “action-perception loop". The development of a new generation of interfaces entails then deep changes in the computer hardware and software architectures as well as in the structure and in the technical capabilities of the telecommunication channels. The ENACTIVE Network is necessarily an “observatory of the mutations” in human-computer interfaces, and in particular in hardware and software architectures and behaves as an organism able to induce them through its research activities.