Back The use, abuse and challenges of smartphones were some of the topics covered at the 20th anniversary of the MobileHCI

The use, abuse and challenges of smartphones were some of the topics covered at the 20th anniversary of the MobileHCI

Held on the Ciutadella campus from 3 to 6 September, it attracted over 300 participants from 35 countries.  Josep Blat, director of the Interactive Technology Research Group with the Department of Information and Communication Technologies was a member of the organizing committee, together with Aleksandar Matic of Telefonica.

20.09.2018

 

Barcelona, ​​capital of the mobile world, was chosen to celebrate two decades of this conference, which has witnessed the radical changes that the mobile phone has undergone, from the devices themselves, through software, to their use. The International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2018) is one of the conferences of excellence sponsored by the largest and most prestigious computer organization on the level internationally, the ACM (Association of Computer Machinery), a group that pays special attention to the interaction between computers and humans (SIGCHI).

A look back at the last 20 years of the conference and mobile telephony

The conference was held from 3 to 6 September on the Ciutadella campus of Pompeu Fabra University and gathered over 300 participants from 35 countries from around the world who presented, disseminated and contrasted their research. Josep Blat, director of the Interactive Technology Research Group (GTI) with the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, was a member of the local organizing committee, together with Aleksandar Matic of Telefonica.

Corporal interfaces that use muscle sensors or the integration of social robots and people in real-world environments were two of the keynote presentations

Josep Blat considered that “the programme consisted of twelve exciting technical sessions around such varied themes as gestures and touch, attention and notifications, mobile health, the gaze, monitors, augmented reality, emotions, digital memories and smart watches”. The research into the use, abuse and challenges of smartphones, the technical applications for vehicles, as well as mobile technologies for people with disabilities were some of the topics dealt with.

Two of the most prominent speakers were James Landay, professor at the University of Stanford (USA), who spoke about corporal interfaces that use muscle sensors, and Cynthia Breazeal, from the MIT Media Lab (USA), who spoke about the integration of social robots and people in real-world environments.

Especially relevant at this 20th anniversary was the panel that presented a look back at the last 20 years of the conference and mobile telephony by key figures of the MobileHCI community. Diversity was another subject dealt with by another panel, and participation by the industry was especially important in this conference, which was sponsored by world leading companies such as Alpha, Microsoft, Google, Vodafone, as well as Mobile World Capital.

“MobileHCI has been an innovative conference that pushed the limits on how we might interact with and use mobile devices”

The MobileHCI 2018 co-presidents, Lynne Baillie (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) and Nuria Oliver (Vodafone) commented: “MobileHCI has been an innovative conference that pushed the limits on how we might interact with and use mobile devices”, and they add: “The interpretation of the mobility of the conference is inclusive and flexibly interpreted. As a result, the works published during the last twenty years have spanned a multitude of devices and services in the everyday environment, including architecture, autonomous vehicles, portable devices and implanted devices”.

Reference Symposium

Josep Blat, Aleksandar Matic (Comitè organitzador local) (2018), 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI), 3-6 de september, Barcelona, Ciutadella UPF campus, Proceedings, https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3236112&picked=prox.

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