SCV0907 - HUMAN-MACHINE INTERACTION

courses

ID:

SCV0907

Duration (hours):

48

CFU:

SSD:

INFORMATICA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 29/05/2026)

Course Objectives

The course presents the basic concepts of human-computer interaction, focusing on the analysis of human-computer interfaces. The objective of the course is to introduce sensing technologies and methodological approaches to understand how to develop appropriate interfaces. Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to: 1) know an overview of sensing technologies, particularly wearable technologies. 2) know the basic concepts of signal analysis 3) understand how to model human-computer interaction by exploiting data from different types of sensors and focusing on human-centered perspectives. 4) analyse how interactive technologies can benefit from careful consideration of human cognitive and perceptual processes. 5) address, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the study of human-machine interfaces, particularly through artificial intelligence models.

Course Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of mathematical analysis, programming languages, and good understanding of written English to enable comprehension of the large amount of course materials, publications, scientific articles, and programs, available in the literature on the various course topics,

Teaching Methods

48 hours of frontal lessons.

Assessment Methods

The examination consists of two parts: 1) a written test with multiple and/or open-ended answers (about 5 questions), and 4/5 exercises, that aim to evaluate the theoretical knowledge and skills acquired during the course. 2) a project (chosen from those available or proposed by the student and agreed with the lecturer) involving the analysis of sensory data from datasets available in the literature, applying the signal processing and machine learning techniques presented during the lectures. The exam assesses the level of knowledge and ability to put into practice, also integrating them with each other, the techniques and content seen during the lectures. The final grade is obtained as a weighted average of the written exam (weight=0.75) and the project (weight=0.25). The final grade is expressed in thirtieths.

1) Introduction to human-computer interfaces and its main application areas (4 hours, learning objectives 1-3) 2) Basic concepts of signal analysis: analog and digital signals. Sampling, quantization and filtering (16 hours, learning objective 2). 3) Signals involved in human-environment interaction and sensing technologies. Wearable sensors. Overview of physical, physiological and electrophysiological signals. External signals: voice, gestures, face, behaviour, eye movements. Internal signals: heartbeat, sweating, breathing, muscle activity, and brain waves (8 hours, learning objectives 1-2). 4) Affective Computing: the role of emotion in human-computer interaction. Theories of emotion, models and measurements of emotion. Communication of human emotion through face, voice, physiology and behaviour. Recognition of emotion. Analysis of the design of appropriate experimental protocols (8 hours, learning objectives 2-3-4). 5) Processing and analysis of sensing data, through predictive models of statistics and machine learning (12 hours, learning objectives 3-4-5).

Course Language

italian

More information

The lecturer receives by appointment, upon request by e-mail to silvia.corchs@uninsubria.it. The lecturer responds only to signed e-mails coming from the domain students.uninsubria.it.