We have always built tools to improve our productivity and help us lead better lives; however we find ourselves constantly battling against our new computerized tools, making us less productive and putting our health and our lives at risk. This book looks at Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from a truly human-centred perspective; focusing on human physiology and psychology rather than the motley series of brilliant innovations, glorified mistakes, and cross-generational habits that comprise the computer-centred HCI that we practice today. This three-part guide argues that human interest and calm technology need to be at the heart of HCI. It begins by exposing the inherent dangers in past and present HCI. Using his past experiences within Anthropology, Linguistics, Education, Ergonomics, Human Factors, and Computer Science the author introduces and explores the theory of ‘Anthropology-Based Computing’ (ABC) as well as a new ideas like Dynamic Environmental Focus (DEF), a new model of General Human Interaction (GHI), and a new triune model of the brain: Brown’s Representation of Anthropogenic Interaction in Natural Settings (BRAINS). Detailed illustrations show how HCI can be improved by considering how human bodies and brains actually work. The final part is a series of simple illustrated experiments, each applying an aspect of ABC to improve the way our computers and computerized devices treat us. Anthropology-Based Computing is written for those who work with computers, not just those who work on them. Students and researchers in Design and Psychology, and Computer Scientists as well, will benefit from seeing what is missing from the devices that are already in place, why that is, and how to make the practical changes that will immediately improve the physiological and psychological experience of using phones, on-board navigation systems, and the countless other computers we use at work and at home today and will continue to use in the future.

As increasing numbers of social anthropologists use a computer for wordprocessing, interest in other applications inevitably follows, Computer Applications in Social Anthropology covers research activities shared by all social anthropologists and introduces new methods for organizing and interpreting data. Lucidly written, and sympathetic to the particular needs of social anthropologists, it will be of immense value to researchers and professionals in anthropology, development studies and sociology

Computing devices have become ever more present in our everyday environments, however embedding these technologies into our routines has remained a challenge. This book explores the novel theory of peripheral interaction to rectify this. This theory examines how interactive systems can be developed in such a way to allow people to seamlessly interact with their computer devices, but only focus on them at relevant times, building on the way in which people effortlessly divide their attention over several everyday activities in day to day life. Capturing the current state of the art within the field, this book explores the history and foundational theories of peripheral interaction, discusses novel interactive styles suitable for peripheral interaction, addresses different application domains which can benefit from peripheral interaction and presents visions of how these developments can have a positive impact on our future lives. As such, this book’s aim is to contribute to research and practice in fields such as human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing and Internet of Things, a view on how interactive technology could be redesigned to form a meaningful, yet unobtrusive part of people’s everyday lives. Peripheral Interaction will be highly beneficial to researchers and designers alike in areas such as HCI, Ergonomics and Interaction Design.

21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates any student obtaining a degree in the field of anthropology ought to have mastered for effectiveness in the 21st century. This two-volume set provides undergraduate majors with an authoritative reference source that serves their research needs with more detailed information than encyclopedia entries but in a clear, accessible style, devoid of jargon, unnecessary detail or density. Key Features- Emphasizes key curricular topics, making it useful for students researching for term papers, preparing for GREs, or considering topics for a senior thesis, graduate degree, or career.- Comprehensive, providing full coverage of key subthemes and subfields within the discipline, such as applied anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, sociocultural anthropology, evolution, linguistics, physical and biological anthropology, primate studies, and more.- Offers uniform chapter structure so students can easily locate key information, within these sections: Introduction, Theory, Methods, Applications, Comparison, Future Directions, Summary, Bibliography & Suggestions for Further Reading, and Cross References.- Available in print or electronically at SAGE Reference Online, providing students with convenient, easy access to its contents.

Videogames allow us to immerse ourselves in worlds that are reflective of cultural phenomena. At the same time, games are in the process of occupying and utilising the real world as a part of the game. The book provides a combination of theoretical and practical approaches to mixed reality through the lenses of game studies and pedagogy. These novel approaches invite the reader to rethink their conceptions of games and mixed reality. They are complemented with classical analyses of games and applications in educational contexts. In uniting theory and hands-on approaches, the book provides a broad spectrum that facilitates and inspires interdisciplinary thinking and work.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the potential role that digital technologies can play in promoting well-being. Smartphones, wearable devices, virtual/augmented reality, social media, and the internet provide a wealth of useful tools and resources to support psychological interventions that facilitate positive emotions, resilience, personal growth, creativity, and social connectedness. Understanding the full extent of this potential, however, requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the scientific principles of well-being into the design of e-experiences that foster positive change. This book provides an overview of recent advances and future challenges in Positive Technology, an emergent field within human-computer interaction that seeks to understand how interactive technologies can be used in evidence-based well-being interventions. Its focus of analysis is two-fold: at the theoretical level, Positive Technology aims to develop conceptual frameworks and models for understanding how computers can be effectively used to help individuals achieve greater well-being. At the methodological and applied level, Positive Technology is concerned with the design, development, and validation of digital experiences that promote positive change through pleasure, flow, meaning, competence, and positive relationships.

This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving and diverse field of anthropological studies of technology. It features 39 original chapters, each reviewing the state of the art of current research and enlivening the field of study through ethnographic analysis of human-technology interfaces, forms of social organisation, technological practices and/or systems of belief and meaning in different parts of the world. The Handbook is organised around some of the most important characteristics of anthropological studies of technology today: the diverse knowledge practices that technologies involve and on which they depend; the communities, collectives, and categories that emerge around technologies; anthropology’s contribution to proliferating debates on ethics, values, and morality in relation to technology; and infrastructures that highlight how all technologies are embedded in broader political economies and socio-historical processes that shape and often reinforce inequality and discrimination while also generating diversity. All chapters share a commitment to human experiences, embodiments, practices, and materialities in the daily lives of those people and institutions involved in the development, manufacturing, deployment, and/or use of particular technologies. Chapters 11 and 31 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book explores the broad territory of design anthropology, covering key approaches, ways of working and areas of debate and tension. It understands design as fundamentally human centred and argues for a design anthropology based primarily on collaboration and communication. Adam Drazin suggests the most important collaborative knowledges which design anthropology develops are heuristic, emerging as engagements between fieldwork sites and design studios. The chapters draw on material culture literature and include a wide range of examples of different projects and outputs. Highlighting the importance of design as a topic in the study of contemporary culture, this is valuable reading for students and scholars of anthropology and design as well as practitioners.

This book describes an innovative approach to the interaction between humans and a smart environment; an attempt to get a smart home to understand intuitive, multi-modal, human-centred communication. State of the art smart homes, like other “smart” technology, tend to demand that the human user must adapt herself to the needs of the system. The hunt for a truly user-centred, truly intuitive system has long proven to be beyond the grasp of current technology. When humans speak with one another, we are multimodal. Our speech is supplemented with gestures, which serve as a parallel stream of information, reinforcing the meaning of our words. Drawing on well-established protocols in engineering and psychology, and with no small amount of inspiration from a particular nonsense poem, we have successfully concluded that hunt. This book describes the efforts, undertaken over several years, to design, implement, and test a model of interaction that allows untrained individuals to intuitively control a complex series of networked and embedded systems. The theoretical concepts are supported by a series of experimental studies, showing the advantages of the novel approach, and pointing towards future work that would facilitate the deployment of this concept in the real world.