Human-Machine Interfaces Based on Biosignals

Human communication relies on signals like speech, mimics, or gestures and the interpretation of these signals seems to be innate to human beings. Consequently, the research community investigates long-since the transfer of these capabilities to Man-Machine Interfaces (MMI). While significant progress has been made, the focus on mimicing human skills ignores the potential of emerging new sensor technologies to build innovative MMIs which exploit information that is not available to human beings. This paper discusses ongoing research in the area of "Biosignals and Interfaces", such as Airwriting, a motion based interfaces for text entry in wearable computing applications, silent speech interfaces that rely on articulatory muscle movement, as well as interfaces that use brain activity to determine users' mental states, such as task activity and cognitive workload in order to adapt the system's behavior accordingly. The goal of this research is to establish a new generation of human-centered systems, which are aware of the users' needs and provide intuitive, efficient, robust, and adaptive mechanisms for interaction and communication with and through machines.