The personal computer is reaching the limits of its market. Yet there are tens of billions of embedded computers, and that number is still growing exponentially. The next generation of these devices will have network interfaces and be embedded in network appliances. The future of computing is not computers per se, but computation-rich environments. The challenge with ubiquitous computing is that the machine no longer defines its context (as in a particular interface that a human learns), and instead they must operate in human contexts. Designing new applications for ubiquitous computing requires a deep understanding of those contexts. This spring at Berkeley we initiated a very large interdisciplinary project on "Human-Centered Computing" (HCC). HCC seeks to understand the social and psychological contexts of computing, so that novel applications can be conceived and so that technology can be effectively designed for them. We want to make computing useful in new contexts, and accessible to the widest range of people. i.e. HCC aims to bring computing to people, by understanding where and how they live and work.
The HCC consortium is not a single research project, but an umbrella group that incubates focussed interdisciplinary research. We seek to identify technical research challenges from the top down. This talk will summarize the HCC philosophy and then mention 3 current research projects under the HCC umbrella. The first is on 3D direct interaction with virtual objects, the second on strong telepresence or "tele-embodiment" and the third is on social network analysis of web content and user access patterns.