The Context - Artificial Human Sensors: Science and Applications - page 38

skill. The interacting structure has to be considered as a two-way communica-
tion. The human symbiosis can be designed as a degree of acting in the system.
The human participation may vary from measuring data to act as a network
manager. The human may also be the acting decision system, receiving essential
information in order to validate and make proper decisions.
Symbiotic human-machine technologies have originally been used over the
years for the development of more efficient computational intelligence and intelli-
gent robot systems. However, all these systems are designed as human behaviour
based autonomous machines;
- autonomous, without human intervention, or
- semi autonomous, where the human is a predetermined active part of the system
organisation.
- human controlled, with the on-line human operator providing high-level super-
visory functions, Gill (1996),
- humans contributing with human-specific capabilities complementing those of
the computer, Anderson (2003), in a symbiotic relationship in which each part-
ner will lead in some cases and provide assistance in others.
The most challenging scenario is undoubtedly the leader/assistant role of a partner
that will momentarily be decided on the basis of maximising the overall efficiency
of the symbiotic team. Human beings are valuable in this symbiotic partnership
to the degree that their capabilities may be favourable to complement those of the
computers. Humans are still far more flexible and generally more intelligent than
any computer, and are able to act on incomplete or ambiguous situations, as well
as adapt to a variety of artificial interfaces. Humans have an advantage compared
to artificial systems because they are able to interact directly with other humans
unless disturbed by stress, tiredness or any other condition that may occur.
2.1.3 Context Awareness
The term human context aware in human-computer interaction means to react ap-
propriately to the momentary circumstances that occur frequently when exten-
sively and implicitly used — situational or context information — in interacting
with humans. The computational context aware systems, Schilit (1994), refers to
computing modes that are able to discover and react to changes in the environ-
ment they are situated within. The context aware human computer interface may
increase the understanding of the reactive environment in order to achieve a higher
abstraction level, aiming for a more effective human interaction.
Opposite to the research area of context aware human computer interaction is
the natural relation to the human awareness expanding the model of being aware
of the reactive world. This includes the interaction with a processing and valuation
unit, e.g., the human brain. The human interfacing is a crucial step and one of the
most fundamental tasks in building an effective and rational human interacting
system.