Analysis of Human-Machine Interaction - Assignment Example

General Introduction Careful consideration of human machine interaction is critical because poorly designed human-machine interfaces are the major cause of accidents and unexpected problems in human life. For instance, accidents in our roads have been associated with brake failure, over-acceleration, tyre-burst and collisions due to poor visibility of the driving path. In the use of television, emotional attachment mainly in getting news, soap operas and other shows is so strong, such that people have developed sight problems due to poor visibility and strong light rays emanating from them. Ergonomically unfit computers are a result of poor physical design, texture and poor visibility of the monitors. A good design of a machine such as a computer, car or a television should focus on the advantages that should leverage on the physical, intellectual and emotional aspects of the derived satisfaction. This balance gives comparable products some advantages over others. Question 1 The two comparable products are laptop and desktop personal computers. This is a good pair to show physical relationship between people and products. Laptop gives a better physical connection with users as compared to the desktop because of the following features; i. Laptops are light in weight. They are normally light and easy to carry. Laptops can be hand carried without exhausting the carrier. You can plainly bring it wherever you go, and it gives you the capability to roam around, and search for most excellent wireless hot spots. ii. Laptops are smaller than desktops. Desktops together with its peripherals such keyboards, mouse, monitor, CPU and speakers occupy more space than the laptops. If you are to stay in a dormitory, small apartment, or in a place with small space you will appreciate the free room that your laptop will give. Figures 1 and 2 illustrates the above points. They show the size and shape of these two personal computers. Figure 1: Shows a desktop computer which occupies a large space because of its components. Figure 2: Illustrates how a laptop computer occupies a small space. iii. Laptops are energy saving. Compared to desktops which have many accessories that requires a detach power sources, like the monitor, speakers, scanners and router you will need a separate power outlets for them to function. For laptops, all that is required is just to plug in the AC adaptor to supply power to the whole unit (Gupta, 2006, p. 121). Another feature that make laptops energy saver is that one can use a battery. They do not require uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system. Unlike desktops, laptops have fewer components which require, less energy to function generally (Gupta, 2006, p. 121). This cut down on one’s electric bill. iv. Laptops have better displays. The size and quality of computer laptops displays has improved so considerably than a computer desktop. PC demand in the consumer segment continues to strengthen even though the global economy remains uncertain [Not10]. Consumers are now viewing personal computers as necessities rather than luxury items. There is greater and growing physical attachment between users and laptops in the world. Laptop sales are showering rapidly despite wider PC growth with desktops being less considered for personal and office uses because of their cumbersomeness, size and texture among other features [Not10]. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps laid out her projections in an Untethered Conference in New York by comparing tablet sales to laptops, and desktops. She expects 3.5 million tablets to be sold this year, growing to 20.4 million in 2015. Meanwhile, she expects desktop sales to drop from 18.7 million units in 2010 to 15.7 million units in 2015 (Epps, 2010). This drastic change in sales is as a result of greater appeal or usability of tablets and laptops compared to desktops. In conclusion, laptops have a better physical relationship with the user than desktops because desktops have many components, are heavy, power consuming and occupy a large space. This has made most population to go for laptops. Question 2 Digital and analog televisions (TV) give a good example of a strong emotional bond between the user and the product because of their varied and many features. While most of the people can afford analog TV, there are many features that make digital TV more emotionally appealing. These are; i. Digital TV has more audio options than analog TV. In addition to improved digital audio quality, digital television can also deliver multichannel audio such as surround, as well as multiple language option (Joseph Weber, 2007, p. 264). ii. Digital TV interoperability with personal computers. As part of the convergence with computer technology, digital TV can be received, viewed, and manipulated not only on digital TV but also on personal computers, and other digital consumer electronic devices (Joseph Weber, 2007, p. 264). iii. Random access storage. The compression of digital television data allows for storage of video programs a digital storage medium. This has advantage over linear storage such as video tapes (Joseph Weber, 2007, p. 264). iv. Time shifting. It gives the viewer ability to pause a live broadcast television or perform an instant replay at any time (Joseph Weber, 2007, p. 264). v. Digital TV has a fabulous picture quality, as noise and cross-color effect can be made negligibly small, and flicker is totally removed from watched pictures. vi. Special features of digital TV includes; picture-in-picture, freezing of frame, the memory writing process is stopped for some time, while 100 Hz readout is continued as per option of the viewer, TV games can be operated. Also, all the processing functions can be software controlled and can be achieved by the remote control unit. Tele-text reception can be incorporated in the TV receivers. vii. In digital TV view data can be provided. It has a user interactive communication system which creates a greater emotional attachment. viii. Special effects such as; editing, of the picture can be done by processing the signal through a computer. The signal can be easily stored, delayed and manipulated by means of microprocessor chips, integrated in the system. Zooming a digital TV has a Zoom-2 feature that allows the viewer to have two times magnification of the pictures being watched. This is also called video blaster. Pixelation a viewer can crate a mosaic like look on the picture by slowing the clock rate progressively, a feature not present in analog TV. The high-definition television (HDTV) gives cinema like effects which makes it more appealing to the user when compared to the analog TV whose operation is limited. Digital TV is highly reliable due to the use of digital integrated circuits and is little effect of aging on components, and therefore, it has better long term stability (Gupta, 2006, p. 121). However, there are a few drawbacks to the digital TV. These are; high bit rate has high band width and requires use of optical fibers or microwave satellites for long distances. High bit rate demands high speeds logic families, like Schottky TTL, which are costly. Again, the World standard for synchronization has not yet been developed, although effects are being made to fulfill that aim. In analog TV system, the quality of pictures degrades gradually, but in the TV system, the picture quality remains good till a certain C/N ratio, but below that it degrades very rapidly. This problem can be tackled by using correcting codes and by incorporating intelligence in the decoder circuit so that it may make an intelligent guess and replace fault block of codes by new blocks containing a guessed picture. The guess can be based on samples from the previous pictures (Gupta, 2006, p. 121). These disadvantages of digital TV do not directly affect the consumer unlike, the producer. And this makes the consumer to be more emotionally connected to digital televisions. In US, full-power broadcasting of analog television was projected to cease on 17th February, 2009 following the Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, which set guidelines on transition to digital TV. Digital technology is relatively new, yet it is already approaching the near universal owner levels older technologies [Off07]. The proportion of household that receive digital television service has increased, from 19% in 1996-1997 to 65% in 2005/2006 [Sar10]. This is because of many interactive services available on digital television. In 2005, 33% of adults with a television in their home could take part in game shows although only 7% actual did [Off07]. Question 3 There is a feeling that, in the immediate (or not too distant) future, all goods will be produced by “intelligent” robots (Sandler, 1999, p. 77), and no manpower will be involved in the production and control processes. In such a scenario, a human being would command and control the processes by means of computers and push buttons (Sandler, 1999, p. 77; Kikoski & Kikoski, 2004). For intellectual relationship between humans and products, I will focus on use of automatic transmission drive and manual car, which are comparable vehicle. An automatic car refers to the automatic transmission, which shifts to most gears without one’s help, and without a need of a third pedal, the clutch, to shift from one gear to another (Should I buy a Manual or Automatic Car?). A manual transmission means that one is supposed to learn how to use a clutch to shift from one gear to another, thus utilizing both feet to drive the car. Some people considers automatic transmission car to be better than manual controlled car. An automatically controlled car can be used to replace a damaged or lost human limb. Automatic gear and absence of the clutch pedal makes it important to shorten the time for transforming a drive command into an action. In fact, the time taken for the chain of operations-from the disabled person’s desire to carry out an action to the drive action itself-is minimal for automatic car compared to manual car (Sandler, 1999, p. 77). Also, control of speed, stopping and starting automatic car is easier when compared to manual car. One is expected to balance the clutch pedal before engaging the gear, actions which involves both legs or one leg and the hands. For automatic, full control is usually achieved by use of one leg either on the brake pedal or the accelerator pedal and hands on the steering wheel. Although, automatic transmission car is easier to drive and understand, one may take for granted the usefulness on manual control of the gear. In both cases, energy source is an engine and the means of control are still in humans and hands, one would be afraid to trust these automatic operations with automatic control when compared to manual controls. The control is achieved automatically according to a rigid program and is amplified by master controllers such as electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic relays (Sandler, 1999, 78). Such systems are flexible in a limited domain, although they are programmable sometimes (Sandler, 1999, p. 79). Thus, one’s control is limited because the way gears are engaged is not easily understood. In a manual controlled car, one has liberty to select and shift gear depending on the terrain and the speed anticipated. Contrary to this for the automatic system one has to over-rely on pressing the accelerator pedal which transmits a signal for the controller to shift the gear. Although most people prefer automatic cars than manual, automatic cars have many disadvantages. First of all, auto cars are of bigger engine capacity and are believed to consume more petrol than manual. They are also maintained by agents who require specialized equipment and complicated technologies. The spare parts are more expensive, and complicated, and this undoubtedly raises the maintenance cost. Also, most of the servicing agents are located found in big cities and towns. This makes possession of these cars especially in places away from urban centres difficult [Exp09]. Research findings from Australia[Aus07], shows that 68% of the cars used are automatic or semi-automatic, and just 32% are manuals. Most of the learners opt for a license that allows them to drive automatic cars because they are easier to drive than manual cars. Figure 3: The automatic car gear handle system [Exp09]. The gear system is well illustrated and easy to control, unlike the manual which is shown in figure 4, which is not easy to engage. Figure 4: Shows the gear handle of a manually operated car [ACS11]. References Not10: , (Notebook Sales Soar as PCs become 'necessities', 2010), Off07: , (Office for National Statistics, 2007), Sar10: , (Epps, 2010), Exp09: , (Instructor, 2009), Aus07: , (Cars and Driving in Australia, 2007), ACS11: , (ACS), Read More