HCI current and future outlook in Singapore

As students of a module, many time we would like to ask ourself, would the things we learnt be applicable in the industry? Or would the contents taught be outdated by the time we have graduated? Fret not, this blog entry would give you an insight on the HCI's industry in Singapore.

According to IDA outlook of Singapore's IT industry in 2015,

Human computerinterfaces (HCI) have seen a relatively much slower pace of evolution than ITnetworks and other computer technologies. It is increasingly being recognised asthe bottleneck to how much our brains can absorb and interact with data.Impoverished interface technologies limit our ability to fully exploit anddigest the vast amount of virtualised data on the Internet and distributeddatabases.

The way humans interactis via our senses. Hence, improving sensors or sensing interfaces can becritical for augmenting our interaction capacity with data. By doing so, we aremoving towards the new Sensory Internet.

Detailed information could be found at http://www.ida.gov.sg/doc/Technology/Technology_Level1/20060417212727/ITR52005.pdf

This clearly show the importance of HCI to allow human to function more effectively with the evolution of newer, faster and better technology. Furthermore, IDA also implied the need for talents in this particular field.

Some of IDA future outlook of HCI’srelevant product includes:

1) digital ink technology – a paper-likethin film that functions like our daily newspaper but is formed by embeddedtiny electronics that can host changing contents in different colours, in text,image or even videos. Hence, we can imagine a future whereby we do not need tothrow away our newspapers, but contents will be transmitted wirelessly to ourdigital ink newspapers and even updated in real time. More information could befound at http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/e-ink1.htm

2) New keyboard Interface - SenseboardTechnologies involves typing on a virtual air keyboard, requiring sensortechnologies such as gyroscopes or muscle sensing rubber pads. Here's a video on how the Senseboard works.

3) IRIS-on-the-move - This is a new biometric identification of a person from an individual's eye. It is as unique as fingerprint, however the eye being an internal organ, would be less susceptible to damages whereby fingerprints could be changed with a cut. A video is attached below on how effective and usable IRIS-on-the-move would be in the future.

Below are some of the jobs that are relevant for HCI industry in Singapore.

As we can see, HCI is indeed a very diverse field. User experience design is applicable not only in the software domain, but the engineering field as well - we could see that from the example of IRIS-on-the-move. So, fret not for those interested in the field of HCI, the outlook of Singapore for HCI looks great!