Gesture-based interaction in domotic environments: State of the art and HCI framework inspired by the diversity

Abstract

Applications for the control and automation of residential environments (domotics) are an emerging area of study within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). One of the related challenges is to design gestural interaction with these applications. This paper explores socio-technical aspects of gestural interaction in intelligent domotic environments. An analysis of literature in the area revealed that some HCI-related aspects are treated in a restricted manner that neglects socio-technical dimensions. We propose a framework for discussing related challenges in an integrated manner, considering the dimensions people, gestural mode of interaction, and domotics. Some of these challenges are addressed by literature outside the area of domotics. Many open research questions remain, e.g. how to design gestural vocabularies that minimize ambiguity and consider cultural and social aspects. The proposed framework might contribute to answering these questions thus to designing meaningful interaction that is intuitive and easy to learn. © 2013 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.