Chris Harrison · Carnegie Mellon University
The Skintillating Possibilities of On-Body Computing

Despite their small size, mobile devices are able to perform tasks of creation, information and communication with unprecedented ease. However, diminutive screens and buttons mar the user experience, and otherwise prevent us from realizing the full potential of mobile computing. In this talk, I will first discuss strategies I have pursued to expand and enrich mobile device interaction. I will then highlight an emergent shift in computing: from mobile devices we carry to using the human body itself as an interactive platform, bringing computational power ever closer to users. This evolution brings significant new challenges in sensing and interaction design. Not only is the human form incredibly irregular and dynamic, but also comes in more than six billion different models. However, along with these challenges also come exciting new opportunities for more powerful, intuitive and intimate computing experiences. I will introduce two technical efforts that provide the foundation for my on-body investigations: Skinput and OmniTouch. I conclude by considering what technological and design obstacles remain in order to move on-body computing out of the lab and into the real world.

Chris Harrison is a Ph.D. candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He completed his BA and MS in Computer Science at New York University in 2005. Harrison was listed as one of the top 30 scientists under 30 by Forbes and is a recipient of a Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship. Since 2009, he has been editor-in-chief of XRDS, ACM's flagship magazine for students. Harrison has worked at IBM Research, AT&T Labs, Microsoft Research and Disney Research on a variety of topics, from social television to on-body computing. He is broadly investigating novel sensing technologies and interaction techniques, with a focus on how to "interact with small devices in big ways".