Human–Computer Interaction through Materials

Dear Colleagues,

We interact with computers that are on and around our bodies (e.g., smartphones and smartwatches) or are integrated into our environments (e.g., smart homes, offices, and furniture). The interaction most commonly includes touch screen displays and tangible buttons or knobs. These devices imply direct physical or near-physical contact with the device (e.g., device is in direct line of sight and/or in reach of touch or grasp). However, such an interaction is not always possible, for example, when a material occludes the interface (e.g., interacting with a smartphone in a pocket or a smartwatch covered by a jacket sleeve), when sterile environments require the physical separation of the device and user (e.g., wearing personal protection equipment), or when the hidden integration of interfaces is desired for aesthetic, safety or other functional reasons (e.g., integrating interaction capabilities in the car dashboard that do not require a driver to look at). Interactions in these situations are critical for the better use of the computational resources around us; however, they are currently limited because they requires interactions through materials.

Interactions through materials can be achieved through sensing systems that can detect human intent though materials, such as, for example, radar sensing, capacitive sensing, or acoustic sensing. The other part of interactions through materials is the feedback system (e.g., visual or acoustic) that can work when occluded or that can be invisibly integrated into materials and illuminate on demand (e.g., electroluminance), or can be displayed over the material with augmented reality systems (e.g., projection-based or head-mounted displays).

In this Special Issue, we invite original research and review articles with the aim of exploring the design space of interacting through materials, from detecting human intent to providing feedback when physical contact with the device or a direct line-of-sight is not possible or desired.

We look forward to your participation in this Special Issue.

Dr. Klen Čopič Pucihar
Dr. Matjaž Kljun
Prof. Dr. Aaron Quigley
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• human–computer interaction systems
• human–machine interfaces
• interaction and sensors
• virtual and augmented reality
• radar sensing
• capacitive sensing
• acoustic sensing
• machine learning
• novel interaction methods
• smart sensors and interaction
• computer vision and interaction