9. O’Connell, K. The untold history of
multitouch. The Link. Summer 2017 issue.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/sites/default/
files/TheLink_Summer2017.pdf
10. Christensen, C. M. The Innovator’s
Dilemma: When Ne w Technologies Cause
Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business
Review Press, 1997.
11. Xiao, R., Hudson, S.E., and Harrison,
C. Supporting responsive cohabitation
between virtual interfaces and physical
objects on everyday surfaces. Proc. of the 9th
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering
Interactive Computing Systems. ACM, New
York, 2017, Article 11.
12. Xiao, R., Harrison, C., and Hudson, S.E.
WorldKit: Rapid and easy creation of ad-hoc interactive applications on everyday
surfaces. Proc. of the 31st Annual SIGCHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems. ACM, New York, 879–888.
13. Raskar, R., Welch, G., Cutts, M., Lake,
A., Stesin, L., and Fuchs, H. The office
of the future: A unified approach to
image-based modeling and spatially
immersive displays. Proc. of the 25th
Annual Conference on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques. ACM, New
York, 1998, 179–188; http://doi.acm.
org/10.1145/280814.280861
14. Underkoffler, H., Ullmer, B., and Ishii, H.
Emancipated pixels: Real-world graphics
in the luminous room. Proc. of the 26th
Annual Conference on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques. ACM Press/
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New
York, 1999, 385–392; http://dx.doi.
org/10.1145/311535.311593
15. Wellner, P. The DigitalDesk calculator:
Tangible manipulation on a desk
top display. Proc. of the 4th Annual
ACM Symposium on User Interface
Software and Technology. ACM, New
York, 1991, 27–33; http://doi.acm.
org/10.1145/120782.120785
16. Gartner Hype Cycle; https://www.gartner.
com/technology/research/methodologies/
hype-cycle.jsp
17. Hecht, B., Wilcox, L., Bigham, J.P.,
Schöning, J., Hoque, E., Ernst, J., Bisk,
Y., De Russis, L., Yarosh, L., Anjum, B.,
Contractor, D., and Wu, C. It’s time to do
something: Mitigating the negative impacts
of computing through a change to the peer
review process. ACM Future of Computing
Blog. Mar. 29, 2018; https://acm-fca.
org/2018/03/29/negativeimpacts/
Chris Harrison is the Habermann Chair and
an assistant professor of human-computer
interaction at Carnegie Mellon University,
directing the Future Interfaces Group (www.
figlab.com). His lab broadly investigates novel
sensing and interactive technologies, especially
those that empower people to interact with
small computing devices in big ways.
→ chris.harrison@cs.cmu.edu
www.chrisharison.net
CONCLUSION
I want to leave you with one final
chart: the Hype Cycle, created by
Gartner [ 16], which I’ve populated
with HCI areas from a 10,000-foot
perspective (Figure 8). Some people
hate this chart, but I find it to be a
useful visual shorthand to see where
things lie, and where HCI innovation
can have the most influence. I
encourage readers to plot their own
areas of interest on this chart (or
email me angry messages if I put
your field somewhere awkward).
The astute reader might notice
that this hype cycle curve is
not all that dissimilar from the
HCI Intellectual Impact Curve
I proposed earlier. Indeed, they
track fairly well, except for one key
difference: In the earliest stages,
external expectations are low,
but HCI innovation is highest.
This mismatch often means the
HCI community is the biggest
champion for a technology vision
and in no small part contributes
to the eventual peak of inflated
expectations. Getting people excited
about technology and drawing them
into our human-centered vision of
the future is an enviable position,
and so I have no qualms about
being off-cycle from the business
innovator’s dilemma. Yes, it does
mean that sometimes our research
and innovations get labeled as
esoteric and impractical, which has
significant implications for tax-
payer-funded science and education,
as well as for the sustainability of
industrial research labs. But it also
means we get to shape the narrative
and cast light on important human-
computer problems, hopefully with
broader impacts in mind [ 17]. This
is a great responsibility that we
should exercise and celebrate as a
community. So let’s pull out those
Post-its and markers and get to
work.
Endnotes
1. Rogers, E.M. Diffusion of Innovations
(1st ed.). Free Press of Glencoe, New York,
1962.
2. Utterback, J.M. and Abernathy, W.J. A
dynamic model of product and process
innovation. Omega 3, 6 (1975), 639–656.
3. Qeexo, Inc.; http://www.qeexo.com
4. Myers, B. A. A brief history of human
computer interaction technology. ACM
Interactions 5, 2, (Mar. 1998), 44–54.
5. Harrison, C., Tan, D., and Morris, D.
Skinput: Appropriating the body as an input
surface. Proc. of the SIGCHI Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM,
New York, 2010, 453-462. DOI: https://
doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753394
6. Xiao, R., Cao, T., Guo, N. Zhuo, J.J., Zhang,
Y., and Harrison, C. Lumi Watch: On-arm
projected graphics and touch input. Proc.
of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems. ACM,
New York, 2018, Paper 95; https://doi.
org/10.1145/3173574.3173669
7. Buxton, B. The long nose of innovation.
Business Week. Jan. 2, 2008
(Rev. May 30, 2014).
8. Engelbart, D.C. and English, W.K. A
research center for augmenting human
intellect. Proc. of the December 9–11,
1968, Fall Joint Computer Conference,
AFIPS ‘ 68 Fall. ACM, New York,
1968, 395–410. DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.1145/1476589.1476645
DOI: 10.1145/3274564 COP YRIGH T HELD BY AUTHOR. PUBLICATION RIGHTS LICENSED TO ACM. $15.00
Ex
pe
c
t
at
ions
INNOVATION
TRIGGER
PEAK OF INFLATED
EXPECTATIONS
TROUGH OF
DISILLUSION
SLOPE OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
PLATEAU OF
PRODUCTIVITY
Implantables
On-Skin
Computing
Muscle-Computer
Interfaces
Brain-Computer
Interfaces
Intelligent Tutoring
Systems
Projected AR
Volumetric displays
Affective Computing
Domestic Robots
Intelligible/Explainable AI
Context-Aware Computing Smart Home & Appliances
Augmented Reality
Virtual Agents/Assistants
Mobile Health Sensing
Ambient Displays
Personal Fabrication
Crowdsourcing
Activity Recognition
Surface Computing
3D Television
Gamification
Recommender Systems
Social TV/Video
Smartwatches
Virtual Reality
Voice Interfaces
Quantified Self
Smart Glasses
Mobile/Pico Projection
MOOCs
Consumer 3D printing
Gesture Control
Electronic Textiles/Clothing
Figure 8. HCI topics plotted along a Hype Cycle (opinions the author’s), adapted from [ 16].