Activity Report 1997 – 2000

München. In the course of reorganizing the structure of the department in 1998 it became one of its five Institutes for Information and Communication Technology. The Institute is situated in the southeastern part of the main campus of the Technische Universität München, close to the center of Munich. The institute can easily be reached by public transport (U-Bahn U2, stop Königsplatz). Please use the map on the back side of the cover to find your way. Preface The integration of computer and communication technologies offers a rapidly growing number of information services since the invention of Morse telegraphy. Networked information and communication systems for data, text, voice and image make high-quality multimedia services and multimodal dialog possible beyond geographical and political borders. Due to technological and system oriented developments these systems are getting more efficient, more cost-effective, but on the other hand also more complex. Not only engineers and computer experts are concerned in practice with computer operated systems but also more and more users with most differing professional background and manyfold tasks. New perspectives of how to obtain information come true for everyone. Nevertheless, the users of modern information technologies shall not be overstrained by the methods of handling the systems and by the flows of available information. For that reason a system operability which is adequate to the user is not only a research and development aim of high priority but also a decisive quality criterion in the competition for market success. Progress in developing user-friendly, co-operative interfaces depends essentially on an optimal adaptation of the human machine interaction to the us-er's sensory, motory, and cognitive capabilities and limits. The crucial significance to invest in an adequate human-machine interaction is also emphasized by topical Government supported research and development projects since recently. The fields of application for user-friendly interfaces are various: network systems in the office, expert work stations for teaching, training, production, quality control and maintenance , in mobile applications, in medical services, and, last but not least, in the home and entertainment sector. The Institute for Human-Machine Communication is concerned with research and teaching in the above mentioned field. The present activity report gives a brief overview on our recent investigations and contributions to an user adequate human-machine communication for different areas of application. It follows our preceding activity report 1990-1996, and it supplements the current inter-net pages of our institute. A consistent continuation and inclusion …