Excellence Cluster “Cognitive Interaction Technology” – Cognition as a Basis for Natural Interaction with Technical SystemsExzellenzcluster “Cognitive Interaction Technology” — Kognition als Basis natürlicher Interaktion mit technischen Systemen

Abstract What is necessary to enhance the command of complex technical systems in order to reach the ease and naturalness of human communication? How can we endow technical devices with the necessary cognitive abilities to support humans at a high level of semantic interaction offering true flexibility by virtue of adaptivity, self-organization, and learning? These are the guiding questions of the Excellence Cluster “Cognitive Interaction Technology” established since November 2007 at Bielefeld University. It focusses the efforts of computer scientists, psychologists, linguists, physicists and biologists on the goal of establishing cognitive interfaces that facilitate the use of complex technical systems by providing a high level of semantic interaction. This combines interdisciplinary, basic, and applied research beyond the classical confines of artificial intelligence. It aims at a thorough understanding of the processes and functional constituents of cognitive interaction in order to replicate it in technical systems including the development of evaluation methodologies and tool-kits for such systems. The research agenda of the EC is organized around four central topic areas: Motion Intelligence, Attentive Systems, Situated Communication, Memory and Learning. In addition, the EC is offering a cross-disciplinary education program.