TAUCHI is a research center where six research groups are working together to provide wide and interdisciplinary expertise in the field of human-technology interaction. TAUCHI is composed of the following research groups:
Multimodal Interaction Research Group (MMIG)
MMIG focuses on constructive and experimental research into combining interaction modalities within human-technology interaction. The group invents new technologies, studies technologies in controlled experiments, and creates functional solutions together with partners. The aim is to carry out enabling research to allow increasing use of latest interaction technologies in real everyday systems.
Leader: Prof. Roope Raisamo
Website: MMIG
Pervasive Interaction Research Group (PIRG)
PIRG explores the role and application of of innovative technologies to create novel human-technology interaction solutions in a variety of real-world uses, from educational to industrial contexts. Our main research interests include, but not limited to extended reality (virtual, augmented and mixed realities, especially for education and work-related activities), accessibility and inclusion, remote control and telepresence, multimodality and interaction techniques (with a focus on non-traditional interaction, such as speech and gestures), experimental research on novel human-technology interactions.
Leader: Prof. Markku Turunen
Website: PIRG
Research Group for Emotions, Sociality, and Computing (ESC)
ESC group aims to develop new type of HCI/HTI by combining research from various disciplines, for example, from psychology, computer science, and engineering. A central aim is to develop HCI/HTI in a way that it parallels to the mechanisms of human-human communication. In respect to user interface development we develop prototypes that can utilize changes in the electricity of the human body (i.e. psychophysiological computing) and the changes in behavioral level (i.e. psychobehavioral computing).
Leader: Prof. Veikko Surakka
Website: ESC
Visual Interaction Research Group (VIRG)
VIRG group carries out a variety of research on new interaction techniques in general, and techniques that are based on the sense of vision in particular. In practice, this means that we focus on the graphical user interfaces and information visualization on the one hand (output), and the use of eye gaze for interaction on the other hand (input). Within these two main themes there are a number of parallel and related research trends.
Leader: Senior Research Fellow Päivi Majaranta
Website: VIRG
Technology and Social Interaction Research Group (TSI)
TSI research group is interested in the role of technology in social interplay. We aim to enhance human sociality and collaboration with novel forms of ICT. Our research interests include social matching, UI in mediated communication, critical and speculative design, ICT ethics and design responsibility, social acceptance, and human-AI collaboration. We argue to be a truly cross-disciplinary group, building on research on human-technology interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, social technologies, socio-technical systems, user experience, data science, internet research, and social psychology.
Leader: Prof. Thomas Olsson
Website: TSI
The Unit of Human-Centered Technology (IHTE)
IHTE research group is part of Unit of Computing at Tampere University (TAU). IHTE’s mission is to improve people’s quality of life and sustainability of human activities by conducting design research of novel interactive technologies. The research aims also at developing methods for designing, evaluating and implementing novel technical systems with pleasurable user experience. The research is multidisciplinary and combines engineering and technology development with psychological, sociological and design understanding.
Leader: Prof. Kaisa Väänänen
Website: IHTE
Collaboration
In each project collaboration, we may recruit researchers from several research groups to best meet the needs of the specific project. In total, TAUCHI presently has about 60 research staff members. Research methods cover all phases of research in human-technology interaction, from UX design and constructive research on new multimodal interaction concepts to experimental basic research in laboratories, UX evaluation, field studies, and theory building. Our researchers co-create new technology with companies, leading to patentable novel solutions. Our research is published in high-quality venues to benefit the research community. TAUCHI’s societal impact has been evaluated as excellent in the Research Assessment Exercise of the University of Tampere in 2014. This is supported by our numerous collaborations with companies from different industrial sectors, other actors in the society and our global reach including collaborations with leading research partners in the USA, Canada, Europe and India.