Preface

Information technology is becoming ingrained in our everyday life. The consequence of this is that the line between humans and technology is more and more blurred, and tends to transform the human being into a cyber-organism. This transformation, accompanied by the emergence of Industry 4.0, brings us to define a new term: Human 4.0. This new generation of individuals has to deal with smart interconnected pervasive environments supported by the internet of things. Nevertheless, this merge between humans and technology is not straight-forward and requires an additional effort to reduce the gap between the human being and the machine. Such research implies a multidisciplinary approach to the interaction between biological organisms and artificial artefacts. In other words, it is important to perform broader studies from psychological considerations to technological implementations.

To make sure that Human 4.0 will be able to interact with the next generation of semiautonomous systems, it is fundamental to consider both sensorimotor and cognitive properties of the human being. To do so, this book is organised into three sections. The first section comprises studies on the visual aspects of the human-computer interaction (HCI). Chapter 1 analyses the visual aesthetics influencing the behaviour of the end-users. Chapter 2 addresses the question of the immersive power of augmented reality. The second section focuses on sound and speech processing. Chapter 3 presents an overview of the methods used to develop a controllable expressive speech synthesis. Chapter 4 describes the evolution of speech technologies across the last decade. Finally, section three discusses the cognitive treatment of the information in HCI. Chapter 5 consists of a systematic review of the impact of cognitive biases in production planning and control. Chapter 6 exposes enriched measures, such as psychophysiological measurements of the cognitive and emotional state of the end-user, to provide a more advanced assessment of the user experience. To conclude, the last chapter of this volume proposes a model to promote strategies and technological services supporting the collaborative production and access to educational resources.

This book intends to provide the reader with an insight into the new relationship with the technology brought about by the Industry 4.0, and how it can make the human-machine interaction more efficient.

> **Yves Rybarczyk** Faculty of Data and Information Sciences, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden

Section 1

Visual Processing

**1**
