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Home > News Room > NEC Reinforces Human Interface Research and Development

NEC Reinforces Human Interface Research and Development --- Developing easy-to-use HI and reducing costs in cooperation with global research organizations ---


*** For immediate use July 29, 2009

Tokyo, July 29, 2009 - NEC Corporation's development of easy-to-use human interfaces (HI, *1), part of its Central Research Laboratories' global "open innovation" (*2), has taken an important step forward through strengthened cooperation with Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and Carnegie Mellon University.

This collaboration with leading human interface research centers provides additional support for NEC's existing HI development designs, and incorporates "usability modeling" as an important new tool for efficient, low-cost development of easy-to-use HI for a wide variety of products.

In July 2009, the establishment of usability guidelines (*3) covering e-government related issues raised a great deal of attention towards improved usability. In the HI development field, providing easy-to-use products that meet the demands of a diverse range of users is now taken for granted and assuring the effectiveness and validity of these products is increasingly important.

However, the vast majority of conventional HI evaluation has taken place only after a product is delivered, not at an early stage of development when changes in HI are easier and cheaper to make.

Consequently, NEC has systematized the process of HI technology development into design and evaluation categories. NEC has decided to complement the strength of its existing system-based organization with an innovative human-based approach that analyzes user behavior models and psychological mechanisms. The globally renowned experts of PARC and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon in the cognitive psychology field are now contributing to this new human side of NEC's HI research and development.

NEC, PARC and Carnegie Mellon announced the results from their partnership at the 2009 HCI International Conference in San Diego on July 24th.

Looking forward, NEC will continue to build on its global relationships with universities and research institutes in order to promote the advancement of open innovation developments that support an "information society friendly to humans and the earth."



About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC website at: http://www.nec.com.


NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. (C)2009 NEC Corporation.


***

(*1)

Human interface: Technologies for developing easy-to-use products by designing and evaluating from the user's viewpoint.

(*2)

Open innovation: A policy for improving the speed and effectiveness of R&D by adopting technologies from a variety of companies.

(*3)

E-government usability guidelines: Guidelines that apply to the planning, design, operation, development and assessment of the usability and efficiency of online government department application systems in order to ensure their constant improvement.

NEC Press Contacts (Japan):


Ryoichi Yamanashi
NEC Corporation
+81-3-3798-6511
E-Mail:r-yamanashi@ct.jp.nec.com

Joseph Jasper
NEC Corporation
+81-3-3798-6511
E-Mail:j-jasper@ax.jp.nec.com

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