Intel launches new interaction and experience research division

At the Intel Labs’ annual Research at Intel media event, Intel Corporation Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner announced (video) a new research division, called Interaction and Experience Research (IXR), that is focused on defining new user experiences and new computing platforms. The innovations coming out of the labs are expected to help re-imagine how we will all experience computing in the future.

Enabled by Moore’s Law and the performance advancements now available across a continuum of computing devices including the traditional PC, the company’s engagement and experience with technology, according to Rattner, will become much more personal and social through individual user contexts informed by sensors, augmented by cloud intelligence, and driven by more natural interfaces such as touch, gesture and voice.

Rattner said the new division will be led by [anthropologist and] Intel Fellow Genevieve Bell, who has been one of the leading user-centered design advocates at Intel for more than a decade.

“Intel now touches more things in people’s lives than just the PC,” said Bell. “Intel chips and the Internet are now in televisions, set-tops, handhelds, automobiles, signage and more. IXR will build on 15 years of research into the ways in which people use, re-use and resist new information and communication technologies. Social science, design and human-computer interaction researchers will continue that mission – asking questions about what people will value, what will fit into their lives and what they love about the things they already have. These insights will be married with a strong focus on technological research into the next generation of user interfaces, user interactions and changes in media content and consumption patterns.”

– Read press release
– Backgrounder on Genevieve Bell (TG Daily)
– Backgrounder on this new development (Ars Technica)