This special issue is the first opportunity to introduce the research activities of the Human Interface Society. The first article gives a microworld approach to identify design requirements for better situation awareness. Next, a focus on evaluation of organizational structure in emergency situations from the communication viewpoints is examined, followed by a presentation of a speech-driven embodied interactive actor that activates human interaction and communication. The fourth paper describes two new additions to a Remote Infrared Audible Signage System for use by people with visual...

Artificial evolutionary systems are computer systems, inspired by ideas from natural evolution and related phenomena. The field has a long history, dating back to the earliest days of computer science, but it has only become an established scientific and engineering discipline since the 1990s, with packages for the commonest form, genetic algorithms, now widely available. Researchers in the Asia-Pacific region have participated strongly in the development of evolutionary systems, with a particular emphasis on the evolution of intelligent solutions to highly complex problems. The Asia-Pacific...