Hang Zhao – författare

This textbook presents a comprehensive treatment of touch technologies, explaining current mainstream and new contact/non-contact based human-machine interactivity (HMI) techniques, which are ubiquitous in modern electronic devices and allow machines to exchange information with users in an efficient and reliable manner. The book provides a detailed study of HMI working principles and practical product examples. Haptic, which has become essential for users to gain immersive experience, is also discussed. The book concludes with an overview of novel applications enabled by emerging technologies, such as advanced materials, virtual reality and machine learning, providing a roadmap for possible development trends for touch interactivities. The book can be used as a graduate text for students in display and touch interface technology courses in electrical and computer engineering, and a professional reference for researchers, practicing engineers, and product designers working in broadareas of engineering.

The COVID-19 pandemic and other highly transmissible diseases outbreaks have given a new significance to the concept of “resilience”, placing it in the spotlight of built environment-related studies. New directions have emerged from expanding on adaptive planning, urban layouts, urban morphologies, spatial planning, healthy cities, etc. To enhance resilience in the post-pandemic era, various theories, practices, and hypotheses are being formulated by scholars around the world.

The book aims to document resilience-related innovations and new perspectives for the built environment, how people’s interactions adapt to new realities, and which mechanisms, tools, and strategies are required for such transformations in the following two scales of the built environments:

(1) City/district; research on planning, commuting and mobility, politics, urban configurations, regulations, transmission and prevention, models, top-down processes, innovation processes, etc.

(2) Community/neighborhood; research on collaboration, transmission and prevention, isolation and quarantine, social aspects, accessibility to services, technologies, education, policies, and innovative solutions.

“Resilience vs Pandemics: Innovations in Public Places and Buildings” explores innovative solutions for architecture and public places during and after the pandemic. Additionally, the authors contribute to the documentation of architectural and social transformations that have been prompted by previous transmissible diseases, as this knowledge can inform responses to future pandemics. In this volume, the chapters present critical, exploratory, multi- and interdisciplinary, and cutting-edge research approaches; with a particular focus on the effects of COVID-19 and other highly transmissible diseases on the design, use, performance, and perception of the built environment, particularly at the building scale. This volume aims to organize a collection of scientific studies, reviews, analysis, recommendations, and solutions in the fields of urban design, architecture, design, landscape design, etc. 

The overarching goal is to document new approaches to createand enhance built environment resilience. Chapters shed light on novel methods, tools, processes, regulations, behaviours, and other relevant details contributing to a comprehensive understanding of this crucial issue. The two scales of the built environment under consideration are:

 (1)   Public Places, including research on transformations (death, emergencies, changes), requirements, adaptability, usability, virtual immersion, historical perspectives, interactivity, shifts in use and programs, etc.

(2)   Buildings, including regulations, shifts in use and program, non-pharmaceutical interventions, human interactions, and human-machine interfaces. 

The book covers a wide range of studies, including physical and non-physical studies, which may refer to the city infrastructure, green/blue spaces, housing, policy-making, health services, social and economic issues, etc. The findings and results of various global case study examples contribute to the decision-making of governments, organizations, and institutions, as well as inspire scholars and future research for developing resilience in the post-pandemic era.