The HMI digital ecosystem: challenges and possible solutions

The rapid evolution of the interactive technologies is producing also the evolution of human-machine interaction. From the early 80's to now, we have moved from the first interactive systems, which used a finite-state machine for modelling the interaction, to the new interaction systems that can be considered as digital ecosystems, which include many different devices and people interacting each other through a flexible and adaptable interaction paradigm. This evolution of human-machine interaction is discussed in the paper considering both societal and technological challenges and some solutions and perspectives.