Augmented Humanity: A Systematic Mapping Review.

Graciela Guerrero,Antonio Fernández-Caballero,António Pereira,Fernando José Mateus Da Silva

doi:10.3390/s22020514

Abstract

Augmented humanity (AH) is a term that has been mentioned in several research papers. However, these papers differ in their definitions of AH. The number of publications dealing with the topic of AH is represented by a growing number of publications that increase over time, being high impact factor scientific contributions. However, this terminology is used without being formally defined. The aim of this paper is to carry out a systematic mapping review of the different existing definitions of AH and its possible application areas. Publications from 2009 to 2020 were searched in Scopus, IEEE and ACM databases, using search terms “augmented human”, ”human augmentation” and “human 2.0”. Of the 16,914 initially obtained publications, a final number of 133 was finally selected. The mapping results show a growing focus on works based on AH, with computer vision being the index term with the highest number of published articles. Other index terms are wearable computing, augmented reality, human–robot interaction, smart devices and mixed reality. In the different domains where AH is present, there are works in computer science, engineering, robotics, automation and control systems and telecommunications. This review demonstrates that it is necessary to formalize the definition of AH and also the areas of work with greater openness to the use of such concept. This is why the following definition is proposed: “Augmented humanity is a human–computer integration technology that proposes to improve capacity and productivity by changing or increasing the normal ranges of human function through the restoration or extension of human physical, intellectual and social capabilities”.

Highlights

The search process and the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to these data, resulting in a total of 133 articles that were eligible for analysis
Articles whose text is illegible, keywords that are not used at all or very little, additional, the context is not focused on the applicability of this research, articles that could not be accessed, articles that are not complete and articles focused on other areas are eliminated. (2) Screening—phase in which the inclusion and exclusion criteria are applied to the different related works obtained by the identification phase
As part of the answer to RQ1, we have considered the number of papers obtained in relation to the databases searched, which, according to Figure 3, contain similar publication numbers by year, leaving the IEEE as the database where a larger number of articles dealing with the subject of Augmented humanity (AH) are indexed with 46 articles, followed by Scopus with 45 articles and ACM with 42 articles

Summary

Introduction

Technology has changed humans’ behavior and values and the way they think, communicate and act [1]. Recent scientific discoveries and inventions have demonstrated that technology is beginning to modify human capabilities, pushing them beyond their natural limits [2–4]. With the advance of technology, the interaction between humans and machines has been “improved”, “augmented” or even “redesigned” [5–8]. This has made it interesting and intriguing and viable and arising as a serious concept of scientific research and development [9,10]. A term related to this technology advancement is Augmented

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Conclusion