New interactive computing applications are continually being developed in a bid to support peopleís changing work and recreational activities. As research focuses on one particular class of interactive systems, high level models of interaction are formulated and requirements emerge that reflect shared features or common functionality among those systems. The existence of models of interaction and shared functional requirements mean that support tools can be created which ease the subsequent development of these systems. Support tools most often take the form of architectures or frameworks that describe how a system should be structured. The type of tool that interactive systems developers are most familiar with is a library of reusable code that can be used for prototyping and building interactive applications and their interfaces.
Within this thesis a new class of interactive system is identified, based on shared requirements for detection, processing and presentation of human physiological information. We have named these systems electrophysiologically interactive computer systems (EPICS) and describe in this thesis both the physiological and technological details behind their operation. A review is presented of existing research and development into this exciting new area of human-computer interaction, the aim being to establish the common requirements. These have enabled us to develop a suite of software components to support the creation of future EPIC systems. It is envisaged that the work presented in this thesis will serve as a jumping off point for others interested in exploring the potential of incorporating physiological information into the human-machine relationship.