Introduction
When multiple devices and/or services are combined to create a new service today, it takes considerable effort to ensure
the resulting combination of multiple platforms, functions, and user interfaces becomes useful and enjoyable to the human users.
We apply context-aware technology and model-based design to give the users delightful experiences in the form of new interaction techniques.
Diagram: Personal embedded devices, which expose a number of services, can be combined to form interoperable device ecosystems that offer joint services.
Our main focus is to achieve the interusability of such jointly created services.
The white boxes depict trends (pervasive
computing systems, social networking) and enablers (existing applications and services,
development tools) that shape our S&T (Science and Technology) choices.
Objectives
Smarcos main objective is to attain such an interusability via interconnected embedded systems.
Users deal with many different devices connected with web services, (e-books, even cars).
However, connection problems, firmware incompatibilities, incomprehensible dialogue boxes and just plain bugs
plague many commercial offerings.
New challenges have also come up for user interaction: multiple platforms,
multi-user applications, internet synchronisation, and application and
service adaptation to the changing situational contexts.
Existing efforts towards interoperability (e.g. Artemis project Sofia) have largely focused on architectures. We extend these efforts on the user level.
Overall Strategy and General Description
- WP1: Design Methods and Concepting:. To develop and refine design methods for interconnected embedded systems, and applying the developed methods for creating Smarcos application and service concepts.
- WP2: Interface, Interaction and Context Modelling. To enable an enjoyable end-user experience provided by the seamless utilisation of the composition of user interface components located in different types of devices within an environment during interaction tasks.
- WP3: Tools for Runtime UI & Context Composition. To enable successful interusability between user interface components locating in the myriad of devices with in an environment, tool and methods for processing information on contexts, interaction tasks of users and UI resources at a run-time are urgently required.
- WP4: Attentive Personal Systems. To provide an intelligent system that motivates and supports consumers in their daily life to live a balanced and healthy lifestyle using the notion of inter-usability and task-drive UI modelling technologies.
- WP5: Interusable Devices. To explores the usability of communicating embedded devices through a combination of user centric research and technology developments that are validated in several large and small scale trials.
- WP6: Complex systems control. To develop tools facilitating control of complex systems and perform their validation with end-users. The design of technological components with reusability capacity is another primary target.
- WP7: Exploitation and dissemination. To specify the manners of dissemination of project results through both scientifically and industrially visible forums and channels.
- WP8: Management. To coordinate the project and the inter-WP objectives and to organize project internal meetings and events.