Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Coordination artifacts play a primary role in cooperation and, in particular, active artifacts allow for the development of flexible cooperative software systems. Their role with respect to ubiquitous-computing environments can be defined, exploited, and assessed according to different perspectives. This paper presents a notion of active artifact that relies on the seminal definition given in CSCW literature by Schmidt and Simone, and it is applied to a model for systems supporting ubiquitous-computing collaborative environments (CASMAS). A technique to configure and interact with such environments, i.e., the composition of devices’ functionalities according to their high-level features, and services provided, is presented. A scenario is used as an in-depth example along the paper. The architecture of a system implementing the scenario using our reference middleware is presented.

Processing sensor data to recognize and interpret human activity and human-human interaction in smart room environments is a computationally intensive task. Thus, processing components in smart rooms must be spread over multiple computers in a network. Dealing with the complexity of distributing and managing these components puts a considerable burden on these components’ developers. In this paper we introduce ChilFlow, a distributed data-transfer middleware specifically designed to ease the work of smart room developers. We describe flows, the network-transparent, typed, one-to-many communication channels used for communication between processing components. We also present ChilFlow’s programming interface for flows and demonstrate how it assures type-safety and network-transparency.

We propose a software framework that augments context data with a range of assorted confidence/reputation metadata for dimensions such as security, privacy, safety, reliability, or precision, defined according to a generic context confidence ontology. These metadata are processed through the network of federated distributed software services that support the acquisition, aggregation/fusion and interpretation of context, up to its exploitation by context-aware applications. This solution for qualifying and gauging context data makes possible its use in more critical applications of context awareness, such as adaptation of security mechanisms. We show how to implement with our framework a quality-critical application like contextual adaptation of security services, where security is tailored to the protection requirements of the current situation as captured by relevant context data.

Developing applications for smart spaces is a challenging task. Most programming systems narrowly focus on the embedded computer infrastructure and neglect the spatial aspect of this fusion between a physical and a virtual environment. Hence, application logic is not implemented for the smart space but for the embedded network, which is only one aspect of the system. Our programming system supports an abstract model of a smart space. A high-level language is used to implement the application logic for this model. In this paper we show how a compiler translates code written for this abstract model into a distributed application that can be executed by a computer infrastructure. The compiler allows for a clear separation between the application code and its execution in a concrete network. This simplifies the development and maintenance of an application because the application programmer can focus on the actual application logic for the smart space instead of issues related to a concrete network.

In this paper we present concepts for and experiences with a Situated Public Display system deployed in a university setting. We identify the rate with which information is updated as an important property to distinguish different kinds of information. With a first slideshow based prototype it was very difficult for users to predict whether information was updated since they last looked. To solve this problem, we took a broader view and conducted a contextual inquiry to investigate how people deal with paper based posters. We deduced an information flow diagram that identifies roles of people and categories of posters and noticeboards. We identified actionables, that is, posters that offer people to take a specific action, as a special type of information to support. We identified two strategies, planning and opportunism, to deal with actionable information. We present a system using two kinds of displays, News Displays and Reminder Displays, to support both strategies. We show how auctions can be used for Reminder Displays to select those information chunks that are most important in a particular context. Finally, we present an evaluation and lessons from the deployment.

Context-aware systems allow users to access services and multimedia data according to their current context (location, identity, preferences). Web 2.0 fosters user contribution and presents the web as an application programming platform where third parties can create new applications (mash-ups) mixing the functionality offered by others. We deem that applying Web 2.0 principles to the development of middleware support for context-aware systems could result into a wider adoption of AmI. This work provides a platform which combines social context-aware annotation of objects and spatial regions with sentient mobile devices enabling multi-modal human to environment interaction in order to enable advanced context-aware data and service discovery, filtering and consumption within both indoor and outdoor environments.

Ambient information systems, often referred to as ambient displays, peripheral displays or informative art systems (IAS), aim at providing users with information considered relevant at arbitrary points of work or living engagement, in easy and quickly to convey, aesthetic and artful style. Adhering principles of visual perception, visualization and design, information coming from various different (hardware and software) sensors is aggregated through abstraction and selective omission, and displayed at the periphery of a user’s attention. A broad range of visual metaphors ranging from the fine arts, abstract art, naive art, comic drawings up to photographic images or technical drawings have been proposed, but all grounded on the “I-throw-it-out-there-and-watch” design paradigm, totally excluding the user, his background knowledge and his aesthetic appreciation from the design process. This paper advocates for a user-oriented, participatory design process for IASs. Addressing canvas style IASs, i.e. displays that decorate apartments, offices, foyers and the like in the first (but not the only) place, in our approach the choice of the IAS canvas is left to the user. To steer the (design) process of identifying within a chosen theme we have developed categories of metaphors like , , , , and , and discuss their potential with respect to pre-attentive and interpretative cognition. From experiments with users we find, that the choice of themes and the identification of metaphoric symbols are considered as a means of personal emotional expression (or in other words, as “”). Aesthetic attractiveness turns out to be a dominant factor of IAS appreciation. A general purpose software framework for IASs is presented, implementing sensor data acquisition, context recognition, aggregation and filtering, as well as 2D/3D graphics engine, dynamically controlling the visual appearance of themes and symbols.

With the introduction of the Ambient Intelligence vision, a shift from usability towards end user experience research has been proposed. Such experience research requires new methods and instruments beyond the traditional usability research labs. This paper describes the ExperienceLab infrastructure, its way of working and the lessons learned from using this infrastructure.

This paper discusses the prototypical implementation of an ambient display and the results of an empirical study in a retail store. It presents the context of shopping as an application area for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technologies. The prototype consists of an ambient store map that enhances the awareness of customer activity. The results of our study indicate potentials and challenges for an improvement of the shopping experience with AmI technologies. Based on our findings we discuss challenges and future developments for applying AmI technologies to shopping environments.

This paper examines the communication needs of busy parents that can be served by awareness systems: systems supporting a continuous and semi-automated flow of information about the activities of communicating individuals. We report an online survey involving 69 participants. This survey focused on whether the types of information offered by awareness systems as these are introduced in current research literature are appreciated by busy parents. The results show a) that information items that allow personalization and expressing intentionality are more desired than those than low granularity and automatically sensed information that is easy to collect automatically b) the attitudes regarding the information that people wish to share about themselves is almost identical to what they wish to know of their partners and c) survey methods focusing on information do not need to differentiate between the direction of information flow or whether this is symmetric, since people report almost identical preferences.