Project R-2152

Simultaneous Interaction Spaces (Research)

The so-called disappearing computer dictates that a computer system melts with the natural environment of its user. The user interacts with the computer system through his environment. This makes that the use of the system is transparent to the user and lets him believe his environment is intelligent. Although this vision seems to be generally accepted, numerous challenges remain to be solved. We investigate how the setup and interconnection of intelligent environments supporting execution of complex tasks. We will do this from two viewpoints: (1) that of end-users who want to have control over the environment, expect justification of certain actions by the environment and need fluent and rich access to information in the context in which they carry out their tasks. (2) We look at the challenge from the viewpoint of software developers who build these applications for multiple simultaneous users (a typical aspect of this kind of environments). These applications need to cope with high degrees of dynamism in the environment and uncertainty regarding the activities of the end-users. To successfully complete this research, we pay the necessary attention to supporting infrastructure (hardware, software and network), interaction techniques and protocols. We will build new tools enabling the end-users to shape their interaction with the environment themselves and supporting developers to build rich, dynamic and collaborative interfaces for these intelligent environments.

01 January 2010 - 31 December 2013