Abstract
(Englisch)
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The project is investigating a vision in which the flexibility of computing technology is brought to everyday objects to create smart networked artefacts. The project is developing a technology platform and applications as a basis for discovering the opportunities, challenges and benefits for embedding processing and context-awareness into everyday objects and situations. At the core of the project are Smart-Its: these are generic smart devices that perceive their environment through a collection of sensors. Attached to physical artefacts, Smart-Its are used for post hoc computational enhancement. Smart-Its allow these artefacts to have digital identity, to perceive their own state and environment, to communicate with peers in ad hoc networks, and to interface with other infrastructures and services.
The project is ultimately interested in architectures and design methods that support dynamic and meaningful combination of artefacts for collective sensing, perception, and awareness, and more generally for new types of application embedded in everyday life. This general aim is approached with bottom-up development of different types of Smart-Its as hardware and software building blocks, and top-down investigation of applications through design and implementation of concrete artefacts and scenarios.
OBJECTIVES
The above entail the following scientific and technological objectives:
1. Development of an embedded device platform for augmentation of everyday objects with context-awareness and communication;
2. Design of perceptual computing methods for collective perception of context based on ad hoc networked sensors and devices;
3. Investigation of communication subsystem, service infrastructure, and software platform for interconnected embedded devices;
4. Exploration of applications through development of scenarios and deployment of Smart-Its into everyday artefacts.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
Investigation of the technology platform involves development and deployment of a family of different types of Smart-Its. These include Smart-Its optimised for small scale and energy-efficiency, devices delivered as a component toolkit for rapid assembly of prototypes, and modules designed to provide Bluetooth and Internet connectivity. The project has achieved significant deployment of Smart-Its for experimental work on smart artefacts and their collective application. Two major generations of device and software platform have been developed and deployed across the partner's sites, with altogether about 300 device units in use as research infrastructure.
The focus in applications research is on design and implementation of context-aware artefacts and applications that explore collective awareness among interacting artefacts. Instead of using a traditional phased approach to fully develop showcase applications, the project conducts scenario-based rapid explorations into very different domains, ranging from alpine rescue to furniture assembly. The project also employs innovative ways of transferring results into the research community, providing 'do-it-yourself' technology packaged with developer activities such as 'hackfests'. This has led to take-up of project results in research labs outside the consortium, with significant impact on other projects and research initiatives.
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