ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : Events : Dagstuhl Ubicomp

Dagstuhl Ubicomp - Abstract

Active Environments: Sensing and Responding to Groups of People

Joseph F. McCarthy, Center for Strategic Technology Research, Accenture

Most environments are passive deaf, dumb and blind, unaware of their inhabitants and unable to assist them in a meaningful way. However, with the advent of ubiquitous computing ever smaller, cheaper and faster computational devices embedded in a growing variety of "smart" objects it is becoming increasingly possible to create active environments: physical spaces that can sense and respond appropriately to the people and activities taking place within them. Most of the early UbiComp applications focus on how individuals interact with their environments as they work on foreground tasks. In contrast, this paper focuses on how groups of people affect and are affected by background aspects of their environments.

See also the corresponding CHI2000 paper.

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