| Context-Based Fall Detection Using Inertial and Location Sensors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-16 | |
| Hristijan Gjoreski; Mitja Lustrek; Matjaz Gams | |||
| Falls are some of the most common sources of injury among the elderly. A
fall is particularly critical when the elderly person is injured and cannot
call for help. This problem is addressed by many fall-detection systems, but
they often focus on isolated falls under restricted conditions, neglecting
complex, real-life situations. In this paper a combination of body-worn
inertial and location sensors for fall detection is studied. A novel
context-based method that exploits the information from both types of sensors
is designed. The evaluation is performed on a real-life scenario, including
fast falls, slow falls and fall-like situations that are difficult to
distinguish from falls. All the possible combinations of six inertial and four
location sensors are tested. The results show that: (i) context-based reasoning
significantly improves the performance; (ii) a combination of two types of
sensors in a single physical sensor enclosure seems to be the best practical
solution. Keywords: Context-based reasoning; Fall detection; Inertial sensors; Location sensors;
Activity recognition | |||
| Enhancing Accelerometer-Based Activity Recognition with Capacitive Proximity Sensing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 17-32 | |
| Tobias Alexander Große-Puppendahl; Eugen Berlin; Marko Borazio | |||
| Activity recognition with a wearable accelerometer is a common investigated
research topic and enables the detection of basic activities like sitting,
walking or standing. Recent work in this area adds different sensing modalities
to the inertial data to collect more information of the user's environment to
boost activity recognition for more challenging activities. This work presents
a sensor prototype consisting of an accelerometer and a capacitive proximity
sensor that senses the user's activities based on the combined sensor values.
We show that our proposed approach of combining both modalities significantly
improves the recognition rate for detecting activities of daily living. Keywords: activity recognition; capacitive proximity sensors; ambient assisted living;
user context | |||
| Adaptive User Interfaces for Smart Environments with the Support of Model-Based Languages | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 33-48 | |
| Sara Bongartz; Yucheng Jin; Fabio Paternò; Jörg Rett; Carmen Santoro; Lucio Davide Spano | |||
| This article presents a solution for supporting adaptive user interfaces in
work environments. Its architecture is built upon the concept of model-based UI
design extended by context aware and adaptive features. Model-based languages
provide the software development process with useful support for, building
design prototypes and actual implementations for devices with various
interaction resources. The proposed architecture is able to adapt to selected
aspects of the context during run-time by communicating with a context server
and applying the specified adaptation rules. In order to show the possibilities
of the proposed solution, we report on its application in the development of an
adaptive user interface prototype to be used in a warehouse picking system. Keywords: Adaptive service front-ends; Context-aware user interfaces; model-based user
interface languages; Warehouse picking system | |||
| Back of the Steering Wheel Interaction: The Car Braille Keyer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 49-64 | |
| Sebastian Osswald; Alexander Meschtscherjakov; Nicole Mirnig; Karl-Armin Kraessig; David Wilfinger; Martin Murer; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| In this paper, we present a novel text input approach for car drivers: The
Car Braille Keyer combines a keyer concept (defined as keyboard without an
actual board) and the braille code (i.e. blind writing method) at the back of
the steering wheel. This concept allows eyeless text input while driving and
simultaneously leaving the hands on the steering wheel. We present a prototype
of the Car Braille Keyer along with an expert evaluation and a user study. The
prototype consists of two sets of three buttons each, both of which are fixed
on the back side of the steering wheel (one on the left, the other on the right
side). The six buttons are designed to match a braille character like they can
be found in the braille language. This approach allows for entering a character
or command with only a single input combination without the need to look at the
keys. In our prototype we added visual output in the head up display (HUD) as
well as auditive feedback to enhance the interaction. To evaluate the system,
we performed a heuristic evaluation with five HCI experts. Based on their
feedback, we iterated the design of the prototype and added a learning tool for
interaction using the Car Braille Keyer. An initial user study with the
iterated prototype and twelve participants showed a good overall usability (SUS
score=73.75) as well as a good acceptance rate based on the Technology
Acceptance Model (TAM). Keywords: automotive user interface; steering wheel; braille; keyer; chorded keyboard;
acceptance; user studies | |||
| PermissionWatcher: Creating User Awareness of Application Permissions in Mobile Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 65-80 | |
| Eric Struse; Julian Seifert; Sebastian Üllenbeck; Enrico Rukzio; Christopher Wolf | |||
| Permission systems control access of mobile applications to other
applications, data, and resources on a smartphone. Both from a technical and a
social point of view, they are based on the assumption that users actually
understand these permissions and hence they can make an informed decision about
which permission to grant to which piece of software. Results of a survey
conducted for this article seriously challenges this assumption. For instance,
over a third of participating Android users were not able to correctly identify
the meaning of the permission Full Internet Access. We developed
PermissionWatcher, an Android application which provides users with awareness
information about other applications and allows to check on the permission set
granted to individual applications. In a field study with 1000+ Android users,
we collected data that provides evidence that users are willing to follow
security principles if security awareness is created and information is
presented in a clear and comprehensive way. Therefore, we argue that it is
essential for security policies to take the abilities of the target audience
into account. Keywords: Usable Security; Mobile Phones; Android; Access Rights | |||
| Exploring Non-verbal Communication of Presence between Young Children and Their Parents through the Embodied Teddy Bear | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 81-96 | |
| Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila; Tomi Haustola; Jonna Häkkilä; Minna Karukka; Katja Kytökorpi | |||
| Young children are emotionally dependant on their parents. Sometimes they
have to be apart from each other, for example, when a parent is travelling.
Current communication technologies are not optimal for supporting the feeling
of presence. Our goal was to explore the design space for remote communication
between young children (4-6 years) and their parents. More specifically, we
aimed at gaining user feedback to a variety of non-verbal interaction
modalities using augmented everyday objects. We developed the Teddy Bear
concept and created an embodied mock-up that enables remote hugging based on
vibration, presence indication, and communication of gestures. We conducted a
user study with eight children and their parents. Our qualitative findings show
that both children and parents appreciated Teddy Bear for its non-verbal
communication features, but that some aspects were not easily understood, such
as gestures for strong emotions. Based on our findings, we propose design
implications for mediated presence between young children and their parents. Keywords: Child-parent communication; presence; interaction modalities; embodied
interaction; augmented everyday objects; concept design; user study | |||
| Automatic Behavior Understanding in Crisis Response Control Rooms | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 97-112 | |
| Joris IJsselmuiden; Ann-Kristin Grosselfinger; David Münch; Michael Arens; Rainer Stiefelhagen | |||
| This paper addresses the problem of automatic behavior understanding in
smart environments. Automatic behavior understanding is defined as the
generation of semantic event descriptions from machine perception. Outputs from
available perception modalities can be fused into a world model with a single
spatiotemporal reference frame. The fused world model can then be used as input
by a reasoning engine that generates semantic event descriptions. We use a
newly developed annotation tool to generate hypothetical machine perception
outputs instead. The applied reasoning engine is based on fuzzy metric temporal
logic (FMTL) and situation graph trees (SGTs), promising and universally
applicable tools for automatic behavior understanding. The presented case study
is automatic behavior report generation for staff training purposes in crisis
response control rooms. Various group formations and interaction patterns are
deduced from person tracks, object information, and information about gestures,
body pose, and speech activity. Keywords: automatic behavior understanding; smart environments; rule-based expert
systems; fuzzy metric temporal logic; situation graph trees | |||
| Combining Implicit and Explicit Methods for the Evaluation of an Ambient Persuasive Factory Display | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 113-128 | |
| Ewald Strasser; Astrid Weiss; Thomas Grill; Sebastian Osswald; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| Research in ambient intelligent systems faces a challenging endeavor, namely
the evaluation of user experience of ambient displays. Due to the fact that
ambient displays should be unobtrusive, it is hard for users to appraise them
on a reflective level (i.e. interviews and questionnaires). In this paper we
present a methodological approach that combines an implicit (the Affect
Misattribution Procedure (AMP)) and an explicit measurement technique
(questionnaire for the persuasive effect (PeQ)) to tackle this problem. We used
this approach in a study of an interface (Operator Guide) that provides
information to operators in a semiconductor factory. Results show that the
implicit technique is better suited to assess fine attitudinal differences on
how users experience the display than explicit questionnaires. However,
explicit measures are valuable to gain suggestions for improvements and thus it
is concluded that this method triangulation adds value for the research on
ambient persuasive interfaces. Keywords: Method triangulation; Methodology; implicit; Affect Misattribution
Procedure; AMP; persuasion; ambient; automatic attitude | |||
| Context Awareness in Ambient Systems by an Adaptive Multi-Agent Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 129-144 | |
| Valérian Guivarch; Valérie Camps; André Péninou | |||
| In the field of ambient systems, the dynamic management of user context is
needed to allow devices to be proactive in order to adapt to environmental
changes and to assist the user in his activities. This proactive approach
requires to take into account the dynamics and distribution of devices in the
user's environment, and to have learning capabilities in order to adopt a
satisfactory behaviour. This paper presents Amadeus, an Adaptive Multi-Agent
System (AMAS), whose objective is to learn, for each device of the ambient
system, the contexts for which it can anticipate the user's needs by performing
an action on his behalf. This paper focuses on the Amadeus architecture and on
its learning capabilities. It proposes some promising results obtained through
various scenarios, including a comparison with the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP)
algorithm. Keywords: Context; evolution; adaptation; learning; ambient intelligence;
self-organization | |||
| Towards Fuzzy Transfer Learning for Intelligent Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 145-160 | |
| Jethro Shell; Simon Coupland | |||
| By their very nature, Intelligent Environments (IE's) are infused with
complexity, unreliability and uncertainty due to a combination of sensor noise
and the human element. The quantity, type and availability of data to model
these applications can be a major issue. Each situation is contextually
different and constantly changing. The dynamic nature of the implementations
present a challenging problem when attempting to model or learn a model of the
environment. Training data to construct the model must be within the same
feature space and have the same distribution as the target task data, however
this is often highly costly and time consuming. There can even be occurrences
were a complete lack of labelled target data occurs. It is within these
situations that our study is focussed. In this paper we propose a framework to
dynamically model IE's through the use of data sets from differing feature
spaces and domains. The framework is constructed using a novel Fuzzy Transfer
Learning (FuzzyTL) process.
The use of a FuzzyTL algorithm allows for a source of labelled data to improve the learning of an alternative context task. We will demonstrate the application of an Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) to produce a model from a source Intelligent Environment (IE) which can provide the knowledge for a differing target context. We will investigate the use of FuzzyTL within differing contextual distributions through the use of temporal and spatial alternative domains. Keywords: Fuzzy Logic; Transfer Learning; Intelligent Environments; Ambient
Intelligence; Context-Aware | |||
| Gesture Profile for Web Services: An Event-Driven Architecture to Support Gestural Interfaces for Smart Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 161-176 | |
| Radu-Daniel Vatavu; Catalin-Marian Chera; Wei-Tek Tsai | |||
| Gestural interfaces have lately become extremely popular due to the
introduction on the market of low-cost acquisition devices such as iPhone, Wii,
and Kinect. Such devices allow practitioners to design, experiment, and
evaluate novel interfaces and interactions for new smart environments. However,
gesture recognition algorithms are currently the appanage of machine learning
experts which sometimes leaves AmI practitioners dealing with complex pattern
recognition techniques instead of focusing on prototyping ambient interactions.
To address this problem, we propose GPWS (Gesture Profile for Web Services), a
service-oriented architecture (SOA) designed to assist implementation of
gestural interfaces. By providing gesture recognition as a web service, we
leverage easy and fast adoption of gestural interfaces for various platforms
and environments through simple service discovery and composition mechanisms.
We discuss two GPWS designs based on SOA 1.0 and SOA 2.0 standards, analyze
their performance, and demonstrate GPWS for a gesture-controlled smart home
application. Keywords: Gesture; gesture-based control; service-oriented computing; event-driven
architecture; smart home; web services; gesture recognition; SOA; EDA | |||
| Using Markov Logic Network for On-Line Activity Recognition from Non-visual Home Automation Sensors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 177-192 | |
| Pedro Chahuara; Anthony Fleury; François Portet; Michel Vacher | |||
| This paper presents the application of Markov Logic Networks (MLN) for the
recognition of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) in a smart home. We describe a
procedure that uses raw data from non visual and non wearable sensors in order
to create a classification model leveraging logic formal representation and
probabilistic inference. SVM and Naive Bayes methods were used as baselines to
compare the performance of our implementation, as they have proved to be highly
efficient in classification tasks. The evaluation was carried out on a real
smart home where 21 participants performed ADLs. Results show not only the
appreciable capacities of MLN as a classifier, but also its potential to be
easily integrable into a formal knowledge representation framework. Keywords: Activity Recognition; Markov Logic Network; Support Vector Machine; Smart
Home; Ambient Assisted Living | |||
| Multi-Classifier Adaptive Training: Specialising an Activity Recognition Classifier Using Semi-supervised Learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 193-207 | |
| Bozidara Cvetkovic; Bostjan Kaluza; Mitja Lustrek; Matjaz Gams | |||
| When an activity recognition classifier is deployed to be used with a
particular user, its performance can often be improved by adapting it to that
user. To improve the classifier, we propose a novel semi-supervised
Multi-Classifier Adaptive Training algorithm (MCAT) that uses four classifiers.
First, the General classifier is trained on the labelled data available before
deployment. Second, the Specific classifier is trained on a limited amount of
labelled data specific to the new user in the current environment. Third, a
domain-independent meta-classifier decides whether to classify a new instance
with the General or Specific classifier. Fourth, another meta-classifier
decides whether to include the new instance in the training set for the General
classifier. The General classifier is periodically retrained, gradually
adapting to the new user in the new environment where it is deployed. The
results show that our new algorithm outperforms competing approaches and
increases the accuracy of the initial activity recognition classifier by 12.66
percentage points on average. Keywords: semi-supervised learning; adaptation to the user; MCAT; activity recognition | |||
| Sound Environment Analysis in Smart Home | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 208-223 | |
| Mohamed A. Sehili; Benjamin Lecouteux; Michel Vacher; François Portet; Dan Istrate; Bernadette Dorizzi; Jérôme Boudy | |||
| This study aims at providing audio-based interaction technology that lets
the users have full control over their home environment, at detecting distress
situations and at easing the social inclusion of the elderly and frail
population. The paper presents the sound and speech analysis system evaluated
thanks to a corpus of data acquired in a real smart home environment. The 4
steps of analysis are signal detection, speech/sound discrimination, sound
classification and speech recognition. The results are presented for each step
and globally. The very first experiments show promising results be it for the
modules evaluated independently or for the whole system. Keywords: Smart Home; Sound Analysis; Sound Detection; Sound Recognition; Speech
Distant Recognition | |||
| Contextual Wizard of Oz -- A Framework Combining Contextual Rapid Prototyping and the Wizard of Oz Method | | BIBA | Full-Text | 224-239 | |
| Doris Zachhuber; Thomas Grill; Ondrej Polácek; Manfred Tscheligi | |||
| Exploring user interaction in specific contexts is often based on simulated environments and semi-functional prototypes of interactive systems. In this paper, we address a combination of context simulation with the Wizard of Oz (WOz) technique, where a hidden human "wizard" simulates missing functionalities and system intelligence. The goal of our work is to provide a software framework for fast prototyping and concurrent evaluation through user studies during iterative interaction design processes. Contextual interaction research is particularly challenging in high-dynamic interaction contexts like ambient environments and includes the simulation of various context parameters to elaborate interaction designs in the target context. For this purpose, we have developed a prototyping framework that allows the setup and handling of different contextual situations during user studies. The framework and the proposed WOz protocol, which is used for integrating the WOz technique, are highly flexible, modular and adjustable at runtime. This allows their application in a big variety of study contexts in in-situ and in-vitro settings. A detailed description of the framework's requirements and architecture as well as a user study, where we successfully applied our framework, are presented. First results have been collected through interviews with evaluators and developers who used the framework to develop the particular study setups. The identified improvements and potentials experienced during the usage of the framework have been analyzed and provide valuable findings for further iterations. | |||
| Recognizing the User Social Attitude in Multimodal Interaction in Smart Environments | | BIBA | Full-Text | 240-255 | |
| Berardina De Carolis; Stefano Ferilli; Nicole Novielli | |||
| Ambient Intelligence aims at promoting an effective, natural and personalized interaction with the environment services. In order to provide the most appropriate answer to the user requests, an Ambient Intelligence system should model the user by considering not only the cognitive ingredients of his mental state, but also extra-rational factors such as affect, engagement, attitude, and so on. This paper describes a study aimed at building a multimodal framework for recognizing the social response of users during interaction with embodied agents in the context of ambient intelligence. In particular, we describe how we extended a model for recognizing the social attitude in text-based dialogs by adding two additional knowledge sources: speech and gestures. Results of the study show that these additional knowledge sources may help in improving the recognition of the users' attitude during interaction. | |||
| Evolutionary Feature Extraction to Infer Behavioral Patterns in Ambient Intelligence | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 256-271 | |
| Leila Shila Shafti; Pablo A. Haya; Manuel García-Herranz; Eduardo Pérez | |||
| Machine learning methods have been applied to infer activities of users.
However, the small number of training samples and their primitive
representation often complicates the learning task. In order to correctly infer
inhabitant's behavior a long time of observation and data collection is needed.
This article suggests the use of MFE3/GADR, an evolutionary constructive
induction method. Constructive induction has been used to improve learning
accuracy through transforming the primitive representation of data into a new
one where regularities are more apparent. The use of MFE3/GADR is
expected to improve the representation of data and behavior learning process in
an intelligent environment. The results of the research show that by applying
MFE3/GADR a standard learner needs considerably less data to correctly
infer user's behavior. Keywords: Intelligent Environments; Behavioral Inference; Machine Learning; Genetic
Algorithms; Constructive Induction; Feature Construction | |||
| Personalization of Content on Public Displays Driven by the Recognition of Group Context | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 272-287 | |
| Ekaterina Kurdyukova; Stephan Hammer; Elisabeth André | |||
| Personalization of content on public displays relies on the knowledge of
spectator interests and real-time recognition of social context. In busy public
places, with numerous individuals circulating daily, the knowledge of
individual interests becomes unrealistic. This paper presents an approach for
automatic personalization which, instead of individual profiles, relies on
group context. The system recognizes the constellation of spectators in front
of a public display, based on their disposition and gender. Thus, the approach
provides an important prerequisite for a completely automated personalization,
requiring no input from the spectator side, neither for training, nor for
real-time content adaptation. The experiment conducted in a public area showed
that the presented approach can successfully identify the differences in the
content observation of various groups. Moreover, the approach provides an
insight into the diversity of circulating groups, and gives a hint about
spectators' emotional and conversational response to the content. Keywords: Public displays; Adaptation; Social Context | |||
| Towards the Generation of Assistive User Interfaces for Smart Meeting Rooms Based on Activity Patterns | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 288-295 | |
| Michael Zaki; Peter Forbrig | |||
| The main purpose of a given smart meeting room is to increase the efficiency
of the meetings taking place in this room by assisting the resident actors
performing their tasks and thus offering them the opportunity to focus on the
exchange of information among each other. However, a proper assistance should
be based on a clear understanding of the nature of tasks the users are
performing in the environment. Therefore, in this paper we present an attempt
to base the design of the assistive system to be operated in smart meeting
rooms on activity patterns collected in the analysis stage and resulting from
the perception of the human behavior in those environments. The end goal is to
tailor individualized user interfaces for each actor depending on his/her
current role and user profile. Keywords: smart meeting room; task model; team model; task pattern; precondition;
post-condition; assistive user interface | |||
| Reducing Dementia Related Wandering Behaviour with an Interactive Wall | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 296-303 | |
| Saskia Robben; Kyra Bergman; Sven Haitjema; Yannick de Lange; Ben J. A. Kröse | |||
| People suffering from dementia often have problems with way finding and feel
restless. In this paper we present an interactive wall developed for decreasing
the amount of wandering behaviour of people suffering from dementia. The
installation aims at making these people feel more at home in the nursing homes
by guiding them with a motion triggered audio path. This leads them to a wall
with large windows displaying images and short movie tracks from their
hometown. The results of an observation study show that the interactive wall
succeeds in attracting people and thus reducing the wandering behaviour.
Remarks of the elderly as well as their family and caretakers support this
conclusion. Keywords: Dementia; Wandering; Elderly People; Alzheimer; Interactive Wall | |||
| Gesture Based Semantic Service Invocation for Human Environment Interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 304-311 | |
| Carsten Stocklöw; Reiner Wichert | |||
| The assistance of users in their activities of daily life by a smart
environment is the main goal of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). In this case,
interaction is of particular interest since some users are very familiar with
modern technology and for some users this technology is very challenging so
that poorly designed interaction metaphors will lead to a low acceptance.
Additionally, AAL has to cope with the challenges of open systems in which at
any time new devices and functionalities can appear. This paper presents a
gesture based approach to control devices and their functionalities in a smart
environment at a semantic level to issue a command or to set a level. Redundant
functionalities are filtered out before presenting the list of functions to the
user. This concept is validated by a demonstrator that uses the semantic AAL
platform universAAL. Keywords: Gesture based Interaction; Semantic Services; Ambient Assisted Living; Human
Environment Interaction | |||
| Understanding Complex Environments with the Feedforward Torch | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 312-319 | |
| Jo Vermeulen; Kris Luyten; Karin Coninx | |||
| In contrast with design flaws that occur in user interfaces, design flaws in
physical spaces have a much higher cost and impact. Software is in fact fairly
easy to change and update in contrast with legacy physical constructions where
updating their physical appearance is often not an option. We present the
Feedforward Torch, a mobile projection system that targets the augmentation of
legacy hardware with feedforward information. Feedforward explains users what
the results of their action will be, and can thus be seen as the opposite of
feedback. A first user study suggests that providing feedforward in these
environments could improve their usability. Keywords: feedforward; intelligibility; mobile projection; legacy systems | |||
| Open Objects for Ambient Intelligence | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 320-327 | |
| Paulo Ricca; Kostas Stathis | |||
| We present the Open Object, a framework for distributing capabilities over a
system of inter-connected physical objects. We focus on allowing lightweight
objects to not only share their capabilities with other objects but also to
outsource capabilities when needed, in order to fulfil a user's goal. We
exemplify our approach with a smart home scenario and a service-oriented
implementation. Keywords: Ubiquitous Computing; End-User Development; Events; Behaviours;
Capabilities; Workflows; Service-Oriented Architecture | |||
| Towards Accessibility in Ambient Intelligence Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 328-337 | |
| George Margetis; Margherita Antona; Stavroula Ntoa; Constantine Stephanidis | |||
| This paper aims to set a landscape and elaborate a roadmap for accessible
user interaction in AmI environments, including and beyond personal
computational devices (PCs, mobiles, etc.), by identifying and addressing the
new needs that emerge in the above context. This line of work is currently
being pursued in the context of the AmI Research Programme of ICS-FORTH, and
will be implemented in the new AmI Research Facility, which provides an ideal
environment for developing the proposed solutions and a test-bed for validating
them in a realistic simulation environment. Keywords: ambient intelligence; accessibility; universal access; assistive
technologies; personalized interaction; user model | |||
| INCOME -- Multi-scale Context Management for the Internet of Things | | BIBA | Full-Text | 338-347 | |
| Jean-Paul Arcangeli; Amel Bouzeghoub; Valérie Camps; C. Marie-Françoise Canut; Sophie Chabridon; Denis Conan; Thierry Desprats; Romain Laborde; Emmanuel Lavinal; Sébastien Leriche; Hervé Maurel; André Péninou; Chantal Taconet; Pascale Zaraté | |||
| Nowadays, context management solutions in ambient networks are well-known. However, with the IoT paradigm, ambient information is not anymore the only source of context. Context management solutions able to address multiple network scales ranging from ambient networks to the Internet of Things (IoT) are required. We present the INCOME project whose goal is to provide generic software and middleware components to ease the design and development of mass market context-aware applications built above the Internet of Things. By revisiting ambient intelligence (AmI) context management solutions for extending them to the IoT, INCOME allows to bridge the gap between these two very active research domains. In this landscape paper, we identify how INCOME plans to advance the state of the art and we briefly describe its scientific program which consists of three main tasks: (i) multi-scale context management, (ii) management of extrafunctional concerns (quality of context and privacy), and (iii) autonomous deployment of context management entities. | |||
| New Forms of Work Assistance by Ambient Intelligence -- Overview of the Focal Research Topic of BAuA | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 348-355 | |
| Armin Windel; Matthias Hartwig | |||
| Research and development in the area of AmI are currently migrating from
basic technologies to application-readiness. In the consumer domain a field of
research has now become established bearing the description Ambient Assisted
Living. In contrast, for the area of work, practice-oriented and work
science-relevant questions in the field of AmI are only considered in isolated
cases and unsystematically. To capture the intersection of the world of work
and the concept of AmI, the term adaptive work assistance systems (AWAS) is
coined in this paper. Furthermore, the different research project bundles at
BAuA are described briefly, each focusing on opportunities and risks of new
I&C technologies in the working environment and their impact on work
systems. Most of the projects are handled as BAuA's own research and supported
by external research contracted extramurally. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence; application in working life; adaptive work assistance
systems; AWAS; work science; research programme | |||
| Living Labs as Educational Tool for Ambient Intelligence | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 356-363 | |
| Ben J. A. Kröse; Mettina Veenstra; Saskia Robben; Marije Kanis | |||
| The way that innovation is currently done requires a new research
methodology that enables co-creation and frequent, iterative evaluation in
real-world settings. This paper describes the employment of the living lab
methodology that corresponds to this need. Particularly, this paper presents
the way that the Amsterdam University of Applies Sciences (HvA) incorporates
living labs in its educational program with a particular focus on ambient
intelligence. A number of examples are given to illustrate its place in the
university's curriculum. Drawing on from this, problems and solutions are
highlighted in a 'lessons learned' section. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence; Living Labs; Education; participatory design | |||
| Intel Collaborative Research Institute -- Sustainable Connected Cities | | BIBA | Full-Text | 364-372 | |
| Johannes Schöning; Yvonne Rogers; Jon Bird; Licia Capra; Julie A. McCann; David Prendergast; Charles Sheridan | |||
| Cities are places where people, meet, exchange, work, live and interact. They bring people with different interests, experiences and knowledge close together. They are the centres of culture, economic development and social change. They offer many opportunities to innovate with technologies, from the infrastructures that underlie the sewers to computing in the cloud. One of the overarching goals of Intel's Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities is to integrate the technological, economic and social needs of cities in ways that are sustainable and human-centred. Our objective is to inform, develop and evaluate services that enhance the quality of living in the city. | |||
| IE Sim -- A Flexible Tool for the Simulation of Data Generated within Intelligent Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 373-378 | |
| Jonathan Synnott; Liming Chen; Chris D. Nugent; George Moore | |||
| Availability of datasets generated by Intelligent Environments for the
testing of new approaches may be limited due to constraints including time,
space, and money. The use of simulated Intelligent Environments offers a method
of creating datasets with maximum control and minimal costs and constraints.
Such datasets facilitate the testing of novel approaches to areas such as
activity recognition and ambient assisted living. IE Sim is a flexible
feature-rich approach that supports graphical interactive construction and
simulation of virtual Intelligent Environments This paper discusses the key
features of IE Sim and discusses the results of a software evaluation performed
by 21 international researchers with an interest in such datasets. Results from
the evaluation rated IE Sim highly in terms of ease of use and usefulness in
research and identified key requirements for future developments. Keywords: Data Simulation; Virtual Environment Creation; Virtual Sensors; Intelligent
Environments; Environment Prototyping | |||
| Intention Recognition with Clustering | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 379-384 | |
| Fariba Sadri; Weikun Wang; Afroditi Xafi | |||
| Intention recognition has significant applications in ambient intelligence,
assisted living and care of the elderly, amongst others. In this paper we
explore an approach to intention recognition based on clustering. To this end
we show how to map the intention recognition problem into a clustering problem.
To our knowledge the use of clustering techniques for intention recognition is
novel, and this paper suggests it is promising. Keywords: Intention recognition; clustering; Fuzzy C-means | |||
| Behavior Modeling and Recognition Methods to Facilitate Transitions between Application-Specific Personalized Assistance Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 385-390 | |
| Arun Ramakrishnan; Zubair Bhatti; Davy Preuveneers; Yolande Berbers; Aliaksei Andrushevich; Rolf Kistler; Alexander Klapproth | |||
| Activity recognition mandates complex sensor fusion processing. Many
contributions in the literature focus on improving the recognition accuracy of
a limited set of activities or the efficiency of the algorithms. However, there
is little work on how to dynamically adapt the activity recognition techniques
when evolving from one situation to the next. We present tool support to model
transitions between activities, and a modular distributed framework of human
activity recognition components with support for analyzing resource and
recognition trade-offs for different deployments and configurations. Keywords: Behavior and activity recognition; smart home and health | |||
| LumaFluid: A Responsive Environment to Stimulate Social Interaction in Public Spaces | | BIBA | Full-Text | 391-396 | |
| Gianluca Monaci; Tommaso Gritti; Martine van Beers; Ad Vermeulen; Bram Nab; Inge Thomassen; Marigo Heijboer; Sandra Suijkerbuijk; Wouter Walmink; Maarten Hendriks | |||
| LumaFluid is an interactive environment that explores new ways to stimulate emotional and social engagement through light. A vision system localizes people present in the LumaFluid square. Colored spotlights highlight each person and connections are drawn between neighboring visitors to underline and stimulate interpersonal communication. Two versions of the concept where deployed during the 2011 STRP Festival. In this paper we describe the conception and realization of the installation, and we discuss the insights collected during the event. | |||
| A Cost-Based Model for Service Discovery in Smart Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 397-402 | |
| Michele Girolami; Francesco Furfari; Stefano Chessa | |||
| This paper describes the CoDA algorithm for the service discovery in the
Smart Environments. CoDA is based on the energy distance metric that allows the
clients to select the service providers whose access cost is the lowest in
terms of the energy requirements. Keywords: service discovery; Smart Environments; energy efficiency | |||
| On the Use of Video Prototyping in Designing Ambient User Experiences | | BIBA | Full-Text | 403-408 | |
| Nikolaos Batalas; Hester Bruikman; Annemiek van Drunen; He Huang; Dominika Turzynska; Vanessa Vakili; Natalia Voynarovskaya; Panos Markopoulos | |||
| We discuss a case study where this technique was used in the design of an ambient intelligence system, highlighting how it impacted the design process both in positive and negative ways. This contextualized account complements related comparative studies that have been conducted outside the context of a design project, and have focused on methodological aspects of video prototyping. We conclude that designers need to be aware of how video as a persuasive medium obfuscates implementation and usability issues, and video prototype production should communicate explicitly the scope of the design issues that it addresses and those it does not. | |||
| Automatic Power-Off for Binaural Hearing Instruments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 409-414 | |
| Bernd Tessendorf; Peter Derleth; Manuela Feilner; Daniel Roggen; Thomas Stiefmeier; Gerhard Tröster | |||
| Users of state-of-the-art hearing instruments (HIs) switch their devices on
and off by closing and opening the battery compartment. Switching the HIs off
is important for the users to maintain the battery lives of their HIs. However,
users currently need to switch off their devices manually, which is easy to
forget or which can be difficult, e.g. for elderly with reduced dexterity. In
this work, we propose an approach to avoid the need to manually switch off HIs.
We assume, that whenever the user's HIs are not moved the same way, they cannot
be at the user's ear and are, thus, not in use. We exploit the binaural
communication between the user's HIs available in the latest generation of HIs
together with the concept of multimodal HIs, which integrates sensors such as
accelerometers. On a data set of one hour comprising acceleration data of two
HIs worn by three male participants (age 26-31) we achieve a precision of 100%
and a recall of 93% in detecting power-off events. Keywords: hearing instruments; human computer interaction (HCI); multimodal sensing | |||
| Proposal and Demonstration of Equipment Operated by Blinking | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 415-420 | |
| Masaki Kato; Tatsuya Kobori; Takayuki Suzuki; Shigenori Ioroi; Hiroshi Tanaka | |||
| This paper describes a new input method that makes use of eyelid blinking.
We found that the electromyographic (EMG) signal generated by blinking can be
detected using a commercially available brain sensor. Since it is impossible to
distinguish between voluntary and involuntary blinks, we propose setting a
specific time duration between eyelid closing and opening. This duration can be
used as a trigger for signal generation and at the same time for selection of a
particular operation. The blink pattern is interpreted as a signal pattern for
operation and corresponding commands are assigned for the operation selected.
We built a demonstration system to evaluate the proposed method. The validity
of the method and the effectiveness of the system were confirmed by the
experiment using the system. Keywords: Blink; EMG signal; Brain sensor; Signal generation; Equipment operation | |||
| CASi -- A Generic Context Awareness Simulator for Ambient Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 421-426 | |
| Jörg Cassens; Felix Schmitt; Tobias Mende; Michael Herczeg | |||
| In this paper, we present CASi (Context Awareness Simulator), a software
system for the simulation of context-aware computer systems and environments.
CASi provides an abstract framework of components for simulating smart world
applications like a smart office or house with ambient sensors and actuators.
Agents moving through these application worlds are tracked by sensors and their
actions are influenced by actuators, both of which can be programmed to
resemble the actual peripherals of the tested system. CASi allows testing
ambient, context aware computer systems even in early stages of development
without the need for expensive prototyping or real world deployment. Keywords: Ubiquitous computing; ambient intelligence; context; simulation | |||
| A Conceptual Framework for Supporting Adaptive Personalized Help-on-Demand Services | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 427-432 | |
| William Burns; Liming Chen; Chris D. Nugent; Mark P. Donnelly; Kerry-Louise Skillen; Ivar Solheim | |||
| Mobile applications that encompass personalization and context-aware
components are increasingly becoming more prevalent. The ability to offer
personalized content and User Interfaces to the users of these applications,
however, has still not been fully addressed. In this paper we describe a
conceptual framework that establishes a User Profile and aims to monitor the
usage patterns of users of a mobile application and, based on these patterns,
provide both personalized, context aware content and user interfaces. The
framework consists of four components that together contribute towards an
overall Help on Demand service that is targeted at older age Smartphone users.
A usage scenario is presented to describe the typical usage of the help on
demand service. Keywords: context-aware services; adaptive personalization; smartphone applications | |||
| Developing Touchless Interfaces with GestIT | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 433-438 | |
| Lucio Davide Spano | |||
| In this paper, we report on the development of touchless interfaces for
supporting long lasting tasks, which need an interleaving between the
interaction with the system and the focus on other activities. As an example,
we considered a dish cooking task, which enables selecting and browsing the
information about different recipes while cooking through gestural and vocal
interaction. The application demonstrates the advantages offered by the GestIT
library, which allows a declarative and compositional definition of reusable
gestures. Keywords: Touchless interfaces; Input and Interaction Technologies; Gestural
Interaction; Ambient Intelligence | |||
| Tool Support for Probabilistic Intention Recognition Using Plan Synthesis | | BIBA | Full-Text | 439-444 | |
| Frank Krüger; Kristina Yordanova; Thomas Kirste | |||
| To provide assistance in intelligent environments it is necessary to accurately infer the users needs and wishes. In this demonstration we present a probabilistic plan recognition system that is able to track the user and to compare different hypotheses about the users behavior and her goal(s) based on observations of the current activity. Furthermore, the tool provides a probability distribution over the possible goals and selects the most probable hypothesis as the user intention. | |||
| Aesthetic Intelligence: The Role of Design in Ambient Intelligence | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 445-446 | |
| Carsten Röcker; Kai Kasugai; Daniela Alina Plewe; Takashi Kiriyama; Artur Lugmayr | |||
| This paper illustrates the rationale behind the second international
workshop on Aesthetic Intelligence. The workshop addresses the multiple facets
of aesthetics in the design process of Ambient Intelligence technologies,
especially in the fields of architecture, industrial and interface design as
well as human-computer interaction. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence; Ubiquitous Computing; Smart Spaces; Aesthetics;
Design; Architecture; Urban Informatics | |||
| Workshop on Ambient Intelligence Infrastructures (WAmIi) | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 447-448 | |
| Alina Weffers; Johan Lukkien; Tanir Ozcelebi | |||
| The last two decades have seen a significant amount of results and insights
that promote the Ambient Intelligence vision, in particular via the
architecture and design of Ambient Intelligence infrastructures supporting
interconnected, context aware, personalized devices and services to act as an
interactive and intelligent environment. We propose a workshop that would
facilitate a systematic overview of the results achieved and work currently
done in the context of European projects on the topic. The goal is to identify
the white spaces in the domain, and thereby prepare the ground for further
work, to be built on thorough understanding of the state-of-the-art. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence infrastructures; middleware | |||
| Sixth International Workshop on Human Aspects in Ambient Intelligence (HAI 2012) | | BIBA | Full-Text | 449-450 | |
| Juan Carlos Augusto; Tibor Bosse; Cristiano Castelfranchi; Diane J. Cook; Mark A. Neerincx; Fariba Sadri | |||
| Recent developments within Ambient Intelligence (AmI) provide new possibilities to contribute to personal care. For example, our car may monitor us and warn us when we are falling asleep while driving or take measures when we are too drunk to drive. As another example, an elderly person may wear a device that monitors his or her wellbeing and offers support when a dangerous situation is noticed. Such applications can be realised partly because of advances in acquiring sensor information about humans and their functioning. However, their full realisation depends crucially on the availability of adequate knowledge for analysis of such information about human functioning. If such knowledge about human functioning is computationally available within devices in the environment, these systems can show more human-like understanding and contribute to personal care based on this understanding [1]. | |||
| Context-Aware Adaptation of Service Front-Ends | | BIBA | Full-Text | 451-452 | |
| Francisco Javier Caminero Gil; Fabio Paternò; Jean Vanderdonckt | |||
| Ambient Intelligence implies the need for context-aware adaptation of user interfaces. This adaptation with respect to the context of use is applicable to a wide spectrum of interactive applications ranging from front ends of web services, information systems to multimedia and multimodal applications. Although the ultimate goal of this adaptation is always for the ultimate benefit of the end user, many approaches and techniques have been used to various degrees of experience and maturity that effectively and efficiently support context-aware adaptation. This workshop is intended to review the state of the art in this domain, while looking at a broad range of applications, to discuss positive and negative experiences of context-aware adaptation, and to come up with criteria and requirements for driving such adaptation. | |||
| 2nd International Workshop on Ambient Gaming | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 453-454 | |
| Janienke Sturm; Pepijn Rijnbout; Ben A. M. Schouten | |||
| Ambient games are games and playful activities that offer context-aware and
personalized features. Because ambient play and games can be incorporated in
everyday objects and routines, they allow players to play throughout the day.
Ambient gaming offers promising opportunities for creating novel and unique
player experiences. However, there are still many unanswered questions related
to this new field of research, for instance related to gamification,
personalisation and adaptation, aspects and issues of control and privacy. In
this 2nd workshop on Ambient Gaming we intend to further discuss the
opportunities and challenges in the field of ambient gaming and play with
people from different disciplines (designers, researchers, and developers) who
are active in this field. Keywords: Ambient Gaming; Playful Interactions; Design; Ambient Technology | |||
| Designing Persuasive Interactive Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 455-456 | |
| Marco M. C. Rozendaal; Aadjan van der Helm; Walter A. Aprile; Arnold P. O. S. Vermeeren; Tilde Bekker; Marije Kanis; Wouter Middendorf | |||
| Ambient Intelligent environments are interactive environments that can sense
human behaviour and can respond intelligently. This workshop explores how
interactive environments can be designed with persuasive quality, hereby
influencing human experience and behaviour. The workshop follows a
research-through-design approach in which practise-relevant insights are gained
while designing. The focus will be on intuitive and rational decision-making,
the role of aesthetics in persuasion, social and spatial influences as well as
technological influences on persuasion, evaluation methods for persuasion, and
the ethics of designing for persuasion. Keywords: Ambient intelligence; persuasion; aesthetics; decision-making
research-through-design; interactive prototyping | |||
| Applying AmI Technologies to Crisis Management -- Workshop at AmI2012 | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 457-458 | |
| Monica Divitini; Babak A. Farshchian; Jacqueline Floch; Ragnhild Halvorsrud; Simone Mora; Michael Stiso | |||
| The workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working on
the application of AmI to crisis and disaster management. Because of their
pervasiveness and ease of use, AmI technologies hold a great potential to
support crisis management in an efficient and effective way. Focus will be on
better understanding (1) the strengths of the AmI paradigm, (2) challenges to
its application, and (3) its potential in the development of innovative
solutions. The workshop is open to papers from different standpoints, including
platform and user interaction issues, methodological approaches, and specific
applications. Keywords: Ambient Intelligence; Crisis Management; innovative AmI solutions | |||