Ubiquity, Ambience and Privacy:
Issues for Designing People-Oriented Smart Environments

Dr. Dr. Norbert Streitz

Fraunhofer IPSI, Germany

Dr. rer. nat. Dr. phil. Norbert Streitz (Ph. D. in physics and Ph.D. in psychology) is a Senior Scientist and Strategic Advisor with 25 years of experience in information and communication technology. 11 years ago, he initiated and then managed the research division "AMBIENTE - Smart Environments of the Future" at Fraunhofer IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany, while also teaching at the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University. Before joining IPSI in 1987, he was an assistant professor at the Technical University (RWTH) Aachen. He was a post-doc fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, a visiting scholar at Xerox PARC and at the Intelligent Systems Lab of ETL-MITI, Tsukuba Science City, Japan. During the whole duration, he was the Chair of the Steering Group of the EU-funded initiative "The Disappearing Computer". He is now the co-chair of the ERCIM Working Group "Smart Environments and Systems for Ambient Intelligence (SESAMI)" as well as the Leader of the Working Group "Ambient Computing and Communication Environments" of the EU-funded Coordinated Action InterLink. His research interests include Ambient/Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing, Interaction and Experience Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Hypertext/Hypermedia, CSCW, and Cognitive Science. He has published/edited 17 books and (co)authored more than 110 technical papers. He serves regularly on the relevant program committees and on editorial boards (e.g., currently Associate Editor of ACM TOCHI). He is often invited to present keynote speeches and tutorials to scientific as well as commercial events in Europe, USA, South America, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and now in Korea.

New Paradigms That Can Revolutionize Accessibility in Next Generation Technologies

Professor Vanderheiden's interests cover a wide range of research areas in technology, human disability, and aging. Current research includes development of new interface technologies, models for information transfer across sensory modalities, network-based services, techniques for augmenting human performance, enhancing the usability of the environment, and matching enhanced abilities to environmental demands. He also studies and develops standards for access to Web-based technologies, operating systems and telecommunicaiton systems. He is Director of the Trace R&D Center. More complete information on Prof. Vanderheiden's work can be found at www.trace.wisc.edu.

Theme will be about "pluggable user interfaces", "virtual AT" and "accessibility built into the net".

Quality of Life Technology and Computing:  Science for Everyday Living for People with Disabilities and Older Adults

Katherine D. Seelman, Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh, USA

The vision of Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) is to develop intelligent systems that augment body and mind functions in order to enhance independence and community living for older adults and people with disabilities.  Based on a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, QoLT research supports the development of robust technologies and human activity modeling.  Families of engineered systems, such as virtual coach, active home, personal mobility and safe driving, are developed using participatory design techniques.  They are tested in natural environments such as individual homes, older adult facilities and the community. The presentation will provide examples of methods for the interaction of engineers, social scientists and clinicians in determining contextual factors important in research and development and commercialization of QoLT.  Actual research findings will be presented that show end user and caregiver needs for technology, their acceptance and social adoption. 

How to embrace Web service on CE devices

Dongseok Kim (金東錫), Ph.D, Principal Engineer

UI Lab, SW Solution Team, DM R&D Center.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.