The Ubiquitous Interactor - Device Independent Access to Mobile Services

The Ubiquitous Interactor (UBI) addresses the problems of design and development that arise around services that need to be accessed from many different devices. In UBI, the same service can present itself with different user interfaces on different devices. This is done by separating interaction between users and services from presentation. The interaction is kept the same for all devices, and different presentation information is provided for different devices. This way, tailored user interfaces for many different devices can be created without multiplying development and maintenance work. In this paper we describe the system design of UBI, the system implementation, and two services implemented for the system: a calendar service and a stockbroker service

The simplicity project: easing the burden of using complex and heterogeneous ICT devices and services

As of today, to exploit the variety of different "services", users need to configure each of their devices by using different procedures and need to explicitly select among heterogeneous access technologies and protocols. In addition to that, users are authenticated and charged by different means. The lack of implicit human computer interaction, context-awareness and standardisation places an enormous burden of complexity on the shoulders of the final users. The IST-Simplicity project aims at leveraging such problems by: i) automatically creating and customizing a user communication space; ii) adapting services to user terminal characteristics and to users preferences; iii) orchestrating network capabilities. The aim of this paper is to present the technical framework of the IST-Simplicity project. This paper is a thorough analysis and qualitative evaluation of the different technologies, standards and works presented in the literature related to the Simplicity system to be developed

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

Emerging Consciousness as a Result of Complex-Dynamical Interaction Process

A quite general interaction process within a multi-component system is analysed by the extended effective potential method, liberated from usual limitations of perturbation theory or integrable model. The obtained causally complete solution of the many-body problem reveals the phenomenon of dynamic multivaluedness, or redundance, of emerging, incompatible system realisations and dynamic entanglement of system components within each realisation. The ensuing concept of dynamic complexity (and related intrinsic chaoticity) is absolutely universal and can be applied to the problem of consciousness that emerges now as a high enough, properly specified level of unreduced complexity of a suitable interaction process. This complexity level can be identified with the appearance of bound, permanently localised states in the multivalued brain dynamics from strongly chaotic states of unconscious intelligence, by analogy with classical behaviour emergence from quantum states at much lower levels of world dynamics. We show that the main properties of this dynamically emerging consciousness (and intelligence, at the preceding complexity level) correspond to empirically derived properties of natural versions and obtain causally substantiated conclusions about their artificial realisation, including the fundamentally justified paradigm of genuine machine consciousness. This rigorously defined machine consciousness is different from both natural consciousness and any mechanistic, dynamically single-valued imitation of the latter. We use then the same, truly universal concept of complexity to derive equally rigorous conclusions about mental and social implications of the machine consciousness paradigm, demonstrating its indispensable role in the next stage of civilisation development

Elinkaaritiedon hallinta tuotetietomallissa

In modern, global manufacturing business, value is increasingly created by services related to products rather than the products themselves. In industries related to the built environment, various products installed in the buildings are a major asset for the operators and managers of buildings. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), managing and exploiting product-related information throughout the lifecycle of the product, has become both a requirement and an important tool for effective service business development. Extensive and interactive PLM requires a universal system for information exchange across the lifecycles of buildings and products. The objective of the study is to define and implement the minimum requirements set by a product-centric information exchange system in an IFC-based product information model, based on use case of managing installed medical equipment in hospital environment. The study comprises a literature analysis and a use case. Late literature was reviewed to analyse developments of intelligence and lifecycle management in products and buildings. It was found that major challenges exist in exchanging lifecycle information between stakeholders and across lifecycle stages. Based on the analysis, it is proposed that using the technologies of building information modelling and a product-centric information exchange system could provide novel solutions to the identified challenges. In the use case, a method was developed for incorporating an open, product-centric PLM information exchange system into the existing IFC standard. It was found that an URI-based, product-centric information exchange system using external databases and product servers satisfies the requirements of effective PLM information exchange. Additionally, it was found that using IFC for product information modelling can effectively support such a system by linking virtual building and product information models into the lifecycle information stored in external servers.Nykyaikaisessa, kansainvälisessä valmistavan teollisuuden liiketoiminnassa arvoa luodaan entistä enemmän tuotteisiin liittyvillä palveluilla kuin itse tuotteilla. Rakennettuun ympäristöön liittyvässä liiketoiminnassa rakennuksiin asennetut tuotteet muodostavat suuren pääoman rakennusten käyttäjille ja hallinnoijille. Tuotteiden elinkaaren hallinta (Product Lifecycle Management, PLM), eli tuotteisiin liittyvän tiedon hallinta ja hyödyntäminen tuotteen elinkaaren aikana, on muodostunut sekä vaatimukseksi että tärkeäksi työkaluksi tehokkaiden liiketoiminnallisten palvelujen kehittämisessä. Laaja-alainen ja vuorovaikutteinen PLM edellyttää yleismaailmallista tiedonvaihtojärjestelmää rakennusten ja tuotteiden elinkaarten varrelle. Työn tavoitteena on määritellä ja toteuttaa tuotekeskeisen tiedonvaihtojärjestelmän asettamat vähimmäisvaatimukset IFC-pohjaiseen tuotetietomalliin käyttötapauksessa (use case), jossa kiinteästi asennettavia lääkinnällisiä laitteita hallitaan sairaalaympäristössä. Työ koostuu kirjallisuustutkimuksesta ja käyttötapauksesta. Tuotteiden ja rakennusten elinkaaren hallinnan ja älyn kehitystä analysoitiin kirjallisuuslähteiden perusteella. Elinkaaren aikaisen tiedon vaihtamisessa osapuolten ja elinkaaren vaiheiden välillä havaittiin merkittäviä haasteita. Analyysin perusteella työssä esitetään, että tietomallintamisen teknologioiden ja tuotekeskeisen tiedonvaihtojärjestelmän käyttäminen voivat tarjota uusia ratkaisuja tunnistettuihin haasteisiin. Käyttötapauksessa kehitettiin menetelmä avoimen, tuotekeskeisen PLM-tiedonvaihtojärjestelmän yhdistämiseksi nykyiseen IFC-standardiin. Työssä havaittiin, että URI:in perustuva, ulkoisia tietokantoja ja tuotepalvelimia hyödyntävä tuotekeskeinen tiedonvaihtojärjestelmä täyttää tehokkaan PLM-tiedonvaihdon vaatimukset. Lisäksi havaittiin, että tuotteiden tietomallintaminen IFC:ia käyttämällä tukee järjestelmää tehokkaasti linkittämällä virtuaaliset rakennus- ja tuotetietomallit ulkoisilla palvelimilla sijaitsevaan elinkaaritietoon

The 1990 progress report and future plans

This document describes the progress and plans of the Artificial Intelligence Research Branch (RIA) at ARC in 1990. Activities span a range from basic scientific research to engineering development and to fielded NASA applications, particularly those applications that are enabled by basic research carried out at RIA. Work is conducted in-house and through collaborative partners in academia and industry. Our major focus is on a limited number of research themes with a dual commitment to technical excellence and proven applicability to NASA short, medium, and long-term problems. RIA acts as the Agency's lead organization for research aspects of artificial intelligence, working closely with a second research laboratory at JPL and AI applications groups at all NASA centers