A platform for environment-aware applications

Environment-aware applications and mobile communications have proven to be of significant relevance for future telecommunications and computing. This poster describes an approach to integrating heterogeneous off-the-shelf technology to fulfil the demands of environment-aware applications. The integration has been done employing a CORBA based middleware. That gave us the opportunity to define open interfaces which can be used by several environment-aware applications. (8 refs)

I-centric Communications

During the last years, a variety of concepts for service integration and corresponding systems have gained momentum. On the one hand, they aim for the interworking and integration of classical telecommunications and data communications services. On the other hand, they are focusing on universal service access from a variety of end user systems. Looking at humans' communication behavior and communication space, it is obvious that human beings interact frequently in a set of contexts in their environment (communication space). Following this view, we want to build communication systems on the analysis of the individual communication spaces. The results are communication systems adapted to the specific demands of each individual. The authors introduce I-centric Communication Systems, an approach to design communication systems which adapt to the individual communication space and individual environment and situation. In this context "I" means I, or individual, "Centric" means adaptable to I requirements and a certain user environment. The architecture proposed is derived from numerous development projects in the areas of: unified messaging systems, object and person tracking, mobile guides, smart homes and cars, which have been implemented with industrial partners by our group during the last four years. (15 refs)