Co-creation of smart technology with (and for) people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. This methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Down’s Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project is developed by a consortium of commercial, academic, and enduser supporting organizations. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped the projec

The user-centred intelligent environments development process as a guide to co-create smart technology for people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped our project aspirations and outcomes. The methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Downs Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project was developed by amconsortium of commercial, academic, and end-user supporting organizations. We explain what type of stakeholders engaging activities were considered, how these were distributed along the lifetime of the project and their impact

A survey on the evolution of the notion of context-awareness

The notion of Context has been considered for a long time in different areas of Computer Science. This article considers the use of context-based reasoning from the earlier perspective of AI as well as the newer developments in Ubiquitous Computing. Both communities have been somehow interested in the potential of context-reasoning to support real-time meaningful reactions from systems. We explain how the concept evolved in each of these different approaches. We found initially each of them considered this topic quite independently and separated from each other, however latest developments have started to show signs of cross-fertilization amongst these areas. The aim of our survey is to provide an understanding on the way context and context-reasoning were approached, to show that work in each area is complementary, and to highlight there are positive synergies arising amongst them. The overarching goal of this article is to encourage further and longer-term synergies between those interested in further understanding and using context-based reasoning

Dopant Network Processing Units: Towards Efficient Neural-network Emulators with High-capacity Nanoelectronic Nodes

The rapidly growing computational demands of deep neural networks require novel hardware designs. Recently, tunable nanoelectronic devices were developed based on hopping electrons through a network of dopant atoms in silicon. These "Dopant Network Processing Units" (DNPUs) are highly energy-efficient and have potentially very high throughput. By adapting the control voltages applied to its terminals, a single DNPU can solve a variety of linearly non-separable classification problems. However, using a single device has limitations due to the implicit single-node architecture. This paper presents a promising novel approach to neural information processing by introducing DNPUs as high-capacity neurons and moving from a single to a multi-neuron framework. By implementing and testing a small multi-DNPU classifier in hardware, we show that feed-forward DNPU networks improve the performance of a single DNPU from 77% to 94% test accuracy on a binary classification task with concentric classes on a plane. Furthermore, motivated by the integration of DNPUs with memristor arrays, we study the potential of using DNPUs in combination with linear layers. We show by simulation that a single-layer MNIST classifier with only 10 DNPUs achieves over 96% test accuracy. Our results pave the road towards hardware neural-network emulators that offer atomic-scale information processing with low latency and energy consumption

Perspectives on engineering more usable context-aware systems

The expectations of the abilities of context-aware systems (C-AS) often differ from reality. It becomes difficult to program contextual services that react adequately to the circumstantial needs of users as developers need to know, beforehand: the set of contextual states that may exist, what information could accurately determine a contextual state within that set, and what appropriate action should be taken in that particular state. Although there exist many frameworks and tools which support the design and implementation of C-AS, there is less conceptual help for developers to inform them of what contextual situations and services are appropriate (or feasible) to be implemented. This report reviews the state-of-the-art conceptualisation of context, which is more focused on the representational interpretation of the concept, to introduce a perspective that also acknowledges its interactional interpretation. A combination of revised and new definitions is introduced, which give key insights for the development of more useful C-AS. By acknowledging situations as a dynamic phenomenon that arises from action (interaction), and needs to be understood by the developers, it facilitates the analysis of these subjective interpretations into programming constructs (representation). The conceptualisation is also complemented with a set of guidelines for developers, an illustration of their usage, and a further discussion on the future directions for the engineering of more usable C-AS. The introduced conceptualisation is targeted towards the creation of an open-source tool supported framework for the engineering of C-AS

Engineering context-aware systems and applications:A survey

Context-awareness is an essential component of systems developed in areas like Intelligent Environments, Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence. In these emerging fields, there is a need for computerized systems to have a higher understanding of the situations in which to provide services or functionalities, to adapt accordingly. The literature shows that researchers modify existing engineering methods in order to better fit the needs of context-aware computing. These efforts are typically disconnected from each other and generally focus on solving specific development issues. We encourage the creation of a more holistic and unified engineering process that is tailored for the demands of these systems. For this purpose, we study the state-of-the-art in the development of context-aware systems, focusing on: (A) Methodologies for developing context-aware systems, analyzing the reasons behind their lack of adoption and features that the community wish they can use; (B) Context-aware system engineering challenges and techniques applied during the most common development stages; (C) Context-aware systems conceptualization

RC-ASEF: An open-source tool-supported requirements elicitation framework for context-aware systems development

In terms of software engineering, context-aware systems (C-AS) have notably different development needs than those of traditional computing. Yet, there are no established methodologies that uniformly support the development life-cycle of these systems. A key goal of this research is to improve the current state-of-the-art with respect to engineering techniques for the life-cycle of a C-AS. Within the scope of this higher order goal, this paper addresses the lower level order goal of a holistic framework for gathering requirements which is specialised to the creation of C-AS. The framework follows an end-user, stakeholder-centred vision, which guides the analysis of stakeholders towards the discovery of specific stakeholder profiles and their particular needs, preferences, and limitations. It allows the operationalisation of the high level objectives of the system into requirements, which are more tangible and related to the implementation of the system. An evaluation procedure is supported, based on heuristics and rules from the NFR framework and REUBI. All the diagrams introduced for this framework have been developed as part of an open-source tool based on Modelio, which is intended to be developed in the future as part of a framework that covers all the stages of the development process. The proposal is illustrated through the analysis of an application for a European funded project