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Research Area

Our group works in the area of Ambient Intelligence — a new paradigm for the interaction between a person and his everyday environment. Ambient Intelligence enables a user's environment to become aware of the human that interacts with it, his goals and needs.

The technical foundation of “ambient intelligence” is ubiquitous resp. pervasive computing: the diffusion of information technology into all appliances and objects of the everyday life, based on miniaturized and low cost hardware. In the near future, a multitude of such information appliances and smart artifacts will populate everyone's personal environment.

In order to make the vision of Ambient Intelligence come true, a coherent teamwork between the environment's appliances has to be established that enables a cooperative, proactive support of the user. Wireless ad-hoc networking and embedded sensors provide the basis for coherent and coordinated action of an appliance ensemble with respect to the current situation. By enabling multi-modal interaction — such as speech and gestures — an intuitive interaction becomes possible. On top of this, strategies, models, and technologies for the self-organization of appliance ensembles are required that allow an adaptation to the user's needs and desires.

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