ORESTEIA : Modular Hybrid Artefacts with Adaptive Functionality

The concrete expression of a UbiComp system and a WearComp system is based on quite different assumptions. The first and foremost feature is that UbiComp and WearComp put the “intelligence of the system” in different places. As an example, we can consider a typical smart room where sensors are present. In this case, a typical situation for UbiComp, the room itself has the presence-awareness of one or more people. Instead, from a WearComp viewpoint, the situation is completely different, as the center of awareness is always the WearComp User. This dichotomy is a philosophical issue that has an interesting impact on the user-model, the interaction strategies between devices and the range of possible actions undertaken by the user model. Trough its architectural choices, the ORESTEIA Project [20] seeks to build a bridge between UbiComp and WearComp philosophies, bypassing the side effects of the two solutions. With the UbiComp community, we share the spreading of a part of computation on the environment (e.g. a room or a car). According to the WearComp community, we locate some key computing functionalities directly on the body of the user. This has the two-fold objective of rendering the computation fully automatic (i.e. not needing explicit activation by the user) and adapting the computing routines directly to the user preferences through biological feedbacks emitted by him. The system adaptivity, i.e. its capability of learning to serve to the best its owner, is an innovative feature of our disappearing computer.

The result of this bridging is an either physical or virtual device that we call “electronic clone” (clone for short) capable of reproducing some low level abilities of the human brain, underlying tedious and repetitive operations that human aims to depute to it. The plus in respect to usual robot, like automatic phone operator answering standard questions, is that the clone is capable of some intelligence learnt from the habits of its owner and allowing it to organize relevant data collections and take decision on their basis on the part of its owner.