Ubiquitous Computing in the Home

This Activity runs from January 2002 - January 2004 . Progress Update

Overview

Many authorities believe that ubiquitous computing in the home will be the major challenge for computer science in the next few years. It is also clear that there are major dependability issues to be confronted if this technology is to succeed. Despite the enormous market potential for new applications for ICT in the home this is a very under researched area. The requirements for ICT to be used in the home are subtly different from those in the workplace, calling in turn for new field study, modelling, analysis and implementation techniques. In the home, for example, it is clear that dependability needs to encompass psychological and social dimensions as well as physical and technical ones.

The project will aim to develop an understanding of dependability issues as they apply to ubiquitous computing in a home setting. This technology is already widely used to support independent living for older people. A range of these technologies is emerging encompassing relatively well known and accepted devices such as stair lifts to more complex monitoring and detection equipment such as fall detection systems. These present interesting challenges for dependability research and will be the focus of our work. The methods we develop may be of interest to PA3. Find out more about the objectives of this activity.

People

The Manager of this activity is Andrew Monk . The site(s) involved in this activity is/are [ University of York ] [ Lancaster University ] . A full list of people involved in the activity is shown below.

Partners

We welcome collaboration with industrial partners and users. We are interested in helping people design devices that meets the wider needs of society, and in the problems that people have in using technology. Collaboration can take several forms, from meetings to discuss particular issues, to working together on funded projects. If you are interested in collaborating with us please contact the Activity Manager in the first instance.

Details of the partners already involved in this Project Activity are available below:

Age Concern Barrow

The North West Development Agency

Dundee Social Work Department

Methodist Homes For The Aged

Homelink

Tunstall

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one of the largest independent social policy research and development charities in the UK. It supports a wide programme of research and development projects in housing, social care and social policy.

Publications

A list of publications associated with this Activity is available.

Related Projects

The projects listed below are related to this Activity.

Home-use of ICT

York has projects on the home-use of ICT funded by Daewoo Electronics and EPSRC which will provide further background to this project activity. Lancaster has a long and successful track record of commercial and public funded ethnographic work in domestic settings that can be drawn on in this research as well as experience of designing appropriate technology to meet the needs of older people.