Research

Research

I strongly believe that ubiquitous computing, the notion that digital technologies will be woven into the very fabric of the world around us, will have a fundamental impact on both the way we will perceive and interact with our world, and our very conceptions of the boundary between the digital and physical. This technological development is not without risks and it is the responsibility of computer scientists, in collaboration with designers and other technologists, to consider how we can use ubiquitous computing to enhance people’s physical, relational and emotional experience of the world without compromising their dignity.

Two aspects of my current research address the design, implementation and evaluation of ubiquitous computing:

(1) personalized adaptive mobile computing and mobile assistance, this includes research on multimodal pedestrian navigation systems, as well as on novel augmented reality technologies to improve shopping experiences; in the development of systems to provide context-aware assistance to mobile users, I use rigorous methods from user modeling, computer graphics and cognitive psychology;

(2) intelligent instrumented environments, in particular, the design of novel interactive display technologies that adapt their content to the single or multi-user context in a given environment. My work incorporates steerable projectors, large scale multi-touch surfaces and sensor technology (e.g. cameras) and applies methods from multi-modal and context-aware computing and machine learning to explore novel interaction concepts. I am also interested in the interaction patterns that arise when both lines of research intersect: e.g. the question how to combine the advantages of private displays and public displays.

I have a commitment to both theoretical and practice-based inquiry, and I have a particular interest in the application of user centered design methodologies. Current application areas of my research are driver assistance systems, personalized advertisement and shopping, adaptive navigation systems, disaster management, exploitation of cultural heritage and technologies for successful aging. Conducting interdisciplinary research has been a key to my success in recent years, during which I have worked and published with colleagues from cognitive and lifespan psychology, electrical engineering, behavioral biology, archeology and the fine arts.