UHCI

Brief description

The UHCI project is to explore the requirements, boundary conditions and implementation options for multi-modal forms of interaction. These are to be used to develop intuitive user interfaces with high user acceptance for various applications in the smart home. Open standards guarantee the compatibility of solutions from different industries and suppliers.

The challenge

Where control is concerned, smart home applications often lack comfort and user friendliness. Some solutions have only limited remote control capability or feature different interfaces for mobile and stationary devices. What's more, solutions from different manufacturers are often not compatible. This frequently leads to low acceptance and limited market penetration for the individual solutions.

Aim

In the UHCI project, a test environment is to be set up for interaction technologies in the smart home. Innovative interaction technologies, such as touch, gesture and voice control, are to be developed further, combined with each other, examined with a view to their usability and tested in a prototype application scenario in the home environment. The aim is to develop a user interface scheme with an intuitive user concept that can be used for different application fields in the smart home. The use of open standards guarantees the compatibility of solutions from different industries and suppliers.

Technologies

First of all, the requirements, boundary conditions and implementation options for an open user interface framework and corresponding usability guidelines will be explored and developed for various applications in the smart home. Using demonstrators, several application scenarios will then be created and individually adapted for different target groups. The use experience will then be analysed using tools that measure expectations and acceptance.

Use case

As part of the project, several application scenarios are to be tested. Interaction Anywhere is a scenario that offers users various interaction options depending on their location and the related availability. This is achieved by designing and implementing multi-modal interfaces (for instance, touch, voice, gesture or 3D models) for input and output devices. A local cloud is used to access media from outside the home. One scenario, for instance, is being implemented by using multi-modal interfaces while taking into account the TV-specific requirements of project partner Loewe. A demonstrator is being developed with adaptive dialogue control on the basis of a digital kitchen wizard.

Partners: Facit Research GmbH & Co. KG (Konsortialführer), ART+COM AG, Connected Living e.V., DAI-Labor und Quality and Usability Lab der TU Berlin, Design Research Lab der UdK, DiscVision GmbH, Fraunhofer IDMT, Loewe Technologies GmbH, UMAN Universal Media Access Networks GmbH