Our increasingly smart environments will sense, track and model users
and provide them with personalized services. We can already embed
computers in everyday objects such as shirt buttons and pencils; objects
of all sizes, from wristwatches to billboards, will soon incorporate
high-quality flexible displays; we have improved access to wireless
Internet communication; and we are now transitioning from traditional
linear to targeted interactive media. The convergence of these factors
-- miniaturization, display technologies, wireless communication, and
interactive media -- will allow us to leave our desktop computers and
move to a radical computing paradigm, the ubiquitous display
environment, where media and visual content will support a rich variety
of display devices that enable users to interact with information
artifacts in a seamless manner.
This is one of the most exciting and important areas of technology
development and this book addresses the challenge within the context of
an educational and cultural experience. This is inherently a
multidisciplinary field and the contributions span the related research
aspects, including system architecture and communications issues, and
intelligent user interface aspects such as aesthetics and privacy. On
the scientific side, the authors integrate artificial intelligence, user
modeling, temporal and spatial reasoning, intelligent user interfaces,
and user-centric design methodologies in their work, while on the
technological side they integrate mobile and wireless networking
infrastructures, interfaces, group displays, and context-driven adaptive
presentations.
This book is of value to researchers and practitioners working on all
aspects of ubiquitous display environments, and we hope it leads to
innovations in human education, cultural heritage appreciation, and
scientific development.
