A reference model for situation-aware assistance

As computers are becoming more and more ubiquitous, moving from the desktop into the infrastructure of our everyday life, they begin to influence the way we interact with this environment – the (physical) entities that we operate upon in order to achieve our daily goals. The most important aspect of future human-computer interaction therefore is the way, computers support us in efficiently managing our personal environment. Conventionally, human-computer interaction looks at a process, where only two partners are involved: the human and the computer. However, looking at the computer as a mediator between the user and his environment, we have to acknowledge a more complex communication process. This paper proposes a reference model that identifies the fundamental components which are involved in human-computer-environment interaction. 1 Motivation A human being’s daily activities – professional or private – are based on a broad range of interactions with numerous external objects: discussing project plans with colleagues, setting up a multimedia presentation in the conference room, editing documents, delegating travel planning to a secretary, driving a car, buying a ticket from a vending machine, visiting an exhibition, controlling the TV at home, etc. As computers are becoming more and more ubiquitous, moving from the desktop into the infrastructure of our everyday life, they begin to influence the way we interact with this environment – the (physical) entities that we operate upon in order to achieve our daily goals. The most important aspect of future human-computer interaction therefore is the way, computers support us in efficiently managing our personal environment. This might be called the ecological level1 of user-interface design. At the ecological level, we look at future developments from the perspective of helping a user in achieving his individual goals and purposes by providing computer-based assistance for interacting with his personal environment. The goal is to have the computer acting as a mediator between the user and the environment – e.g., giving the user hints for operating an obstinate ticket vending machine, reminding him of things he wanted to tell a colleague just approaching across the corridor, etc. Because the machine has no direct control over the human/environment interaction, it needs to achieve the desired effects indirectly through the other interfaces: i.e., by sensing the environment, by cleverly guessing the user’s goals and future interactions with the environment, and by proactively providing the user with information needed for those activities (or by actively controlling the environment itself). Conventionally, human-computer interaction looks at a process, where only two partners are involved: the human and the computer. However, looking at the computer as a mediator between the user and his environment, we have to acknowledge a more complex communication process. Central challenges for providing such personal ubiquitous assistance are: • Understanding the user’s goals and the specific strategies employed by the user for achieving these goals. 1“Ecology is the scientific study of interactions of organisms with one another and with the physical and chemical environment. ” So this notion quite well captures the essence of the above discussion.