Themes

This theme investigates the impact of pervasive technologies on the spatial environment in urban space, both within and outside buildings. As a theory of society as modified by the spatial environment, we will develop space syntax to respond to novel pervasive modes of communication, transaction and exchange implied by pervasive technologies. This will be achieved in Cityware by means of a continuous process of analysis of empirical data on people's use of and relationship with the urban spatial environment as this is affected by the intervention of pervasive technologies.

Security, privacy and trust

In Cityware we envisage a world in which users interact with electronic applications and services embedded in urban environments. Those interactions potentially involve threats against the users' privacy and security -- threats which are a potential barrier to use. Our objectives are to understand those threats and implement practical mechanisms to defend users against them, while finding a satisfactory trade-off against other aspects of the users urban lives, including convenience and social acceptability. An important aspect of that trade-off is the trust that users do or do not place in the physical world and the electronic services around them.

Context awareness and service discovery

Advances in pervasive computing infrastructures have the potential to dramatically broaden the role of computing in the everyday lives of people with a greater proliferation of personal wireless devices and with wireless devices starting to be embedded in the urban landscape. The challenges of pervasive computing will not only be about building pervasive environments, they will also be about the omnipresent information which pervasive applications and infrastructures will need to capture, process and distribute behind the scenes. This theme addresses the challenge of designing pervasive applications and services that seamlessly interact with each other across Cityware interaction spaces.

User engagement

Understanding the psychological, physical and social impact of technology on peoples lives is crucial for designing and deploying successful pervasive systems. In the Cityware project we will be working closely with users throughout the project to explore the impact of pervasive systems on the lifestyles of the city of Bath.
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Dawn Woodgate joined the project on 1 December 2008.

In January 2008 James Mitchell joined Cityware, working with WP2 (Bath CS and HP Labs).

In January 2008 Jim Grimmett joined Cityware, working with WP2 (Bath CS and HP Labs).