Anind Dey · Intel Research and UC Berkeley
Giving Users Control in Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Supporting feedback and control in traditional desktop applications is necessary to help users understand and interact with these applications. With implicit data collection, synthesis and action being key parts of most ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) visions, feedback and control are even more important in this domain. However, current ubicomp applications and tools for building them have little support for providing users with feedback and control. In this talk, I describe a key subset of ubicomp applications known as context-aware applications, which adapt to their context of use. Providing appropriate feedback and control in context-aware systems is crucial to a "good" user experience. An important aspect of giving end users control is allowing them to build and evolve their own context-aware applications. I present two systems that support this, without requiring any programming by end users. To support feedback in context-aware systems, I present research in applications and toolkits that provides information about past, present and future states of an application.

Anind Dey is a Senior Researcher at Intel Research Berkeley and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley. He received a PhD and Masters degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Bachelors degree in Applied Science (Computer Engineering) from Simon Fraser University. He performs research at the intersection of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) and human-computer interaction, building tools that make it easier to build useful ubicomp applications and supporting end users in controlling their ubicomp systems.