Section: Research Program

Designing pervasive applications

The TACOMA team is focused on building pervasive applications and implementing proven concepts according to all the attributes put forward in section 2.1 . Our goal is to identify the hardware and software requirements for the development of pervasive applications through various tests. This approach is inherited from the former ACES research project (http://raweb.inria.fr/rapportsactivite/RA2013/aces/uid0.html ), which two TACOMA members come from. Our past experience has shown that in the field of pervasive applications, the solutions were given credibility when they were faced with real scenarios and real environments. We have experimented in the recent past through applications such as "Ubi-Board" [5] or even as part of a shared platform of a bilateral project conducted with an energy producer (http://raweb.inria.fr/rapportsactivite/RA2013/aces/uid34.html ). We continue to do so as part of the TACOMA project.

Some of our experiments are based on the principle of composite objects. These are hybrid digital objects combining virtual and physical aspects in their structures. For example, opening a door by an RFID device is a simple case where the badge, carrying digital information, is placed in a physical area in order to trigger the opening. We are working on more complex scenarios, particularly in the field of smart cities and waste treatment. In this context, an object can be denied access to a recycling container when its deposit could cause dangerous interactions with waste already present. The focus on composite objects is to benefit from implicit treatments that accompany the actual activities in the form of movements and the spatial arrangement of the objects presented in section 3.1 . Implementation of the principle presupposes the massive "annotation" of everyday objects (and their components) with information and the ability to read/write these annotations by surrounding systems.

TACOMA is also focused on different applications for Smart Spaces. We currently pay special attention to developments in the context sensitive services in the field of Smart Buildings. For economic reasons, one of the challenges is to install the instrumentation (sensors, actuators) in the building, without disrupting existing spaces. From this point of view, the lighting of a building offers great potential. Existing light fixtures are being replaced by LEDs. Instrumented via a radio interface, the light fixture becomes an unobtrusive connected object that is easy to equip and fits naturally into the building. Equipped with sensors, it can collect data characterizing the local environment and the attached context. In addition, part of the ongoing experiments within the team focuses on the metamorphic house (see section 4.2 for more details).