The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services and their integration in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) Environments revealed a new range of roles that TVs are expected to play so as to improve quality of life. This work introduces AmITV, an integrated multimodal system that permits end-users to use the TV not only as a traditional entertainment center, but also as (i) a control center for manipulating any intelligent device, (ii) an intervention host that presents appropriate content when they need help or support, (iii) an intelligent agent that communicates with the users in a natural manner and assists them throughout their daily activities, (iv) a notification medium that informs them about interesting or urgent events, and (v) a communication hub that permits them to exchange messages in real-time or asynchronously. This paper presents two motivational scenarios inspired from Home and Hotel Intelligent Environments and the infrastructure behind AmITV. Additionally, it describes how it realizes the newly emerged roles of TVs as a multimodal, intelligent and versatile interaction hub with the ambient facilities of the entire technologically-augmented environment.

The proliferation of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) devices and services and their integration in smart environments creates the need for a simple yet effective way of controlling and communicating with them. Towards that direction, the application of the Trigger -- Action model has attracted a lot of research with many systems and applications having been developed following that approach. This work introduces ParlAmI, a multimodal conversational interface aiming to give its users the ability to determine the behavior of AmI environments, by creating rules using natural language as well as a GUI. The paper describes ParlAmI, its requirements and functionality, and presents the findings of a user-based evaluation which was conducted.

This paper reports on the design and implementation of BeThereNow, a public interactive information system where users are depicted immersed in various sceneries. The work is focused on the domain of info-tainment in public spaces using large displays and aims on short-time usage. The implemented system employs a mixed reality application through which users are informed about different sceneries and also create personalized digital postcards. This process is accomplished using computer vision algorithms in order to depict users and objects, while removing the background of the scene. Finally, the lessons learned from the long-term deployment of the system out-in-the-wild are presented, providing an insight on the users’ actions and reactions and feedback on future research directions.

This poster describes the design and development of a comprehensive Museum Tour Guide mobile application that can be installed on user-owned devices. The purpose of the application is to provide museum visitors with a device that can improve their experience through optimised planning of their visit and an always-available stream of information regarding the museum and its exhibits. The main goals, the design, as well as the implementation of the application are described and the main functions of the application are presented. Finally, conclusions are drawn and further development ideas are discussed.

This paper presents an innovative application of ambient technology in the domain of tourism and leisure that aims to improve the quality of services offered by the hospitality industry. The main objective is to formulate an ambient ecosystem that observes its surroundings using non-invasive technology and adapts its behavior, in real-time, to deliver “intelligent” and personalized services to the occupants of a guest room. Towards that direction, the proposed system aims to leverage the disadvantages of being away from home and offer a unique user experience.

Touchless remote interaction empowers users to interact with systems at a distance without the burden of actually coming to physical contact with any tangible object. The research presented in this paper focuses on motion-based interaction in public spaces through hand detection using Microsoft’s Kinect, in order to allow natural interaction in mid-air. The paper presents the development of a system that allows browsing and exploring large collections of multimedia information (images and videos).

This paper presents an innovative advergame installation for promoting the brand and products of a company producing Cretan rusks. The paper first presents some background and related work. Then, the requirements set towards creating the game are outlined, followed by concept creation and design decisions taken to meet these requirements, as well as a description of the user interface, gameplay and technical characteristics of the resulting game. The game has been installed with remarkable success in two different food exhibitions in key locations in Athens, Greece, where it has been played by more than 500 people of ages ranging from 2 to 76 years old. A large variety of qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The paper presents several findings stemming from these data. Additionally, changes made to the game as a result of the findings are presented, along with lessons learnt from the acquired experience.

This paper presents an advergame installation for promoting the brand and products of a food company producing various types of traditional Cretan rusks. The paper first presents some background and related work. Then the requirements set towards creating the game are outlined, followed by concept creation and design decisions taken in order to meet these requirements, as well as a description of the user interface, gameplay and implementation characteristics of the resulting game. The game has already been installed with remarkable success in two different food exhibitions.

This paper introduces booTable, an interactive coffee table prototype constructed by recycled paper aiming to build upon the paradigm of surface computing, but endeavoring to overcome a number of identified limitations of current design practice. In this respect, the paper first runs through the design requirements, decisions and rationale towards creating a first version of the prototype. Then, the outcomes of the prototyping process are described, along with the results of an informal assessment session and related critique. Following that, the revisions made towards the development of a second version of the prototype are laid out and the final result is presented.

In this paper, the application of computer vision techniques to the localization of multiple persons in a relatively wide gaming terrain is presented. Multiple views are employed both for terrain coverage, but most importantly, for treatment of occlusions. Through the appropriate selection of lightweight operations and acceleration strategies, an adequate frame rate is achieved despite the large volume of input data. The resulting system is employed in the development of multiplayer entertainment applications, which are demonstrated and evaluated.