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Rule-based tools for the configuration of ambient intelligence systems: a comparative user study

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Abstract

This paper describes a 63-participant user study that compares two widely known systems supporting end users in creating trigger-action rules for the Internet of Things and Ambient Intelligence scenarios. The user study is the first stage of a research agenda that concerns the implementation of a novel conceptual framework for the design and continuous evolution of ‘sentient multimedia systems’, namely socio-technical systems, where people and many kinds of hardware/software components (sensors, robots, smart devices, web services, etc.) interact with one another through the exchange of multimedia information, to give rise to intelligent, proactive behaviors. The conceptual framework is structured along three layers - physical, inference and user – and is based on an information space of events, conditions and actions, linked together in Event-Condition-Action rules and operating according to the interconnection metaphor. The results of the user study have provided some indications for the implementation of the user layer, suggesting which could be the most suitable interaction style for rule design by a community of end users (e.g. a family) and which issues should be addressed in such a wide context.

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Acknowledgments

This work is partially supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) under grants PON02_00563_3470993 “VINCENTE”, PON04a2_B “EDOC@WORK3.0”, and PON03PE_00136_1 “DSE” and by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) under grant PON Industria 2015 MI01_00294 “LOGIN”.

The authors wish to thank Lynn Rudd for her help in reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemistica e Comunicazione, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy

    Federico Cabitza

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Daniela Fogli

  3. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy

    Rosa Lanzilotti & Antonio Piccinno

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  1. Federico Cabitza
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  2. Daniela Fogli
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  4. Antonio Piccinno
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Correspondence to Antonio Piccinno.

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Cabitza, F., Fogli, D., Lanzilotti, R. et al. Rule-based tools for the configuration of ambient intelligence systems: a comparative user study. Multimed Tools Appl 76, 5221–5241 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3511-2

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