Welcome

The Digital Lifestyles Centre is a new interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Essex. The centre was created to optimize the design and development of pervasive computing technologies in inhabited environments, by combining the technical expertise of the Intelligent Inhabited Environments Group (IIEG), the socio-technical focus of Chimera, the Natural Language Engineering and Web Applications (NLWA), and Pervasive Networks and Services Research Group (PNSR).

Critically, for the Ambient Intelligence domain to advance, innovative technological research must be informed by real human needs, which are sensitive to social and cultural norms and user perceptions of technology. We believe this new centre will provide such a capability by harnessing long established expertise in socio-technical and pervasive computing research and development, focused around what is a UK and world leading research facility - the iSpace is a multi-room apartment, which provides a flexible testbed for future digital-home technology. The iSpace builds on the networked embedded technology developed within its forerunner, the iDorm, which was featured on the BBC Tomorrow’s World programme in 2002.

For more information about the Digital Lifestyles Centre, please contact Michael Gardner or Vic Callaghan.