The central goal of the Equator IRC is to promote the integration of the
physical with the digital. In particular, we are concerned with uncovering
and supporting the variety of possible relationships between physical and
digital worlds. Our objective in doing this is to improve the quality of
everyday life by building and adapting technologies for a range of user
groups and application domains. Examples include:
combining physical and digital cities to promote people's understanding
of the world within which they live, and to enhance wayfinding and access to
physical and digital artefacts, information and people.
creating new forms of play, performance and entertainment that combine
the physical and digital so as to promote learning, participation and
creativity.
exploring how new technologies that merge the physical and the digital
can support activities outside of the workplace, including maintaining
family and social relationships in the home, and supporting work in the open
air.
Meeting this objective will require us to address fundamental and long-term
research challenges. We will conduct research into new classes of device
that link the physical and the digital, including embedded devices that are
integrated into physical environments, information appliances that combine
computing functionality with purpose designed physical objects, and wearable
devices that are carried on the person. In turn, these activities will be
supported by fundamental research into adaptive software architectures that
can knit together heterogeneous collections of such devices, as well as new
design and evaluation methods that draw together approaches from social
science, cognitive science and art and design.