Project

uCom

uCom (the "u" stands for "ubiquitous") is a follow-on to our iCom (Media Lab/Media Lab Europe, 1999) system for connecting architectural spaces to enable collaboration by distributed groups. uCom takes advantage of input/output resources (e.g., displays, cameras, speakers, sensors) already in place; it is not restricted to one "window" in one location, but rather creates multiple video and audio portals between the spaces; it scales in richness as the number of input and output devices increase; and it has both a real-world and a virtual-world presence. The virtual-world model can be accessed by users in other places, or for replay of past events. uCom also enables the aggregating of sensor data to allow processes to draw higher-level inferences (e.g., for understanding the actions of the community of users), monitoring individual users (e.g., for health or disability reasons), or augmenting the space with additional virtual information.