This project started as part of the Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre and has now migrated to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems.
An intelligent environment is a location (e.g. home, office, hospital, etc) that is equipped with sensors, actuators and computers that are networked with each other and the internet. The components are controlled by "intelligent agent" software that knows the preferences of the occupants and tailors the environment to suit them. The occupants can talk to the environment using speech and natural language and the sensors can monitor the environment. Applications of this technology include creating an assistive environment for elderly or disabled people to help them control devices around the house, remind them to take medication, monitor them for falls or other accidents and so on.
This project offers students the opportunity to work on many different aspects of the intelligent environment, including computer vision; user interfaces, including speech and gesture recognition; intelligent agents and networking.
There is a well-equipped room in CSE that has all of the hardware infrastructure set up for this project. We also have an extensive software system for basic control of the room. What we need now is to develop interesting applications and user interfaces.