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In this paper, we introduce the concept of shape-changing, user interface control devices called "Haptic Chameleon", which refers to computer-controlled user interface devices that convey information to and from the user by altering their shape and feel. The user decides what a Haptic Chameleon control will do by changing its shape, and can immediately recognize the capabilities of the newly shaped device through haptic and tactile channels. By combining the benefits of tangible and haptic user interfaces, this new user interface paradigm has the potential to vastly improve the learning and efficiency of interaction in a wide range of applications. It also represents an appealing alternative to current control devices. We report on our experience with early prototypes based on this concept, discuss open issues, and propose possible directions for future work.

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In this paper we outline the design and the implementation of the multimodal presentation planner PMO, which is part of the EMBASSI intelligent user interface for home entertainment devices. We provide details about the concepts we use to produce cohesive and coherent output as well as illustrate the software architecture of the PMO. We compare our approach with the state of the art in presentation planning and conclude with an illustration of our future work.

We propose the introduction of an abstract concept of QoS to all layers of the multimedia software architecture. Each layer in a software system deals with QoS at its appropriate level of abstraction using a generic API for communicating QoS parameters and values to layers above and below. We call the aggregation of these parameters and values a "service contract". By mapping the contract at one layer to other contracts at the layer below we can build service hierarchies that allow the design of adaptive systems based on a single framework. Further the API allows for reporting of contract violations as well as dynamic renegotiations of the contract terms.To verify these ideas we built a proof-of-concept multimedia system (Ott, 1997) which showed that our architecture is not only feasible but offers a powerful framework for building adaptive multimedia systems.