Research has shown that computers are notoriously bad at supporting the management of parallel activities and interruptions, and that mobility increases the severity and scope of these problems. This paper presents activity-based computing (ABC) which supplements the prevalent data-and application-oriented computing paradigm with technologies for handling multiple, parallel and mobile work activities. We present the design and implementation of ABC support embedded in the Windows XP operating system. This includes replacing the Windows Taskbar with an Activity Bar, support for handling Windows applications, a zoomable user interface, and support for moving activities across different computers. We report an evaluation of this Windows XP ABC system which is based on a multi-method approach, where perceived ease-of-use and usefulness was evaluated together with rich interview material. This evaluation showed that users found the ABC XP extension easy to use and likely to be useful in their own work.

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Abstract.A multi-display environment (MDE) is made up of co-located and networked personal and public devices that form an integrated workspace enabling co-located group work. Traditionally, MDEs have, however, mainly been designed to support a single "smart room", and have had little sense of the tasks and activities that the MDE is being used for. This paper presents a novel approach to support activity-based computing in distributed MDEs, where displays are physically distributed across a large building. CLINICAL SURFACES was designed for clinical work in hospitals, and enables context-sensitive retrieval and browsing of patient data on public displays. We present the design and implementation of CLINICAL SURFACES, and report from an evaluation of the system at a large hospital. The evaluation shows that using distributed public displays to support activity-based computing inside a hospital is very useful for clinical work, and that the apparent contradiction between maintaining privacy of medical data in a public display environment can be mitigated by the use of CLINICAL SURFACES.

There is a definite lack of formal support for modeling realistic context-awareness in pervasive computing applications. The Conawa calculus presented in this paper provides mechanisms for modeling complex and interwoven sets of context-information by extending ambient calculus with new constructs and capabilities. In connection with the calculus we present four scenarios which are used to evaluate Conawa. The calculus is a step in the direction of making formal methods applicable in the area of pervasive computing.

This paper reports on a study of a newly developed system for assisted living, which was implemented in the homes of seven elderly residents. Based on these findings we point out three fundamental issues that will enrich and improve the use of technology for assisted living in the home. Firstly, we argue that the technology must co-evolve with the elderly people as their needs change, thereby building on an existing familiarity with a given system or artifact. Secondly, we argue that there is a need to seriously take into account the qualities of the domestic setting in both design and deployment, and that social as well as clinical aspects must be considered when designing for assisted living. Thirdly, we argue that technology must be much easier to deploy, use and comprehend for the elder users. We then outline our future work on developing technology for assisted living.