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An increasing trend in mobile and pervasive computing is the augmentation of everyday public spaces with local computation -leading to so called smart environments. However, there are no well accepted techniques for supporting spontaneous interaction between mobile users and these smart environments, though a wide range of techniques have been explored ranging from gesture recognition to downloading applications to a user's phone. In this paper we explore an approach to supporting such interaction based on the use of Bluetooth Device (user-friendly) Names as a control channel between users' mobile phones and computational resources in their local environment. Such an approach has many advantages over existing techniques though it is not without limitations. Our work focuses specifically on the use of Device Names to control and customize applications on large public displays in a campus environment. This paper describes our basic approach, a number of applications that we have constructed using this technique and the results of our evaluation work which has included a range of user studies and field trials. The paper concludes with an assessment of the viability of using our approach for interaction scenarios involving mobile users and computationally rich environments.

Abstract-Future road communication scenarios are expected to deploy a radio ad hoc communication technology for the transmission of data between vehicles. Such ad hoc networks are able to support low latencies and cost efficiency, which is very important for, e.g., safety related applications. In addition to vehicle-to-vehicle communication, users also will be interested in accessing Internet services from within the vehicular network. Access can be gained by using roadside installed Internet Gateways, which are able to communicate with the vehicles. However, several difficulties must be addressed in such a scenario. Examples are the interoperability of communication protocols, mobility support, communication efficiency, the discovery of Internet Gateways, and the handover of connections from one gateway to the next. In this paper, we are focussing on the aspect of discovering the Internet Gateways. We therefore developed a Service Discovery Protocol, which is highly optimized for the characteristics of future vehicular ad hoc networks. Besides the benefit of efficient service discovery, our protocol is able to choose the most suitable Internet Gateway among others using fuzzy methods. Furthermore, evaluations show that we are able to decrease the overhead caused by the service discovery process significantly.

Baubotanik – the construction method that uses living plants for load bearing in architectural structures – provides a surprising ability to anticipate the latent convergence of non‐living and living systems in architecture. Through interdisciplinary research by architects, engineers and biologists it aims to synthesise architectural qualities, constructive requirements and biological properties in living structures. In this article, Ferdinand Ludwig, Hannes Schwertfeger and Oliver Storz of the Baubotanik research group at the Institute for Architectural Theory and Design (IGMA) at the University of Stuttgart explain how living and non‐living building elements can be designed to develop into vegetal‐technical compound structures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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