Attend2IT

Attention-Aware ICT

From 2016 till 2018

In today’s world, where people are flooded with information and notifications on all sensory perception channels, the need to protect the attention of the user on the one hand, and the efficient generation of attention in this overabundance of information on the other, are the greatest challenges for information and communication technology (ICT)-based communication. For the implementation of future ICT systems, the realization of machine perception, as well as understanding and modeling the attention of the individual user will be a fundamental prerequisite for the implementation of a future respectful human-machine interaction focused on the benefit for the human being.

The Research Studios Austria FG has already established the basis for the realization of so-called attention-aware ICT. These range from the assessment of needs and potential (exploratory project “Raising Attention”), research into the basic sensory acquisition of attention (industry-oriented dissertation “Attentive ICT”), to the first cooperative projects for market-oriented realization (ICT of the future: “Attentive Machines”).

The goal of the Attend2IT development project is to develop a general attention-sensitive framework in a modular building block principle, to make the leap from pure research projects to a generic basis, in order to enable the implementation of future near-market R&D projects with industry partners.

The objectives of the project are:

• Leap in development from previous isolated applications to a general systematics through the generalization of methods for capturing, interpreting and modeling human attention (modularity, adaptability)
• Realization of attention-sensitive systems along the key challenges identified in the research agenda (i) Understanding Attention, (ii) Measuring Attention (sensory acquisition of behavioral and physical attention indicators), (iii) Modeling Attention (implementation of attention models using machine learning methods), and (iv) Managing Attention.
• Avoidance of a transparent user through unobtrusive sensor/actuator concepts and privacy-by-design principles that always allow the user to have control over the collected data.

The intended result of the Attentd2IT project is the development of a data selection opportunistic, multi-modal, highly modular framework according to the modular principle for the realization of attention-sensitive systems which (i) can be adapted quickly and easily to specific requirements and (ii) are implemented in such a general way that they are able to replace previous individual case solutions with a generally formulated solution.

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