Technologies designed for life

Robot football teams, electronic dancing dogs and tag game with a city as its arena. All this and much more will be featured at the second International Conference on Appliance Design (2AD) hosted and co-sponsored again by HP Labs Bristol (UK).

Delegates from leading academic and industrial research groups around the world can take their pick of project demonstrations, seminars, lectures and tutorials over three days from May 11 to 13. Subjects range from creating digital mediascapes and design for everyday life, to the intelligent street and intelligent textiles.

Featured projects involving HP Labs include energy-saving designs for computing devices, the city-wide electronic tagging game and an audio-photodesk to link pictures and memories with sound.

The aim of the conference is to create a dialogue between people working in such disciplines as product and industrial design, information design, interaction design, technology innovation and research in human-centerd studies to increase knowledge in an industry where users will increasingly demand products that fit into their daily lifestyles.

The aim of the conference is to create a dialogue between disciplines including product and industrial design, information design, interaction design, technology innovation and research in human-centred studies to increase knowledge in an industry where users will increasingly demand products that fit into their daily lifestyles.

HP Labs Technology & Lifestyle Integration research group is investigating many aspects of design, mobility, user studies and related fields. The group brings together and combines the expertise technologists, designers, social scientists and artists.

"Understanding appliance design is vital for an IT company such as HP and is at the heart of what our research group in HP Labs Bristol is investigating," said Erik Geelhoed, one of the HP Labs research team taking part in 2AD. "This conference is a great opportunity for everyone involved in the field -- academic and industrial -- to exchange ideas and learn new ways of creating excellent experiences for the ultimate users of this technology, the public."

And the robot football? This is an international knock-out competition for robotic teams from several countries. The robots, which resemble upright vacuum cleaners, all "understand" their role in their teams and will play to win on a pitch that’s been cleared for them inside HP Labs. Using artificial intelligence and advanced vision systems the robots can pass, dribble and shoot. (See http://www.appliancedesign.org/2ad/football.mpeg .)

The organizers will have to hope their machines don’t tangle with the AIBO electronic dogs, which can also play football and demonstrate the fine art of synchronized dancing.