Interactive Technologies for the End-user: Fulfilling the Vision of a Shared Digital Economy

英国和印度的最终用户在交互技术的可用性方面有相似之处，他们与技术交互的技能和对更好的交互服务的渴望，两国最终用户所需的服务类型以及最终用户技术的使用场景和背景也存在差异。例如，基于触摸和手势的交互技术正在英国和印度进行探索，因为它们可能使用户能够执行无眼交互。然而，这两个国家的互动背景可能非常不同。在英国的背景可能是在视觉通道被占用时启用简单的任务（比如在走下楼梯时在GPS上设置路径点），而在印度，背景可能是授权文盲在不需要阅读的情况下执行基本的交互任务（比如使用基于手势的系统进行文本到语音交互）。这些相似之处和不同之处使得英国和印度的研究人员有必要进行合作。该网络的目的是统一过去的努力，并在交互技术的背景下为最终用户制定一个活动议程，并鼓励发展国际上杰出的和经济上相关的研究合作，同时对两国都是真实的和有意义的。该网络的一个主要目标，是把有关研究课题的不同合作，汇聚在一个统一的网络之下，并利用这些个别合作的力量，创造一个没有一个机构能够单独实现的协同效应。拟议的网络将考虑三个相互关联的主题，这将有助于为最终用户开发交互技术。这些主题建立在网络成员在设计、实施和评估各种应用和服务的交互技术方面的优势之上。这三个主题是-互动技术使能器，互动服务和应用，可持续的互动设计。

There are similarities between the UK and Indian end-users in terms of availability of interactive technologies, their skills in interacting with technology and desire for better interactive services, there are also differences in the type of services demanded by end-users in the two countries and the usage scenarios and context of the end-user technology. For example, touch and gesture based interaction techniques are being explored both within the UK and India as they potentially empower the user to perform eyes-free interaction. However, the context of the interaction may be very different in both these countries. The context in the UK may be to enable simple tasks when the visual channel is occupied (like setting the waypoint on a GPS when walking down a flight of stairs), while in India the context may be to empower the illiterate in performing basic interactive tasks without the need to read (like using gesture based systems for text-to-speech interaction). These similarities and differences make it worthwhile for the UK and Indian researchers to collaborate.The aim of this network is to unify past efforts and develop an agenda of activities within the context of Interactive Technologies for the end-user and to encourage the development of research collaboration that is internationally outstanding and economically relevant while being real and meaningful to both countries. A driving goal of the Network is to bring together various distinct collaborations in related research topics under a unified network and harness the strength of these individual collaborations to create a synergy which no single institution will be able to achieve on its own.The proposed network will consider three inter-related themes that will contribute to the development of Interactive Technologies for the end-user. The themes build on the network members' strengths in designing, implementing and evaluating interactive technologies for various applications and services. The three themes are - Interactive Technology Enablers, Interactive Services and Applications, and Sustainable Interaction Designs.