Horizon
Horizon Digital Economy Research represents an initial £40 million investment by Research Councils UK (RCUK), the University of Nottingham and over 40 academic and industrial partners including the Human Factors Research Group (HFRG).
Horizon focuses on the role of ‘always on, always with you’ ubiquitous computing technology in the Digital Economy. Building on the Digital Britain plan, Horizon are investigating the technical developments needed if electronic information is to be controlled, managed and harnessed to develop new products and services for societal benefit.
The advent of the Digital Economy poses interesting new challenges to human factors theory and practice. These include coping with the intermingling of the digital and physical domains as sensors and personal devices turn real-world action and virtual interaction into data.
Termed a ‘personal contextual footprint’, this trail can be harnessed to provide personalised services but privacy implications for the individual also have to be understood.
We are also interested in exploring new ways of collaboratively performing tasks through activities such as crowd sourcing and understanding the role of human error in data security.
The HFRG are currently involved in a range of Horizon projects:
- Enabling car sharing through mobile devices
- Integrating personal data about travellers into transport management
- Designing interfaces for digital GIS systems to provide ‘door to door’ personal navigation
- Use of mobile smart phones featuring accelerometers in the detection of car accident
For more information, visit the Horizon website or email Dr Sarah Sharples.