Mobile devices are increasingly evolving into tools to orientate in and interact with the environment, thus introducing a user-centric approach to Ambient Intelligence. The MINAmI project aims at creating core technologies for these kinds of Ambient Intelligence services. In this paper we assess five scenarios that demonstrate forthcoming MINAmI-based devices. A brief legal and ethical analysis of the scenarios is conducted, which reveals various conflicting interests. The paper concludes with some thoughts on drafting ethical guidelines for Ambient Intelligence applications, as the nature and the needs of such applications are intrinsically different from the ones ethical guidelines have been dealing with earlier.

Graphical information system (IS) models are used to specify and design IS from several perspectives. Due to the growing size and complexity of modern information systems, critical design information is often distributed via multiple diagrams. This slows search performance and results in reading errors that later cause omissions and inconsistencies in the final designs. We study the impact of large screens and the two promising visual integration techniques of elision and connecting lines that can decrease the designers' cognitive efforts to read diagrams. We conduct a laboratory experiment using 84 computer science students to investigate the impact of these techniques on the accuracy of the subjects' search and recall with entity-relationship diagrams and data flow diagrams. The search tasks involve both vertical and horizontal searches on a moderately complex IS model that consists of multiple diagrams. We also examine the subjects' spatial visualization abilities as a possible covariant for observed search performance. These visual integration techniques significantly reduced errors in both the search and the recall of diagrams, especially with respect to individuals with low spatial visualization ability.

The spatial arrangement of elements such as icons in a computer interface may influence learning the interface. However, the effects of layout organization on users' information processing is relatively little studied so far. The three experiments of this paper examined two attributes of layouts: spatial grouping by proximity and semantic coherence. Learning was assessed by tasks in which 30 participants recalled icon-like items' labels, locations, or both as a series of study-recall trials. The results show that layout organization interacts with task demands. Semantic organization improves recall of labels, and spatial grouping supports recall of locations. When both labels and locations are learned concurrently, the best recall performance is associated with a simultaneously grouped and semantically coherent layout. However, semantic and spatial organization may interact unexpectedly on learning. The findings are discussed from the viewpoint of information chunking in memory processes and interface design.

Current CASE tools lack efficient techniques to visualise information system (IS) design repository. One important aspect in visualising graphical IS models is to preserve structure, which can have semantic value. Another key issue is to provide both focus and context in order to understand how detailed information relates to other design elements. The third aspect to consider is to trace between diagrams and other design documents. Our VRML implementation integrates different types of diagrams as a whole. We applied elision technique for decomposition of data flow diagrams (DFD) and added visible lines to link parts of DFD to entity-relation diagrams. In our laboratory experiment, we collected users' subjective opinions and performance in information search tasks. Based on the promising results, we give suggestions for further exploration.

We apply fillets - smoothing of sharp angles at the joints - between the connections and nodes of graph-like diagrams. In situations where the graph layout is constrained, e.g. Focus+Context views or views where the coordinates of the nodes are informative, fillets can clarify the relationships considerably without altering the layout. A visual search experiment supports our hypothesis that with fillets it is considerably easier to perceive node-connection structures. We discuss algorithms with different tradeoffs for flexibility and performance for rendering these connections in a single pass using OpenGL.