Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is currently one of the most dynamic and innovative fields in Sardinia. 1) 2) It has considerable resources to activate intersectorial activity and its development has a strong influence on all other productive activities. One of the strengths of the government program of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia is the promotion of the island as a logistics platform of excellence for scientific and technological research and for the use of the new technologies, particularly those in the field of Information Society.
At CRS4, research and development is done in mobile, wireless, broadband communications, software and computing technologies that are reliable, pervasive, interoperable and can be adapted to accommodate new applications and services. Open standards and open source software are used as much as possible, to ensure interoperability of solutions and to further innovation. The new paradigm of Ambient Intelligence builds on three recent key technologies: Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Communication and Intelligent User Interfaces. An Intelligent User Interface enables the inhabitants of the Ambient Intelligence environment to control and interact with the environment in a natural (voice, gestures) and personalised way (preferences, context). Internet standards have opened up opportunities for new classes of devices that extend beyond the desktop-computer paradigm into one that relies on more affordable, easier-to-use, and easier-to-maintain appliances to access the Internet. The vision is for Internet access by anyone, anytime, anywhere, and on any device: a truly Pervasive Internet.
Our research and technological development include the design of user friendly interfaces which are intuitive, with powerful and flexible knowledge technologies that are semantic-based, context-aware and, if the case, location-based. All this is essential for the next generation Web and for more effective digital content. We are in particular active in the development of middleware systems and services, between the underlying basic technologies and open standards and the many vertical fields of the Information Society, in collaboration with other research institutions and industries.
More specifically we are working on the following areas: