Autonomous and awareness-rich assistive systems

Future assistive technology needs adaptive, autonomous, intelligent and self-aware behavior to be able to offer solutions that are intuitively integrated in our everyday surroundings. New systems have to be as natural as possible. To achieve such an ideal it is necessary not only to develop new techniques but also to have a thorough understanding of the natural phenomena being modeled. This calls for highly multidisciplinary design teams gathering a wide spectrum of expertise. The paper describes how deployment of "natural" processes may improve functioning of technical systems, by illustrating effective deployment of adaptation in man-machine interface applied in automotive and homecare domains featuring autonomous and awareness-rich assistive behavior.