During the last decade, progress in telecommunications and the continued miniaturization of electronics have led to the emergence of innovations such as the internet of things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS), able to incorporate computing, communication, and even “smart” features, into ordinary objects such as appliances or cars. This technological revolution has had a tremendous effect, and terms such as smart home, smart car, and smart city are part of the everyday vocabulary of millions of people.

Methods and technologies developed under the IoT paradigm facilitate communication and data exchange among the different devices that comprise intelligent environments, enabling the creation and exploitation of new network architectures based on connected sensing instruments and resource-constrained energy-efficient end devices (i.e., embedded devices and mobile devices). Efforts made have primarily been aimed at the design and deployment of faster and more efficient network infrastructures, as well as the development of more accurate sensing platforms and more powerful computing hardware. These systems enable the collection and storage of large volumes of data and the support of increasingly sophisticated AI techniques.

In recent years, by leveraging its expertise in parallel and high-performance computing, the EAC has built solid know-how in the design of IoT solutions, exploiting today’s mobile and cloud technologies for the development of business production and training systems capable of operating in interactive environments where individuals work cooperatively, where user interfaces emerge as a key enabler element for information exchange and where communication among the people is involved. In this respect, aligned with the ubiquitous computing paradigm, the group has mainly focused on developing distributed user interfaces capable of spreading the elements of interaction between different users, different platforms or hardware configurations, and different physical spaces.

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