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Device Framework

Active spaces consist of physical spaces -- such as offices, lecture and meeting rooms, homes, hospitals, campuses, train stations, cities -- that are augmented with computing devices integrated into the environment. The objective of these devices is to provide information to and obtain information from users of the space, helping them to perform activities they would not be able to perform otherwise, or helping them to perform conventional activities more easily.

In the Gaia project, we are investigating novel ways of representing and managing large numbers of devices using object-orientation and standards such as the CORBA Trading Service and XML.

Using object-oriented techniques, we are developing a framework for interaction with heterogeneous devices. It allows the representation of device interfaces with different levels of detail and specialization. Gaia device interfaces are defined using IDL, which enables the construction of device drivers and clients in any programming language.  A simplified Gaia class diagram is depicted bellow.