1. A USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE FOR
RULES COMPOSITION IN
INTELLIGENT ENVIRONMENT
Dario Bonino, Fulvio Corno, Luigi De Russis
Politecnico di Torino, e-Lite Research Group
http://elite.polito.it

2. OUTLINE
• Motivations and goal
• Requirements
• Interface design
• Conclusions
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

3. MOTIVATIONS
• Need to find a suitable trade-off between:
• totally direct user control of the home
• fully automatic home behavior
• Feasible solution: rule-based activity delegation
• lack of effective rules definition interfaces
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

4. OUR GOAL
Define a rule definition interface
specifically aimed at non-skilled home inhabitants
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

5. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
• Rules:
• definable by people with basic level of computer
literacy
• self-explaining
• always valid
• expressive enough to manage almost home situations
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

6. NOT FUNCTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS
• Facilitate rule creation by means of:
• suggestions
• auto-filling functionalities
• auto-saving functionalities
• Home devices shall be exposed in an abstract and
technology independent way
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

7. HOW TO?
• Rich-web interface
• Formal rule representation grammar
• Constrained editing
• rules are always valid
• Ruleobjects and grammar easy to render as nearly
natural language
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

8. PAPER PROTOTYPE
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

9. INTERFACE CONCEPT (1/4)
- LAYOUT -
• Sam wants to create the rule:
If the living room is dark, turn on the lamp.
• By opening the Rule Builder he sees:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

10. INTERFACE CONCEPT (1/4)
- LAYOUT -
• Sam wants to create the rule:
If the living room is dark, turn on the lamp.
• By opening the Rule Builder he sees:
what he needs to create
the rule
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

11. INTERFACE CONCEPT (1/4)
- LAYOUT -
• Sam wants to create the rule:
If the living room is dark, turn on the lamp.
• By opening the Rule Builder he sees:
what he needs to create
the rule
a wide area to be
used for the rule
definition
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

12. INTERFACE CONCEPT (2/4)
- DRAG AND AUTO-DOCKING -
• Sam decides to drag the “light intensity sensor” under the
“IF”:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

13. INTERFACE CONCEPT (2/4)
- DRAG AND AUTO-DOCKING -
• Sam decides to drag the “light intensity sensor” under the
“IF”:
the sensor docks
and shows a list to specify
what event has to intercept
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

14. INTERFACE CONCEPT (3/4)
- GRAMMAR BASED SUGGESTIONS -
• When Sam starts to drag the lamp, two new (optional)
“blocks” appear:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

15. INTERFACE CONCEPT (3/4)
- GRAMMAR BASED SUGGESTIONS -
• When Sam starts to drag the lamp, two new (optional)
“blocks” appear:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

16. INTERFACE CONCEPT (3/4)
- GRAMMAR BASED SUGGESTIONS -
• When Sam starts to drag the lamp, two new (optional)
“blocks” appear:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

17. INTERFACE CONCEPT (4/4)
- NEARLY NATURAL LANGUAGE -
• Sam concludes the rule by dragging the lamp and
selecting the proper action:
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

18. INTERFACE CONCEPT (4/4)
- NEARLY NATURAL LANGUAGE -
• Sam concludes the rule by dragging the lamp and
selecting the proper action:
the rule is complete and
a sentence summarizes it
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

19. THE GRAMMAR BEHIND
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

20. THE GRAMMAR BEHIND
optional
•
• mandatory
conditions
• • mandatory
• event to trigger
constraining • set of actions
the rule
the event to be executed
(E-BLOCK)
(C-BLOCKs) (A-BLOCKs)
• controllable
• controllable • controllable
devices, clock
devices, clock devices
and sensors
and sensors
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

21. THE GRAMMAR BEHIND
optional
•
• mandatory
conditions
• • mandatory
• event to trigger
constraining • set of actions
the rule
the event to be executed
(E-BLOCK)
(C-BLOCKs) (A-BLOCKs)
• controllable
• controllable • controllable
devices, clock
devices, clock devices
and sensors
and sensors
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

22. THE GRAMMAR BEHIND
disjunction for repeating
IF-WHEN more than once
optional
•
• mandatory
conditions
• • mandatory
• event to trigger
constraining • set of actions
the rule
the event to be executed
(E-BLOCK)
(C-BLOCKs) (A-BLOCKs)
• controllable
• controllable • controllable
devices, clock
devices, clock devices
and sensors
and sensors
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
9
Composition in Intelligent Environment

23. THE GRAMMAR BEHIND
disjunction for repeating
IF-WHEN more than once
optional
•
• mandatory
conditions
• • mandatory
• event to trigger
constraining • set of actions
the rule
the event to be executed
(E-BLOCK)
(C-BLOCKs) (A-BLOCKs)
• controllable
• controllable • controllable
devices, clock
devices, clock devices
and sensors
and sensors
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

24. WORK IN PROGRESS...
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

25. CONCLUSIONS
• Rule Builder
• conceptual and first “working” design
• rich-web interface
• for home inhabitants with little or no technological
skills
• based on a formal grammar
A User-Friendly Interface for Rules
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Composition in Intelligent Environment

26. THANK YOU
Luigi De Russis
luigi.derussis@polito.it
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Composition in Intelligent Environment