About Us
About us
About us
About us
HOWLabHuman OpenWare Research Lab
http://howlab.unizar.es
HOWLab (Human Openware Research Lab) is a university research group, whose main goal is researching and developing technologies based on people and their environments. Among HOWLab’s goals and values, as part of a public research entity, are the promotion and development of design, hardware, and open software projects, contributing to a diffusion of the knowledge. We are a multidisciplinary group of professionals with diverse profiles (industrial engineering, telecommunications engineering, informatics, industrial design and social sciences) attached to two of the university’s departments (Electronic and Communications Engineering Department and Design and Fabrication Department)
Research Lines
Information and Communication Technologies
Context Awareness
Context awareness is crucial to any AmI because it provides the data upon which the system will make decisions and act accordingly. In this area our research is focused on the...
Context awareness is crucial to any AmI because it provides the data upon which the system will make decisions and act accordingly. In this area our research is focused on the development of low power sensors, energy harvesting, wireless sensor network (WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.) and wired networks (PLC, CAN, etc.) as well as indoor (ultrasonic, wireless systems) and outdoor location (GPS).
Ubiquitous computing
In this field our research is focused on the development of middleware and software services on embedded devices (motes, residential gateway, miniPCs, etc.). Also we design...
In this field our research is focused on the development of middleware and software services on embedded devices (motes, residential gateway, miniPCs, etc.). Also we design and develop apps for Smart devices (Symbian,WindowsPhone, Android, IOS).
Artificial Intelligence
Our work in this field is focused on two areas: design and development of decision and reasoning systems based on Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, etc. and knowledge representation and modeling
Our work in this field is focused on two areas: design and development of decision and reasoning systems based on Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, etc. and knowledge representation and modeling
User interaction
Our research in user interaction is focused in the development of implicit and explicit user interfaces for interaction support between people and technology. In this process we pay special...
Our research in user interaction is focused in the development of implicit and explicit user interfaces for interaction support between people and technology. In this process we pay special attention to the user capabilities (sensorial, cognitive and physical) in order to achieve a good accessibility and usability. We also have experience on multi-sensory stimulation.
Project Methodologies
Due to our research being generally framed on research projects where usually products and services are designed and evaluated, we have generated a set of methodologies applied to them that can...
Due to our research being generally framed on research projects where usually products and services are designed and evaluated, we have generated a set of methodologies applied to them that can be grouped in the following areas: project management methodologies, co-design and user-centered design methodologies, industrial product design, social innovation and eco-design for product development and social and economic sustainability research methodologies and assessment methodologies.
Key Projects
Information and Communication Technologies
Technology to enhance life quality and support autonomy of elderly and disabled people (ambient assisted living) and services for health support
- Social communities for telecare and telerehabilitation of chronic disease’s patients
- Learning support for cognitively challenged people creating environments that merge e-...
- Social communities for telecare and telerehabilitation of chronic disease’s patients
- Learning support for cognitively challenged people creating environments that merge e-learning technologies, social and mobile computing and context awareness and reasoning to enhance user experience and facilitate content acquisition and understanding.
- Alternative and augmentative communication strategies and tools to help people communicate regardless their capacities.
- Guidance and spatial orientation of people outdoors and inside buildings
- Support to orientation and navigation in time (recognition of the current time of the day, understand the tasks and appointments ahead) of children with autism, elderly with mild dementia, etc.
- Control of the user environment (household appliances, domotics, clima, toys, etc.) in order to support autonomy.
- Support to carer (family and formal caregivers) unobtrusively monitoring the user and his/her environment informing about risk and emergency situations such as falls, inactivity, etc.
- Quality of Life assessment based in artificial intelligence analysis of people monitored in his/her environment to detect unusual activities, changes in behaviour, loss of capacities, etc.
- Physical and cognitive prevention and rehabilitation of people using adapted accessible leisure strategies
- Integration of health devices into ambient intelligent environments for vital constants and medicine-intake monitoring.
- Controlled multi-sensory stimulation (Snoezelen) for rehabilitation of people with cognitive disabilities and other disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), etc.
The following projects show our work in this field: Procur@ (http://howlab.unizar.es/projects/procura), Cisvi (www.cisvi.es, www.esdizaragoza.es), Amivital (http://www.amivital.es), I-habilitation (http://www.flowlab.biz/habilitas/), Tratamiento 2.0 (http://www.tratamiento20.es/), MonAmI (www.monami.info), Easy Line+ (http://www.easylineplus.com)
Technology for sustainable and secure mobility
- Smart sensors and networks for outdoor environments (urban, road, field, etc.)
- New services and applications for transport safety and efficiency
- Monitoring systems...
- Smart sensors and networks for outdoor environments (urban, road, field, etc.)
- New services and applications for transport safety and efficiency
- Monitoring systems applied to parkings (indoor and outdoor), lane occupation…
- The following projects show our work in this field: INTELI-Trafic (http://intelitrafic.iasoft.es/) and Surfalux.
Technology for energy efficiency and sustainability
- Autonomous monitoring of energy consumption (electricity, water, air) and environmental variables (temperature, humidity, etc.) measurement
- Development of new ecologic sensor...
- Autonomous monitoring of energy consumption (electricity, water, air) and environmental variables (temperature, humidity, etc.) measurement
- Development of new ecologic sensor techniques to monitor energy consumption
- Smart grid infrastructures
- New services and devices for energy aware environments. The following projects show our work in this field: GAD (http://www.proyectogad.es/), Renaissance together with GEE research group (www.renaissance-project.eu)
Key Technologies
Information and Communication Technologies
Electronic Design
- Energy harvesting and low power electronic design…to build autonomous electronics
- Smart sensors and actuator networks…to build the Internet of...
- Energy harvesting and low power electronic design…to build autonomous electronics
- Smart sensors and actuator networks…to build the Internet of Things
- Wireless and wired standard communications (ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi, CAN, PowerLine, etc.)…to provide interoperability.
- Indoor / Outdoor localization (wireless technologies, GPS, ultrasound, etc.)
All sectors.
Computing
- Middleware for hardware connectivity and software communication (OSGi technology)
- Design and development of services in embedded devices (OSGi technology)
- Design and...
- Middleware for hardware connectivity and software communication (OSGi technology)
- Design and development of services in embedded devices (OSGi technology)
- Design and development of social networks (ELGG)
- Apps design and development for smart devices (WindowsPhone, Android, IOS)
- Knowledge representation and modeling
- Artificial Intelligence (Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, etc)
All sectors.
Product and Service Design
- Implicit and explicit user interfaces for interaction support between people and technology
- Design for all; sensory, physical and cognitive...
- Implicit and explicit user interfaces for interaction support between people and technology
- Design for all; sensory, physical and cognitive accessibility and usability
- Rapid prototyping and 3D printing
- Co-design and User centred design (UCD) methodologies
- Research project methodologies (Living Labs), sustainable innovation and ecodesign (Social Spaces for Research and Innovation)
- Evaluation methodologies
All sectors.
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