Researching the Internet of Things with ELLIOT

The Experiential Living Lab for the Internet of Things (ELLIOT) project is a European research project that aims to develop an experiential platform for Internet of Things research, where users and the public are directly involved in co-creating, exploring and experimenting with new ideas, technologies, potential market opportunities and concepts related to IoT applications and services - particularly where UX and user interaction design is concerned.

The ELLIOT program is designed to support research into the potential impact of the IoT and other emerging information technologies in the context of what the ELLIOT consortium calls the "Open User Centred Innovation" paradigm and the "Living Lab" approach.

Established by a consortium of European universities, institutions and private industries - ELLIOT is a three-year research program built around four main aims - firstly, to study and develop a set of "KSB" (Knowledge, Social and Business) Experience Models integrating social, technical, economic, legal and ethical dimensions related to the use of emerging IoT technologies and services into a single, holistic meta model.

Secondly, the project aims to design and develop an "Experiential Platform" where these KSB Experience Models will be implemented to allow people to explore and experience socially-enabled IoT technology and other information technology including the validation of this technology and evaluation of its impact. This experiential platform will operate as a knowledge and experience-gathering testbed environment in the context of the IoT.

Thirdly, the project aims to explore the potential of collaborative UI design techniques and tools such as serious gaming, participative requirements engineering and requirements validation in the context of the IoT.

Finally, one of the core objectives of the ELLIOT research program is to experiment within a series of "Living Labs", each composed of a physical space, a information space architecture and a social community of users of that space. The project is expected to facilitate increased adoption of IoT technologies in Europe and to enhance the potential of collaborative industry, academic and public-sector innovation for the discovery of novel IoT applications, services and business opportunities which bridge the gap between these emerging technologies, industry stakeholders and the public.

The ELLIOT project's "experiential" approach has been explored and its technology platform experimented with in different use-cases belonging to six different sectors, namely Wellbeing, Logistics, Environment, Retail, Remote Medical Assistance, and Energy-Efficient Offices, in order to validate the capacity for users and the public to co-create innovative and useful IoT-based services in these domains.

Starting from these use-cases, it is expected that the ELLIOT project will contribute to a new, user-centric approach to novel product and service development with IoT technologies, while also being applicable to IT products and services more generally, through the use of this "Experiential Platform" and the progressive extension of the use of this platform into other use-cases and industrial sectors.

The engagement of users in the research and innovation process behind new products and services is attracting more attention in technology design today, across many industrial sectors. This is especially true in business domains where users and citizens have a crucial role in the adoption of new services that they collaboratively create on top of new information and communication technologies.

This is particularly relevant when it comes to the Internet of Things, finding use-cases for IoT technologies, along with researching the markets for new IoT products and services. Examples of business domains that ELLIOT has identified as important, where the project aims to contribute valuable research, include "eHealth", "eInclusion", "eManufacturing", "eParticipation" and ICT for Environment as well as ICT for Energy.

To explore, to experiment with, and validate the experiential research and innovation approach that ELLIOT applies, several scenarios have been conducted in different "Living Labs", each implementing different kinds of IoT experiences. These Living Labs are composed of a physical space such as a building, a civil architecture, a laboratory, an urban or rural zone, equipped with advanced ICT infrastructure for communication and collaboration such as wired networks, wireless terrestrial networks or wireless satellite networks.

The need for this user-participative approach is increasingly being recognised, and the "Living Lab" model is becoming more popular. A "Living Lab" is an open innovation environment in a real-life setting in which experiential research and innovation is supported by the availability of a technology platform for designing innovative applications and services.

The European Network of Living Labs comprises 274 diverse and mature "Living Labs" covering a wide range of application domains. Most of them are already operational in different domains spanning from eHealth to Energy Optimisation and Efficiency, from Intelligent Mobility to Inclusion of the elderly and disadvantaged people and Rural Development.

The project also aims to identify, experiment with and explore IoT-oriented user co-creation tools and techniques. Co-creation, as it's defined by ELLIOT, in an IoT-oriented environment is akin to the co-creation processes of software development which is very common, for example, in the open-source software development community.

Transferring the experience of the open-source software movement into an IoT-oriented "user co-creation" process through practices such as gamification and "serious gaming" is another approach that ELLIOT is investigating with the potential to enhance IoT-relevant collaborative development capabilities and to accelerate take-up and adoption of these practices.

We look forward to the results and news from the ELLIOT program, however here at the LX Group we’re always working on current and new IoT-based products for a wide range of clients. If your organisation is considering new product design, or reviewing an existing version - your next step is to contact the team at the LX Group where we not only share your passion for embedded hardware and the Internet-of-Things - our team of solutions architects, engineers and specialists is ready to partner with you for your success in the IoT marketplace. Getting started is easy – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.