Pervasive computing for sustaining cultural heritage

As a computer scientist, I have been working for decades on challenging and highly useful domains of research and applications such as computer-aided manufacturing, health-care or remote communication via avatars. The tsunami-like development of communication technologies like smart phones, tiny sensors of all kinds and the 7/24 online existence has, in recent years, posed new challenges: How can we harvest the potentials of the constant development of digital technologies for the well-being of the society?; Who are the “we”, the ones to invent, design and present new applications in a way attractive for the “potential user”, especially, for the new generations? It is clear that these tasks are beyond the competences of programmers and engineers. At the Creative Technology Lab of MOME we work on experimental projects in interdisciplinary teams of visual artists, programmers, project managers and experts from humanities, pedagogy, and psychology, and often in strong cooperation with the envisioned user. Our aim is to invent novel applications which are appealing, inviting, playful and at the same time useful: making us aware of environmental or social problems, cultural heritage, help/motivate learning, strengthen communities and induce face-to-face dialogues.