One important evolution in software applications is the spread of service-oriented architectures in ubiquitous environments. Such environments are characterized by a wide set of interactive devices, with interactive applications that exploit a number of functionalities developed beforehand and encapsulated in Web services. In this article, we discuss how a novel model-based UIDL can provide useful support both at design and runtime for these types of applications. Web service annotations can also be exploited for providing hints for user interface development at design time. At runtime the language is exploited to support dynamic generation of user interfaces adapted to the different devices at hand during the user interface migration process, which is particularly important in ubiquitous environments.

In this paper, we propose UbiCicero, a multi-device, location-aware museum guide able to opportunistically\ud exploit large screens when users are nearby. Various types of games are included in addition to the\ud museum and artwork descriptions. The mobile guide is equipped with an RFID reader, which detects\ud nearby tagged artworks. By taking into account context-dependent information, including the current\ud user position and behaviour history, as well as the type of device available, more personalised and relevant\ud information is provided to the user, enabling a richer overall experience. We also present example\ud applications of this solution and then discuss the results of first empirical tests performed to evaluate the\ud usefulness and usability of the enhanced multi-device guid

In the last few years, several end-user tools have been designed to help people who are not professional developers in programming their smart environments. However, such tools are often based on structured visual editors providing abstract representations of the available connected sensors and objects, which can be problematic for end users, and do not particularly encourage their participation. This work aims to make the end-user experience of creating everyday automations involving various types of connected sensors and objects more engaging by replacing extensive, static, structured and comprehensive abstract visual tools with more narrowed, relevant, context-sensitive, dynamic, augmented reality-based representations. We present a solution for this purpose that mobile users can exploit through their smartphone. End users can use the smartphone camera to frame the relevant sensor or object through the developed prototype, then get the current automations associated with it, edit their definition, create new ones as well as monitor the automations involving the whole current environment. We also report a first user test of the developed prototype deployed in a home equipped with connected sensors and objects, which yielded positive feedback.