Towards New Interactive Displays in Stations and Airports - Human-Computer Interactions in Transport - page 309

This way, the system can gather information opportunistically as and when it is
discovered, and memorize it, even if at that time there is no available presentation
device. The presentation occurs later on, also opportunistically, when the user is in
proximity of a presentation device. The decorrelation between the two phases is the
condition required for the doubly opportunistic behavior of the system.
To obtain this decorrelation, the functional core must not be directly linked to
the presentation device: there must be an intermediary between them. Otherwise, the
supply and presentation of information would necessarily be linked. U,
corresponding to the user, will be situated at the center of the model in order to
allow decoupling between the supply of information by the K entities (knowledge
sources) and their presentation by P entities (presentation devices), hence the name
KUP.
10.4.2. Comparison with the existing models
The KUP model is doubly original compared to the existing models as:
- it includes an active software representation of the user (U), whereas this is
absent or reduced in classic models. This software representation goes far beyond
the simple characterization of users by a profile or preferences;
- this software entity representing the user is at the center of the model and thus
gives the user a dominant position: all communication within the model will
henceforth transit via this user software entity.
Figure 10.2. Architecture models used in Human-Computer Interaction: a) classical model
in which the user is not explicitly represented; and b) KUP model in which
the user is placed at the center of the ambient intelligence system