pd-net · Towards Future Pervasive Display Networks

The proposed project aims to lay the scientific foundations for a new form of communications medium with the same potential impact on society as radio, television and the Internet. The goal is to explore the scientific challenges and new technologies required to enable the emergence of large scale networks of pervasive public displays and associated sensors that are open to applications and content from many sources. In effect, the project will look to provide the foundations for work on a brand new global communications medium for information access and interaction and to ensure that Europe is in the best possible position to benefit from this new medium. The project is highly innovative – no such pervasive display networks exist today and their emergence would represent a radical transformation in the way we think about information dissemination in public spaces; it is high risk – numerous technical and societal challenges need to be addressed before a pervasive display networks are possible; and potentially high pay-off – if successful, the project will pioneer a new research area and provide the foundations for a new communications medium that offers entirely new opportunities economic activity and a means to radically change public spaces – from today's environments in which information is pushed to passers-by in the form of adverts – to spaces that can utilise ambient intelligence to be tailored to reflect the hopes, aspirations and interests of its occupants using content and applications created anywhere in a global network.