Background

The ACCORD project is funded under the Disappearing Computer proactive initiative of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) key action of the Information Society Technologies Programme (IST) of the European Commission's community research.

The goals of this initiative can be summarized as follows:

To explore how everyday life can be supported and enhanced through the use of collections of interacting artefacts. Together, these artefacts will form new people-friendly environments in which the computer-as-we-know-it has no role. The aim is to arrive at new concepts and techniques out of which future applications can be developed.

Specifically, the initiative focuses on three inter-linked objectives:

1. Developing new tools and methods for the embedding of computation in everyday objects so as to create artefacts.
2. Research on how new functionality and new use can emerge from collections of interacting artefacts.
3. Ensuring that people's experience of these environments is both coherent and engaging in space and time.