uTRUSTit – Usable TRUST in the Internet of Things

uTRUSTit – Usable TRUST in the Internet of Things

In the future, devices that communicate with each other or to the Internet will be common. This resulting “Internet of Things” promises to make life easier and connect services seamlessly. However, it also raises privacy and trust issues about communicating with so many devices. Can you trust the other devices that your devices talk to? Do you know what sort of information they want? Do you know how they will use this newly received information? How can you protect yourself and your information? The uTRUSTit projects attempts to answer these questions and create guidelines and systems that will allow everyone, regardless of ability, to determine the trust level of the devices around them. uTRUSTit bridges security, privacy, trust, universal design, usability, and accessibility.

NR’s contribution

The Norwegian Computing Center will work in many areas in the project. Our main objective is in defining the requirements for uTRUSTit. We will define the user scenarios and the personas that will be used in developing and testing the prototypes. In particular, we will look at the accessibility issues for special needs groups and incorporate them into the requirements. In addition, we will assist in elicting mental models for trust, assist in the user evaluation of prototypes and define how “things” can provide feedback about their security and privacy. Other activities include providing technical assistance, writing design guidelines, and serving as the ethics officer for the project.

Benefit for customers

The European Commission will have extra information about creating trustworthy information and communication technology infrastructure. The prototypes will use the latest technology, such as Near Field Communication (NFC), biophysical sensors, Virtual Reality (VR), and 3D technology and should provide information about how future devices should be designed. The design guidelines should aid designers and engineers in creating devices that can easily show security and privacy information.

Benefit for society

Users will be able to use devices that will aid them in deciding what information they are willing to share, which devices and services they are willing to share this with, and find out what devices in the area are requesting information. Since we will be including the needs of people with disabilities in our requirements, the guidelines and prototypes should be accessible to a much larger portion of the population.

Project results (preliminary)

All of our public deliverables thus far are available on the project website. We have also begun submitting papers to different workshops and conferences.

Latest project news

In the uTRUSTit project, we look at users’ trust to different “things” that will communicate over the Internet of Things. This includes activities like opening a medicine cabinet and ordering new medicine via the Internet. Recently the project ran several user evaluations at Alma’s House at the Aker University Hospital.

Updated date: Mandag, mai 13, 2013 - 11:47

Researchers at NR work with the technology of the future and find out how to apply technology for solutions that are secure, user-friendly, and universally designed. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) produced this news item on some prototypes that are used in the uTRUSTit project.

Updated date: Onsdag, august 13, 2014 - 14:47
Forskere på NR jobber med fremtidens teknologi som blant annet dreier seg om hvordan man kan lage løsninger og anvende teknologi som er sikker, brukervennlig og universell utformet. NRK har laget denne nyhetssaken om prosjektet.
 
Updated date: Onsdag, august 13, 2014 - 14:49