Social and Human Sciences researchers from ergonomics and sociology of user experience draw a state of the art of former studies in the field of ubiquitous computing. In addition (Annex) they select the evaluation tools and methodologies for the evaluation of the user experience of WSN based scenarios.

From a sociological point of view, the analysis of literature leads to four categories of the user expectations towards WSN:

? The important function of the mobile phone in current communication uses as well as the increasing multiplicity of communication devices.

? The user’s paradoxical relation to invisible/pervasive technologies.

? User community by taking into account user social acquaintances, social rules, social networks (social software trends)

? User society by taking into accounts the social debates and ethical issues.

? The application has to be useful. With an added value it has to support the user in his/her work or leisure time, save time and money.

? The application has to be understandable and easy to use.

? The application has to be unobtrusive with a minimum of equipment and technical understanding needed.

? The application has to be safe and reliable, especially satisfying privacy needs.

? Most of all, the user has to stay in control.

The wireless communications will play a central role in our lives, mainly in the domains, such as healthcare, business, security, leisure, sports and home. Proactive sensor networks, communicating with others and with the environment are needed.

A lot of sensors are being developed, for example for healthcare, including positioning sensors, motion sensors and physiological sensors. Current sensor based systems are mainly stand alone and provide very specific applications. The challenge is to integrate these systems to provide reusable information for many applications. Little ”intelligence” is embedded on sensors, so that centralised computing is necessary. The power consumption of embedded sensors and of course RF transmissions should be as low as possible. The auto energy concept is a promising possibility.

Concerning wireless networks, there are a lot of standards, from BAN to WAN with interesting possibilities in terms of data rate. These networks should be used for mobile applications or if light infrastructure is needed and should be connected to the Internet for a wide range of applications. Ad hoc networks should be used in temporary situations, as an extension to access network coverage.

The main hypothesis is that e-SENSE based services will be “new-market disruptive innovations”. So that the evolved technology will lead to totally new business models with new comers in the new market, with radically new value proposition and new value network.

An example is taken, showing that in a wireless sensor networks environment, the business flow will be radically different than usual business models. The sensors could be integrated into everyday objects or built into the physical environment. The service (collection, use and measurement of the data) will be directly available for the user. It could be:

We will build business model scenarios involving a new value proposition and a new value net in order to target non consumers to create new-markets disruptive innovations. It is suggested that two dimensions (supported technologies and market segmentation) should be taken into account as criteria to construct e-Sense business models.