OASIS at a Glance

What is OASIS?: OASIS is an Integrated Project with the aim to revolutionise the interoperability, quality, breadth and usability of services for all daily activities of the elderly, by developing and deploying:

• A new Architectural Framework, called "COF-Common Ontological Framework" or "OASIS hyper-ontology", based upon the Common Algebraic Specification Language (CASL) of IFIP WG1.3 (Foundations of System Specification). The hyper-ontology is open, modular, holistic, easy-to-use and standards-abiding and allows the interoperability, seamless connectivity and sharing of content between not only single services but also competing ontologies of the same or different application domains.
• An Open Reference Architecture, composed by the COF and its support tools (Content Connector Module-CCM and other ontology management modules), both available as open source, that allow the automatic or semi-automatic connection of existing and emerging ontologies and services to the OASIS Architectural Framework.
• The OASIS Platform, composed of the new Open Reference Architecture, enriched by an AmI Framework (a multi-Agents platform) and the Interaction Platform (allowing automatic UI self-creation for new connected services and self adaptation to the device used, the context of use and the user needs and preferences).
• A wide range of connected applications (over 12 different service types), all integrated within the OASIS Platform, and interoperating in integrated scenarios and Use Cases, covering the needs of the elderly and their caregivers in terms of Independent Living, Socialisation, Autonomous Mobility and Smart Workplaces.
• A Pilots test-bed, consisting of 4 sites Europewide (in North, Central, South and East- Europe) and all potential test environments per site: Living Labs for technical verification and iterative development, Sheltered Homes for assisted living and user communities related real-world applications and Independent Living, namely private homes, for real world applications. Hundreds of end users will test the OASIS Platform and connected applications Europewide.

What OASIS is not? OASIS is not a single system or service to compete on the market with the rest. Although there are over 33 single exploitable products and services addressing the needs of the OASIS target user group, its most valuable and important "product" is the open Reference Architecture and Platform, notably the open source Common Ontological Framework and related Tools, which aim, through de facto and de jure standardization, to facilitate the connectivity and interoperability of applications in all relevant domains for the benefit of the elderly user.

Ontologies, Agents and Open Architectures have been tried before. What's new?: Unlike ASK-IT, OSSATE, AMIGO and other previous projects, OASIS does not focus on developing a purpose-built ontology and related services, but on connecting semi-automatically existing or emerging ones, even if they have different/additional fields. E.g., an existing service provider may connect its ontology to the ASK-IT's ontological framework, however, any attribute not existing in ASK-IT will be lost. Furthermore, integration is possible on single service layer, not on the ontology layer. Thus, OASIS is a new paradigm in the service area, offering the combined benefits of "Linux-like" open development and updated framework, with a "Wikipedia-like" expansion policy, which however is controlled, promoted and updated by the OASIS Industrial Forum, even beyond the lifetime of the project. Moreover, previous ontology efforts have not yet solved issues of software development, maintenance, and re-use: OASIS applies tested, mature software engineering methods directly to the ontology domain, promising improved performance.

Why then to (re)develop new services and applications? A wide variety of services and applications are connected to the OASIS Reference Architecture and Platform, in order to extensively test and prove its efficiency and general applicability, as well as to enable key stakeholders to have a "rich" experience into the OASIS world and to develop the first critical mass of applications and Reference Implementations (Pilot sites). This, in combination with the involvement of large key industrial players and innovative SMEs, will ensure subsequent exploitation and market adoption. It should also be noted that the envisaged applications are mainly based on previously existing sensors, products and services, stemming either from the market or from past research project prototypes; all of these are connected through the OASIS Platform. Application-based innovative work is introduced only in those fields where we feel that it is needed to cover the principle elderly user needs and to fulfill critical gaps identified by our User-Centred-Design Approach (WP5.5), within the Use Cases (UC's) of WP2.1 and 3.1.

5 Sub-projects (SPs) and 25 Work-packages (WPs), isn’t complex and big ? SPs can be viewed as super-WPs. SP1 develops the innovative Reference Architecture and Platform, SP2 connects to it Independent Living (including socialization) applications, SP3 Autonomous Mobility and Smart Workplaces applications, SP4 integrates them all and runs the Pilots, whereas SP5 includes the Horizontal activities that "glue" all the work together. Independent SPs are inter-coordinated by the Inter-SP Committee, whereas all SPs and WPs of the project meet together in parallel sessions and during subsequent days at the same location every, roughly, 3-4 months, to allow participants of one WP/SP meet with their respective peers, or follow another WP/SP meeting and thus, familiarize themselves with the entire project. Horizontal activities oversee the project cohesion) in all WPs, from UCs extraction to the design-development-testing-redesign cycle.

33 Partners; why so many and why the particular ones selected? If one wants to produce a single system or service, a small number of Partners would suffice, thus maintaining ease of management and IPR distribution. If, on the other hand, as in the OASIS case, a new Reference Architecture and Platform is to be developed, addressing multiple domains, it is of paramount importance to involve all the key actors in each domain addressed (e.g. ontologies, networks and communications, mobility services, etc.) and assign key roles to each. Taking benefit of the competences of PHILIPS and SIEMENS in the health sector, of PTV and MIZAR in services integration and middleware provision, of MULTITEL in voice/speech recognition, having strong industrial players in telecom service (VODAFONE) and for all types of devices (PHILIPS for tablet PC and ITV, SIEMENS for PDA, MOTOROLA for smartphone, CRFiat for automotive devices), effective Users' guidance (AGE, MCA) and the involvement of some of the key Research Institutes in Europe (3 different Fraunhofer Institutes, 2 CERTH Institutes, FORTH, UNEW, ITACA and LST-UPM, ...) we claim to be in a position to successfully pursue the ambitious goals of the OASIS project. In addition, the Tsinghua University in China and the University of Monterrey in Mexico, together with the project's Scientific Advisory Board (A5.1.4) guarantee that the project is open and will contribute to the international market and know-how.