This time, it's personal

Too much information is paralysing. Irish research centre Clarity investigates ways to tailor technology to a user's preferences The particular innovation is that the subscriber doesn't even have to explicitly say what they are interested in

WHEN BRUCE Springsteen sang "There's 57 channels and nothin' on," he had a point. That was in 1992, and things have gone rapidly downhill since. Springsteen's answer was to fire a pistol at the telly, but surely there's a more harmonious approach to getting the information you want and tuning out the rest.

It turns out there is. It's a trend called Personalisation, with software to winnow through the digital clutter and dig out information tailored to you. It's not about freedom of choice any more, we need freedom from choice.

Sorting out the information overload is Clarity, a €16 million Science Foundation Ireland research centre that opened this summer and brings together scientists from University College Dublin, Dublin City University and Tyndall Institute at University College Cork.

"It's about helping people to sift through the noise that goes on in everyday life," says Clarity's director Prof Barry Smyth at his office in UCD, where he holds the digital chair in computer science. The paralysing effects of too much information is driving the popularity of social networking spaces such as Facebook, he says. "They are alternative webs that focus in on a particular type of information, scene and person, and give them what they need. It's sort of a mass personalisation."

Clarity has taken the nod from the trends and blended the social and personal aspects in a new tool called HeyStaks, which can parcel your internet search results and share them with friends and colleagues if you choose.

"In HeyStaks you can create 'search staks', which are like folders, and the computer learns to put the information into stacks automatically. Then you can share them with other people if you want. So if you were going on holiday next year with friends, you could share your search results about that with them."

Clarity is also using sensors to gather useful data from the physical world. Sensors can bridge the gap between technology and people, says Smyth, who notes they are already becoming familiar in electronic devices. "Everyone from my granny to my parents to my friends plays the Wii. They love it. And it's all because of a very simple sensor in the control. And Apple's iPhone has been transformed largely because of a touch interface with sensors."

Sensors can translate everyday information or actions into something usable, says Smyth, as he picks up a prototype wearable "posture vest" developed by Clarity researchers. A fibre-optic cable down its spine can tell how much you are slouching at your desk and prompt your computer to remind you to sit up straight. Wearable sensors could also help athletes improve performance or allow people with Alzheimer's disease to live independently for longer, Smyth says.

On a wider level, communities or webs of sensors are developing to work in synchrony, making a range of information more meaningful. "You can use sensors to instrument different parts of your life - how long you cycle every day, how much waste you are recycling in your wheelie bin - so people can measure their carbon footprint. And once you make people aware of these things you can effect change in people's behaviour."

This raises the issue of privacy. "An important research area within Clarity is understanding the ethics of these sorts of systems because the last thing we want to do is flood the market with sensors."

Smyth's other company, Changing Worlds, develops software to personalise automatically a web user's experience. It was snapped up for €47 million by US software services company Amdocs at the end of last year. From a start in 1999 the company expanded to employ over 120 people and attracted giants such as Vodafone, developing software that adapts to a user's habits and personalises content.

"What we did was make it easy for people to get to the right content at the right time," explains Smyth. "The particular innovation is that the subscriber doesn't even have to explicitly say what they are interested in, the software will automatically learn what they want."

Barry Smyth is profiled in a section on Innovators on UCD's website. See ucd.ie/expertiseatucd/innovators/index.html

Clarity research areas

THE RESEARCH consortium Clarity uses sensors and software to find and deliver the right information based on user need.

Health and exercise stand to be transformed by sensor technology - sensors can monitor posture and athletic performance, and early warning signals of disease from blood, urine, saliva or sweat.

In the environment, chemical sensors can pick up minute changes in water and air quality, while a suite of communicating sensors could track your carbon footprint.

Personalising software adapts to a user's preferences. It is improving internet searches by automatically archiving Google results in groups that can be shared, and producing a version of YouTube that makes suggestions to users as they browse.