The amount of technology in the average home continues to increase and so the level of potential benefit rises along with the level of complexity for consumers and suppliers alike.

dotUI allows all of these disparate protocols and interfaces to be brought together under UIs that work for the specific person and requirement at hand. As further devices are added or exchanged, the user’s experience in fundamentally stable with any learning being limited to just what elements have changed. This means they don’t have to learn a whole new UI and just concentrate on using the enhancements to their familiar interface.

It all depends who you are.

For consumers, we offer the ability to aggregate all of your technology into one personalized UI. Which means a UI where you want it – on your TV, on the web or on your phone. It also means a UI that fits needs – showing your particular devices in a way that matches your needs from them, helping you get the most from your purchases.

For manufacturers and service providers, offering your customers personalization makes your offering more appealing and easier to use. That can range from accessibility requirements for the disabled to keeping up with changing fashions for a teenage audience. More importantly, it allows industries like energy utilities and healthcare providers to match marketing and customer communication tools with specific consumer segments and needs. Of course, your staff will need their own UI to best handle customer support and reverse logistics issues.

We break the tie between specific devices and the UI, allowing a UI to be built dynamically based on the user intent, devices present and relevant outside data.

For example, a UI for a thermostat might be as simple as showing the current set and actual temperatures along with a pair of arrows to alter it. However if the energy company flags a peak usage period the UI might show the new suggested setting (and potential savings) or even remove consumer control if they had signed up for a relevant scheme with the utility.

In a healthcare scenario, the customer’s computer might be used to allow them to record key data like blood pressure, pulse rate or blood sugar using relevant devices outside of doctor’s office or hospital. The type and regularity of these measurements would be based on the customer’s records and the feedback to both the consumer and healthcare provider would be based on their different knowledge-levels and ability to act on them.

Watch a demonstration of controlling audio and video devices over DLNA/UPnP.

Dot UI as a company brings together a wide range of skills, experience and backgrounds under a common belief that people should be able to understand, make informed choices and then control the technology in their home.

As well as the people involved, we also offer technology that ‘plays well with others’, communicating with devices regardless of protocol and presenting a single, cohesive UI to the user.

Dot UI is a company empowering self-control by providing personalized, accessible and appropriate interfaces for the technology found in people’s homes and lives.

Dot UI brings technology to the user by utilizing open international standards, developed by  researchers aiming to deliver accessibility to those in need of non-standard interfaces. We have developed this idea to fit not only the needs of different consumers, but also those of manufacturers and service providers.

Dot UI – because clearly one UI does not fit all.

Three main stakeholders stand to gain by implementing open, standards-based personalization.

Consumers can finally get maximum benefit out of the technology they bring into their lives. By delivering accessible UIs that match their capabilities, intent and interests, Dot UI allows them understand their technology and its impact, make informed choices and then control their activity or consumption easily.

Manufacturers or utilities benefit by being able to deliver products and services without trying build ‘one size fits all’ interfaces for their offerings. This makes their products or services more appealing to wider audiences and more likely to integrate into the mix of technology each consumer already owns, this reducing support costs. Having access to their own custom UIs also allows them more relevant data for customer support or reverse logistics analysis.

Legislators, regulators, and standards bodies benefit by being able to mandate the accessibility and consumer data protection they want without stifling business and competition between manufacturers or service providers. Any company complying with Dot UI is inherently working to international standards and the specifics of their technology is managed in such a way as to be transparent to the user.