HUB4NGI D2.1 identifies some key application areas which are expected to be greatly impacted by the emerging NGI technologies.
Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a big change as agreed by the experts in "The Next Generation Internet Workshop" on "Widen the European Space of Life and Work" held on 8th June 2017. It is considered to be the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector. It relies on Internet services and knowledge is largely shared across the network in order to exploit this available knowledge for faster and better robotic learning.
Immersive Environment
With the advancement in AI and learning algorithms, the immersive environments such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) are also expected to be leveraged. However, these new forms of interactions and immersive environments might also face the challenges of data privacy, diversity and the concentration of data into proprietary platforms. Understanding the psychological & biological effects and threats and opportunities for industry and citizens is necessary in the VR world.
Collective User Experience
Decentralised, heterogeneous and distributed architectures are important in the next generation digital society. For an enhanced user experience, human-centric technologies need to be identified, propagated and managed.
Lifelong Learning
ICT lifelong learning is important in order to raise people's awareness of the significance of acquiring ICT skills throughout their lives.
Inclusiveness
Each citizen has the right to benefit from modern ICT services and technologies. And the services should be designed in simple and easy to use way so that everyone including persons with disabilities could get benefit. Ubiquitous access to Internet and other ICT services is the right of each citizen just like access to clean water or energy infrastructure. Inclusiveness and ubiquitous connection are the key themes for civil society.
The important risk factor is the potential isolation of those behind general levels of connectivity. There is a need to take immediate actions in order to bridge the digital divides and to cope with the digital literacy challenges.
Protection from the dangers of the Internet
Ordinary Internet users are not fully aware how deep they are in the Internet. They sometimes disclose very personal information against social engineering attacks. This poses not only data protection problem but also people themselves protection. It is important for emerging NGI technologies to protect people from dangers of the Internet.
