SOFIA - Smart Objects For Intelligent Applications
SOFIA envisions that the ongoing digital convergence will change the way embedded systems are used to construct not only physical devices but also services. The digital convergence has still a huge unleashed potential for consumers, industry and research but it requires a common understanding of the information exchanged between embedded systems through heterogeneous systems and communication technologies.
Central to SOFIA project is the notion of smart environment, an ecosystem of interacting objects able to self-organize, provide services and manipulate or publish complex data. The mission of the project is to create a semantic interoperability platform and a selected set of vertical applications to form an embedded system based smart environment. The key factor in these smart environments will be common, open information storage and search extent for all the embedded systems, regardless of their specific implementation technology.
The main goal of the project is to make "embedded information" in the physical world available for smart services - connecting physical world with information world. Common targets are to enable and maintains cross-industry interoperability, to foster innovation while maintaining value of existing legacy and to create new user interaction and interface concepts to enable users to benefit from smart environments.
Further information at the Sofia web site