Towards autonomous application interfaces Available to Purchase

A global change resulting from a convergence between communication technologies – namely Internet, and other devices technologies – namely robotics, mobile communication, and domotics – is presently affecting Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This situation, denoted by the so‐called Intelligent Networks and Ubiquitous Computing fields, is characterized by a high diversity and promiscuity of equipments and applications, together with a great variability of using contexts. In order to address this variability, we propose a new kind of interaction schema, separating the application interface from the application itself. The paper describes this schema and its central concept of virtual instrument, allowing the users to initiate observation processes with the running applications, and to construct their own points of view upon their activities.