Ambient intelligence

In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time frame 2010–2020. In an ambient intelligence world, devices work in concert to support people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks and rituals in easy, natural way using information and intelligence that is hidden in the network connecting these devices (see Internet of Things). As these devices grow smaller, more connected and more integrated into our environment, the technology disappears into our surroundings until only the user interface remains perceivable by users.

The ambient intelligence paradigm builds upon ubiquitous computing, profiling practices and human-centric computer interaction design and is characterized by systems and technologies that are:

• embedded: many networked devices are integrated into the environment
• context aware: these devices can recognize you and your situational context
• personalized: they can be tailored to your needs
• adaptive: they can change in response to you
• anticipatory: they can anticipate your desires without conscious mediation.

Ambient intelligence is closely related to the long term vision of an intelligent service system in which technologies are able to automate a platform embedding the required devices for powering context aware, personalized, adaptive and anticipatory services. A typical context of ambient intelligence environment is a Home environment (Bieliková & Krajcovic 2001).

Overview

An (expected) evolution of computing from 1960-2010.

More and more people make decisions based on the effect their actions will have on their own inner, mental world. This experience-driven way of acting is a change from the past when people were primarily concerned about the use value of products and services, and is the basis for the experience economy. Ambient intelligence addresses this shift in existential view by emphasizing people and user experience.

The interest in user experience also grew in importance in the late 1990s because of the overload of products and services in the information society that were difficult to understand and hard to use. A strong call emerged to design things from a user's point of view. Ambient intelligence is influenced by user-centered design where the user is placed in the center of the design activity and asked to give feedback through specific user evaluations and tests to improve the design or even co-create the design together with the designer (Participatory design) or with other users (End User Development).

In order for AmI to become a reality a number of key technologies are required:

• Unobtrusive hardware (Miniaturisation, Nanotechnology, smart devices, sensors etc.)
• Seamless mobile/fixed communication and computing infrastructure (interoperability, wired and wireless networks, service-oriented architecture, semantic web etc.)
• Dynamic and massively distributed device networks, which are easy to control and program (e.g. service discovery, auto-configuration, end-user programmable devices and systems etc.).
• Human-centric computer interfaces (intelligent agents, multimodal interaction, context awareness etc.)
• Dependable and secure systems and devices (self-testing and self repairing software, privacy ensuring technology etc.)

History

"Ambient Intelligence" was first conceived and named by Eli Zelkha and Brian Epstein of Palo Alto Ventures, in a series of presentations written for Philips in May 1998. Zelkha and Epstein conceived of ambient intelligence as the coalescence of technologies that are situationally aware, adapt to human needs, interact with one another, and fade into the environment and into the design of everyday things. "The most radical, futuristic vision," they wrote, "involves the most prosaic, mundane objects."

In late 1998, the board of management of Philips commissioned a series of internal workshop to investigate different scenarios that would transform the high-volume consumer electronic industry from the current "fragmented with features" world into a world in 2020 where user-friendly devices support ubiquitous information, communication and entertainment. In the years after, these developments grew more mature. In 1999, Philips joined the Oxygen alliance, an international consortium of industrial partners within the context of the MIT Oxygen project , aimed at developing technology for the computer of the 21st century. In 2000, plans were made to construct a feasibility and usability facility dedicated to Ambient Intelligence. This HomeLab  officially opened on 24 April 2002.

Along with the development of the vision at Philips, a number of parallel initiatives started to explore ambient intelligence in more detail. Following the advice of the Information Society and Technology Advisory Group (ISTAG), the European Commission used the vision for the launch of their sixth framework (FP5) in Information, Society and Technology (IST), with a subsidiary budget of 3.7 billion euros. The European Commission played a crucial role in the further development of the AmI vision. As a result of many initiatives the AmI vision gained traction. During the past few years several major initiatives have been started. Fraunhofer Society started several activities in a variety of domains including multimedia, microsystems design and augmented spaces. MIT started an Ambient Intelligence research group at their Media Lab. Several more research projects started in a variety of countries such as USA, Canada, Spain, France and the Netherlands. In 2004, the first European symposium on Ambient Intelligence (EUSAI) was held and many other conferences have been held that address special topics in AmI.

Example scenario

Ellen returns home after a long day's work. At the front door she is recognized by an intelligent surveillance camera, the door alarm is switched off, and the door unlocks and opens. When she enters the hall the house map indicates that her husband Peter is at an art fair in Paris, and that her daughter Charlotte is in the children's playroom, where she is playing with an interactive screen. The remote children surveillance service is notified that she is at home, and subsequently the on-line connection is switched off. When she enters the kitchen the family memo frame lights up to indicate that there are new messages. The shopping list that has been composed needs confirmation before it is sent to the supermarket for delivery. There is also a message notifying that the home information system has found new information on the semantic Web about economic holiday cottages with sea sight in Spain. She briefly connects to the playroom to say hello to Charlotte, and her video picture automatically appears on the flat screen that is currently used by Charlotte. Next, she connects to Peter at the art fair in Paris. He shows her through his contact lens camera some of the sculptures he intends to buy, and she confirms his choice. In the mean time she selects one of the displayed menus that indicate what can be prepared with the food that is currently available from the pantry and the refrigerator. Next, she switches to the video on demand channel to watch the latest news program. Through the follow me she switches over to the flat screen in the bedroom where she is going to have her personalized workout session. Later that evening, after Peter has returned home, they are chatting with a friend in the living room with their personalized ambient lighting switched on. They watch the virtual presenter that informs them about the programs and the information that have been recorded by the home storage server earlier that day.

Criticism

The Ambient intelligence vision is not without criticism [See for example: David Wright, Serge Gutwirth, Michael Friedewald et al., Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence, Springer, Dordrecht, 2008]. Its immersive, personalized, context-aware and anticipatory characteristics bring up societal, political and cultural concerns about the loss of consumer privacy, power concentration in large organizations, fear for an increasingly individualized, fragmented society and hyperreal environments where the virtual is indistinguishable from the real (hyperreality). Several research groups and communities are investigating the social-economical, political and cultural aspects of ambient intelligence. New thinking on Ambient Intelligence distances itself therefore from some of the original characteristics such as adaptive and anticipatory behaviour and emphasizes empowerment and participation to place control in the hands of people instead of organizations.

The social and political aspects of ambient intelligence

The ISTAG advisory group suggests that the following characteristics will permit the societal acceptance of ambient intelligence:

• AmI should facilitate human contact.
• AmI should be orientated towards community and cultural enhancement.
• AmI should help to build knowledge and skills for work, better quality of work, citizenship and consumer choice.
• AmI should inspire trust and confidence.
• AmI should be consistent with long term sustainability - personal, societal and environmental - and with life-long learning.
• AmI should be made easy to live with and controllable by ordinary people.

Business models for ambient intelligence

The ISTAG group acknowledges the following entry points to AmI business landscape:

• Initial premium value niche markets in industrial, commercial or public applications where enhanced interfaces are needed to support human performance in fast moving or delicate situations.
• Start-up and spin-off opportunities from identifying potential service requirements and putting the services together that meet these new needs.
• High access-low entry cost based on a loss leadership model in order to create economies of scale (mass customisation).
• Audience or customer's attention economy as a basis for 'free' end-user services paid for by advertising or complementary services or goods.
• Self-provision – based upon the network economies of very large user communities providing information as a gift or at near zero cost.

Technologies

A variety of technologies can be used to enable Ambient intelligence environments such as (Gasson & Warwick 2007):

• RFID
• Ict implant
• Sensors
• Software agents
• Affective computing
• Nanotechnology
• Biometrics

Ambient intelligence in the litterature and in cinema

• Minority Report (film) (2002). On scene describe adaptive advertising in the future: consumers are identified via retinal scans, and received tagetted ads (Parker 2002).
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The doors have emotion, and express this when people used them.
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. The Diamond Age depicts a world completely changed by the full development of nanotechnology that are present everywhere.

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Asha V.P