Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments

Aims and Scope

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and Smart Environments (SmE) are two mutually complementary areas which are growing fast as multi-disciplinary fields with a huge potential to benefit society. A Smart Environment is a place that has been enriched with technology (sensors, processors, actuators, information terminals, and other devices interconnected through a network) to enhance the services that can provide to humans. The most widely realization of this idea are “Smart Homes” but equally hospitals, cars, classrooms, offices, streets and other places are being considered. Ambient Intelligence enhances the global behaviour of such a system by providing high level functionality which provides an added value to the typical services expected in a specific environment. Usually an analysis is performed in real-time over the events that are recorded within the smart environment which allows a timely interaction with the inhabitants of the environment to provide a service.

There is a wide range of assistance that an AmI system can aim to provide. Typical examples are actions aimed at preserving or increasing safety in a smart home inhabited by people of advanced age or with special physical or cognitive conditions which can increase their level of vulnerability or dependability. Smart Homes can be also used to encourage better life styles by comparing trends on the activities developed over a longer period of time against targets set by the house occupants. Economy (e.g., through a rational use of energy) and entertainment (e.g., by providing personalized T.V. or music services) depending on the types of activities and time of the day they are developed can be also considered. Equally cars can be transformed into a smart environment to assist drivers in difficult conditions, classrooms can be equipped to enhance the teaching-learning experience and offices can be supplemented with technology to support effective workgroup collaboration.

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