Ambient intelligence (AmI) is a term used in computing to refer to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. The term is generally applied to consumer electronics, telecommunications, and computing.

Ambient intelligence is intended to enable devices to work in concert with people in carrying out their everyday life activities in an intuitive way by using information and intelligence hidden in the network connecting these devices. An example of ambient intelligence is the Internet of Things (IoT). A typical context of the ambient intelligence environment is the home, but it may also be used in workspaces (offices, co-working), public spaces (based on technologies such as smart streetlights), and hospital environments.^[1]

The concept of ambient intelligence was originally developed in the late 1990s by Eli Zelkha and his team at Palo Alto Ventures for the time frame 2010–2020.^[2][3][4][5] Developers theorize that as devices grow smaller, more connected, and more integrated into human environments, the technological framework behind them will disappear into the surroundings until only the user interface remains perceivable by people.

Overview

The ambient intelligence concept builds upon pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, profiling, context awareness, and human-centric computer interaction design. It is characterized by systems and technologies that are:^[6]

• Embedded: Many networked devices are integrated into the environment.
• Context aware: These devices can recognize people and their situational contexts.
• Personalized: They can be tailored to needs.
• Adaptive: They can change in response to people.
• Anticipatory: They can anticipate a person's desires without conscious mediation.

Implementation of ambient intelligence requires several technologies to exist. These include hidden hardwares such as miniaturization, nanotechnology, and smart devices, as well as human-centric computer interfaces (intelligent agents, multimodal interaction, context awareness, etc.). These systems and devices operate through a seamless mobile/fixed communication and computing infrastructure characterized by interoperability, wired and wireless networks, and service-oriented architecture. Systems and devices must also be dependable and secure, which may be achieved through self-testing and self-repairing software and privacy-ensuring technology.

Ambient intelligence has a relationship with—and depends on advances in—sensor technology and sensor networks.^[7]

User experience became more important to developers in the late 1990s as a result of digital products and services that were difficult to understand or use. In response, the user experience design emerged to create new technologies and media around the user's personal experience. Ambient intelligence is influenced by user-centered design, where the user is placed in the center of the design activity and gives feedback to the designer.

History and invention

In 1998, Philips' management board commissioned a series of presentations and internal workshops organized by Eli Zelkha and Brian Epstein of Palo Alto Ventures. They investigated future scenarios and how consumer devices might advance over the next quarter-century. Zelkha and Epstein described the high-volume consumer electronics industry of the 1990s as "fragmented with features"; they envisioned that by 2020, an industry where user-friendly devices would support ubiquitous information, communication, and entertainment.^[8] This outcome coined the term "ambient intelligence".

While developing the ambient intelligence concept, Palo Alto Ventures created the keynote address for Roel Pieper of Philips for the Digital Living Room Conference in 1998.^[9] The group included Eli Zelkha, Brian Epstein, Simon Birrell, Doug Randall, and Clark Dodsworth. In 2000, there were plans to construct a feasibility and usability facility dedicated to ambient intelligence; these led to the opening of HomeLab on 24 April 2002. In 2005, Philips joined the Oxygen Alliance, an international consortium of industrial partners within the context of the MIT Oxygen project,^[10] aimed at developing technology for the computer of the 21st century.

Along with developing the vision at Philips, several 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 (FP6) in Information, Society and Technology, with a budget of 3.7 billion euros.

During the first decade of the 21st century, several significant initiatives have been started. The Fraunhofer Society started several activities, including multimedia, micro-system design, and augmented spaces. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology started an ambient intelligence research group at their Media Lab.^[11] Several more research projects started in a variety of countries such as the US, Canada, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Since 2004, the European Symposium on Ambient Intelligence (EUSAI) and many other conferences have been held that address special topics in ambient intelligence.

Social and political aspects

The ISTAG advisory group suggests that society may be encouraged to use ambient intelligence, if AmI projects meet these criteria:^{[citation needed]}

• Facilitate human contact.
• Be oriented towards community and cultural enhancement.
• Help to build knowledge and skills for work, better quality of work, citizenship, and consumer choice.
• Inspire trust and confidence.
• Be consistent with long-term sustainability – personal, societal, and environmental – and with lifelong learning.
• Be made easy to live with and are controllable by ordinary people.

Business models

The ISTAG group concluded that ambient intelligence technologies can contribute to profitable businesses in a number of ways. The methods identified were:^{[citation needed]}

• Initial premium value niche markets in industrial, commercial, or public applications. The group predicted a particular value where enhanced interfaces are needed to support human performance in fast-moving or delicate situations.
• Startup and spinoff opportunities from filling gaps in existing markets.
• High access-low entry cost to create economies of scale – possibly using a loss leadership pricing structure.
• 'Free' services at the point of delivery, paid by advertising or complementary services or goods; this ties AmI to the nascent attention economy.
• Self-provision—based upon the network economies of huge user communities providing information as a gift or at near-zero cost (e.g. social networking applications).
• Combining multiple and diverse datasets in one platform to understand consumer behaviour.

Technologies

A variety of technologies can be used to enable ambient intelligence environments, such as:^[12]

• Bluetooth Low Energy
• RFID
• Microchip implant
• Sensors: Ambient light sensor (photodetector), thermometers, proximity sensors, and motion detectors
• Software agents
• Affective computing
• Nanotechnology
• Biometrics

Criticism

The ambient intelligence concept is subject to criticism (e.g. David Wright, Serge Gutwirth, Michael Friedewald, et al., Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence, Springer, Dordrecht, 2008). Ambient intelligence can be immersive, personalized, context-aware, and anticipatory; these characteristics bring up societal, political, and cultural concerns about the loss of privacy. Proponents of AmI argue that applications of ambient intelligence can function without necessarily reducing privacy.^[13][14][15]

Critics also discuss power concentration in large organizations; a fragmented, decreasingly private society; and hyper-real environments where the virtual is indistinguishable from the real.^[16] Several research groups and communities have investigated the socioeconomic, political and cultural aspects of ambient intelligence.

Uses in fiction

• Minority Report (2002 film): One scene illustrates adaptive advertising where the future-consumers are identified via retinal scans and receive targeted ads.^[17]
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: The doors have emotion and express this when people use them.
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson: It depicts a world completely changed by the full development of nanotechnology that is present everywhere.
• Her (2013 film): The opening scene depicts the protagonist commuting home. Upon arriving, the various lights throughout the apartment are turned on as the character moves through the rooms (automated lighting control). A later scene shows that an artificial entity can also control these systems, changing a song in the background to lighten a situation and for humorous effect.