The notion of “Ambient Intelligence” is a
strong theme in the European Commission’s Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) research agenda for the
next 5 to 10 years. This concept describes an environment
where people are surrounded by mechanical interfaces that
are both intelligent and intuitive. Interfaces that are embedded
in all kinds of objects within an environment that is capable
of recognizing and responding to the presence of different
people in an invisible, seamless way.
The integration of computing devices into everyday environments
has been an object of research – and science fiction – for
several decades. With improvements and new innovations with
technology, devices become smaller and cheaper, so small
(think of nanotech particles, smaller than a grain of sand)
that is possible to both envision AND create new computing
platforms.
According to Emile Aarts at Philips Research in Eindhoven,
the Netherlands, user interfaces will move from "cognitive" to "intuitive." Your
TV, for example, will know what you want by interpreting
what you say, your expression, your gestures and even how
you walk. It will remember what your favourite channels are
and which programs to record. All this will happen in an
environment where computing and communications are available
the same way we use (and depend upon) electricity or water.
A recent European Commission report on ambient intelligence
describes an imaginative scenario in which a businesswoman
arrives at a foreign airport and walks through immigration
unchecked, thanks to a wristwatch computer that presents
her ID and visa for validation. Outside of the airport, a
rental car unlocks itself as she approaches and then guides
her to a reserved parking spot at her hotel. As the woman
enters her room, it adapts to her preferences by adjusting
the temperature, lighting and choice of TV and music channels.
Still the stuff of science fiction today, yet a scene such
as this may not be too far off in the future. Some products
already display the essence of sentient, or conscious, computing.
When mobile phones first put the mouthpiece on a flip-up
cover, for example, users had to open the handset and press
a button to answer a call. It did not take long for manufacturers
to add a sensor so that opening the flip-up cover answered
a call and closing the cover ended it.
Microsoft researchers have also given wireless PDAs (personal
digital assistants) new user interfaces by adding tilt sensors
and accelerometers.
These interfaces create sensor outputs that cause the device
to make a phone call once it is lifted to a person’s
ear. Researchers have even used the accelerometers to recognise
walking patterns so that the PDA can decide whether it is
an appropriate time accept or a call or not.
Sentient computing has become an increasingly more focused
area of research in information technology (IT) laboratories
in Europe and America. Ongoing projects at the University
of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), for example, are attempting to transform into reality
this concept of “Ambient Intelligence.”
Since 1999, MIT has been working on Project Oxygen, a broad
research effort on human-centred computing sponsored by Acer,
Delta Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone, Nokia and Philips. Projects run from video recognition
to nomadic networking and chip design.
The Oxygen project arose to answer the curiousity surrounding
four issues:
To get computers to help people achieve more by doing less;
To understand what happens when computing and communications
are freed from their interface forms; To return computers
to the service of users and to make computers understand
people's needs.
Technology is at last getting good enough to make it all
happen - if not now, than at least on the emerging horizon
as the establishment of mobile and other wireless networks
spread to a global scale. Wireless networks provide the infrastructure
needed to make sentient computing a reality.
Profit motive is also pushing technology in this direction
forward. With the IT industry in the low for the past few
years now, firms are seeking new avenues to create demand,
and to be prepared for a significant change in the way business
is done. With the looming mass-customisation reality, the
key differentiation for future products will be the experience
they give to consumers.
A number of issues need to be addressed, however, when and
how sentient computing is to be brought into everyday life.
These include the limits of our current technology as well
as issues of security, privacy and permission.
From a technological standpoint, wireless networks will
have to merge so users can roam effortless between connections
at home or the office and mobile networks when travelling.
The ability to provide accurate location information will
be integral to pinpoint users in the landscape and to position
them in rooms. Sensors will have to become omnipresent in
the environment to provide information in context, and systems
will have to be able to integrate massive amounts of data
so they can establish an individual relationship with each
user.
Once these issues are overcome, new opportunities will emerge
for producing what Michael Dertouzos, late director of MIT's
Laboratory for Computer Science, calls “Human-centred
IT.”
In a June, 2003 article on the same subject from The Economist,
the writer states:
Imagine being able to “program with space,” using
information about where you are in your home to control the
lighting, ensure that only your nearest telephone rings,
or that the television programme you are watching follows
you from screen to screen as you move between rooms. Imagine
also that the display screen and the computing functions
that drive it become separate entities rather than part of
the same thing. The movie you were watching on the big screen
at home could then continue to play automatically on your
mobile handset when you left the house.
The question is, once these devices are an available reality,
how will they affect people's lives? Will we trade privacy
for convenience? Sentient computing, with its purpose to
know where users are and to interpret their every move, could
certainly take issues of privacy loss and security to a level
of higher stakes.
As Dertouzos stated, "We find ourselves in the junction
of two interrelated challenges: Going after the best, most
exciting forefront technology; and ensuring that it truly
serves human needs."
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