POLICY :: Ambient Intelligence (archived)
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Ambient Intelligence
Ambient Intelligence allows Information Society services to be available to anyone, anywhere, using a variety of devices. The vision is an Information Society which is much more user-friendly, more efficient, empowers users and supports human interactions. People will be surrounded by easy-to-use interfaces embedded into all kinds of objects and by an everyday environment that is capable of recognising and responding to individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and invisible way.
Creating the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) World is the principal focus for current EU Information Society Technologies (IST) research. While it is not the panacea for all social problems, it does represent a new paradigm for how people can work and live together.
"The focus of IST in FP6 is [that] computers and networks
will be integrated into the everyday environment ... this vision of 'ambient
intelligence' places the individual at the centre ..."
- IST
Workprogramme, 2003-2004
By embedding IST in the very fabric of society, AmI aims to empower each individual - improving their participation in society, in social and business communities, and in managing all aspects of their lives, from entertainment to governance. Radical social transformations are likely to result.
The AMI Home
But what, exactly, is it, and what will it look like? Take the AmI Home as an example. This becomes a centre for e-work, for e-learning and for e-entertainment.
It is highly networked, connected to public networks and other homes at very high bandwidths (tens of megabits per second). Inside the home, a wireless network connects a wide variety of appliances and displays - not just PCs - as well as the personal area networks of each person living in the house. Content - both broadcast and personal - is stored in a home server, making it accessible across the network.
The devices throughout the house can be in constant contact with each other, making the AmI home responsive to all its inhabitants' needs thanks to a variety of services which can be easily installed and personalised to the user's needs. Teleworkers, for example, have one suite of ework services, enabling them to better juggle work and home lives, while the AMI Home is a place for technology-enabled care for sick, elderly or people with disabilities. Crucially, the services customise themselves to the user - not the other way around.
The AMI home is also energy-conscious, able to intelligently manage its use of heat, light and other resources depending on the occupants' needs.
Key Characteristics
Similar scenarios can be envisaged for other environments such as the car, the office, leisure and cultural settings, public spaces and various general interest services. A key feature is the ability for seamless movement between these spaces: people on the move will become networks on the move as the devices they carry network together and connect with the different networks around them.
people on the move will become networks on the move as the devices they carry network together and connect with the different networks around them.
An AmI system will therefore:
- 'know' itself, its environment and the context surrounding its use and act accordingly.
- be dynamic - able to configure and reconfigure under varying, and even unpredictable, conditions.
- find and generate its own rules on how best to interact with neighbouring systems, while always looking to optimise its own workings and its own relations with the environment.
- be resilient and able to recover from routine and extraordinary events that might cause some of their parts to malfunction.
- be trustworthy, able to handle issues of safety, security and privacy.
European Research: "Across the Value Chain"
all aspects of the innovation chain must integrate their efforts.
Realising these goals across different physical and social spaces will be very demanding, as AmI will only be realised through highly complex systems. The classic approach to research and development - perform the research, translate the results into products or services, and market them - will not work.
Creating a significant market impact will instead require immense concentration and coordination of research and business resources across all sectors. All aspects of the innovation chain be involved, integrating their efforts around coherent technology platforms.
This is the challenge that the EU's Information Society Technologies research programme is tackling, moving beyond individual research projects to the coherent application of resources Europe-wide, across the value chain from research concepts to market.
Updated 11 March, 2004.
DG Information Society