The concept of ambient intelligence or AmI is a vision where humans are surrounded by computing and networking technology unobtrusively embedded in their surroundings.
The concept of ambient intelligence (AmI) was developed by the ISTAG advisory group to the European Commissions DG Information Society and the Media. AmI puts the emphasis on user-friendliness, efficient and distributed services support, user empowerment, and support for human interactions. This vision assumes a shift away from PCs to a variety of devices which are unobtrusively embedded in our environment and which are accessed via intelligent interfaces.
In order for AmI to become a reality a number of key technologies are required:
Unobtrusive hardware (miniaturisation, nano-technology, smart devices, sensors etc.)
A seamless mobile/fixed web-based communication infrastructure (Interoperability, wired and wireless networks etc.)
Dynamic and massively distributed device networks
Natural feeling human interfaces (intelligent agents, multi-modal interfaces, models of context awareness etc.)
Dependability and security (self-testing and self repairing software, privacy ensuring technology etc)
Briefly, systems and technologies need to be sensitive, responsive, interconnected, contextualised, transparent and intelligent.
=Sources and Further Material=
[http://esto.jrc.es/docs/HealthcareTechnologiesRoadmapping.pdf JRC/IPTS-ESTO (2003) Healthcare Technologies Roadmapping:
The Effective Delivery of Healthcare in the Context of an Ageing Society]
[ftp://ftp.jrc.es/pub/EURdoc/eur21377en.pdf JRC/IPTS-ESTO (2004) eHealth in the Context of a European Ageing Society. A Prospective Study]
[ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/istagscenarios2010.pdf ISTAG (2001) Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence in 2010]
[ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/istag-ist2003_draft_consolidated_report.pdf ISTAG Ambient Intelligence: from vision to reality]