Perspectives of ambient intelligence in the home environment

Ambient Intelligence is a vision of the future information society stemming from the convergence of ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous communication and intelligent user-friendly interfaces. It offers an opportunity to realise an old dream, i.e. the smart or intelligent home. Will it fulfil the promises or is it just an illusion—offering apparently easy living while actually increasing the complexity of life? This article touches upon this question by discussing the technologies, applications and social implications of ambient intelligence in the home environment. It explores how Ambient Intelligence may change our way of life. It concludes that there are great opportunities for Ambient Intelligence to support social developments and modern lifestyles. However, in order to gain wide acceptance a delicate balance is needed: the technology should enhance the quality of life but not be seeking domination. It should be reliable and controllable but nevertheless adaptive to human habits and changing contexts. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 0736-5853/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2004.11.001 q This article covers a part of the results of a Science and Technology Roadmapping entitled ‘‘Ambient Intelligence in Everyday Life’’ (AmI@Life), developed by IPTS in collaboration with the European Science and Technology Observatory (ESTO). The views expressed are purely those of the writers and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 721 6809 146; fax: +49 721 6809 315. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Friedewald). 222 M. Friedewald et al. / Telematics and Informatics 22 (2005) 221–238