"Intelligent Environments: a manifesto"

Abstract

We explain basic features of an emerging area called Intelligent Environments. We give a short overview on how it has developed, what is the current state of the art and what are the challenges laying ahead. The aim of the article is to make aware the Computer Science community of this new development, the differences with previous dominant paradigms and the opportunities that this area offers to the scientific community and society. Basic conceptsHere we explain how the area of Intelligent Environments (IE) has developed, what its core values are and how it differs from other areas. By "Environment" we refer here to any space in our surroundings. Although some people may also consider virtual environments here we mostly refer to Physical spaces, in all its diversity, e.g., house, building, street, a field, an area in the sea or space, etc. Our use of the word "Intelligent" applied to Environments mostly refers to Artificial Intelligence, as defined in [1]. An Intelligent Environment is one in which the actions of numerous networked controllers (controlling different aspects of an environment) is orchestrated by self-programming pre-emptive processes (e.g., intelligent software agents) in such a way as to create an interactive holistic functionality that enhances occupants experiences. Historical development of the areaFor centuries humans have witnessed scientific and technological leaps that changed the lives of their generation, and those to come, forever. We are no exception. In fact many of those advances are occurring now, in a more or less unperceivable way. Slowly and silently technology is becoming interwoven in our lives in the form of a variety of devices which are starting to be used by people of all ages and as part of their daily routine. As predicted by M. Weiser [2], this technology is gradually disappearing from our cognitive front, as we increasingly take for granted its existence. But this fact alone could not justify a paradigm shift, as we claim in this manifesto.The emergence of a new paradigm requires the convergence of various domains of human activity, many of which are not technological. It is true that numerous technological advances have taken place during the past two decades worldwide, mainly due to persistent efforts by researchers and systematic funding by governments and markets. Among these advances one could site:

The user-centred intelligent environments development process as a guide to co-create smart technology for people with special needs

“…To make matters worse, the new systems which have spawn from the Ubiquitous Computing [23] movement two decades ago have a mix of components and expectations which are slightly different than those which led to the development of the methods and tools most widely used nowadays. There are several areas related to Ubiquitous Computing, such as Pervasive Computing, Internet of Things, Smart Environments, Ambient Intelligence, which largely share the objectives and building blocks and which we will refer to collectively as intelligent environments [4]. They have in common (with different emphasis in each of them) the use of sensing technology and innovative interaction devices interconnected with a network and supplemented with intelligent and contextaware software to create useful services for humans in whatever space and time they need support.…”

“…Transparency 9. Equality, dignity and inclusiveness Those principles are informed by the Intelligent Environments Manifesto proposed by [4] that advocates the development of systems in a manner which is aligned with a number of explicitly defined user-centred principles, especially to: (P3) deliver help according to the needs and preferences of those who are being helped, (P5) preserve the privacy of the user/s, (P6) prioritize safety of the user/s at all times, and (P9) adhere to the strict principle that the user is in command and the computer obeys. Next, we explain and provide examples of how these nine principles materialized in POSEIDON.…”

Guest Editorial: Technologies and Applications for Interactive NUX/NUI

“…Visual content representation scheme is presented for capturing and annotating the gaze behavior effectively. Information correlation property among multiple image frames is defined for providing the ability to analyze the pattern of perception of user based on complex visual contents [1]. Gwang S. Hong et al presented the fast multi-feature pedestrian detection algorithm based on discrete wavelet transform for interactive driver assistance system.…”

Improved Multi-user Interaction in a Smart Environment Through a Preference-Based Conflict Resolution Virtual Assistant

“…A technology like a rule-based system can be applied in order to solve multi-criteria problems in an Intelligent Environment (IE) [7]. As Augusto et al pointed out [8], IE should incorporate principles of a correct rules delivery to a user, a continuous recognition of a situation, where system's context-awareness allows providing assistance in emergency cases as well as a privacy balance to ensure situations when a user does not need an interaction with a system.…”