Tangible Bits
Lectural Cheng-Hsun Hsieh
Department of MES, STUT
zcc@mai.stut.edu.tw
Introduction
• “Send this to Juan.“
• “Get me a hardcopy quickly!”
Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a striking and to
some extent provocative vision of the future society.
Definitions
• Ambient Intelligence is a distributed
network of intelligent devices that provides
us with information, communication and
entertainment.”
Emile Aarts , Rick Harwig, “Ambient Intelligence”
• “Ambient Intelligence is a network of
hidden intelligent interfaces that recognize
our presence and mould our environment
to our immediate needs.”
John Horvath, Telepolis, Making Friends with Big brother
Definitions
• “Ambient Intelligence refers to an exciting
new paradigm in information technology, in
which people are empowered through a
digital environment that is aware of their
presence and context and is sensitive,
adaptive and responsive to their needs,
habits, gestures and emotions.”
Taken from “Ambience Project”
URL: http://www.extra.research.philips.com/euprojects/ambience
Three Key Technologies
1. Ubiquitous Computing
means the integration of microprocessors
into everyday objects like furniture, clothes
or toys.
2. Ubiquitous Communication
should enable these objects to communicate
with each other and with the user.
Three Key Technologies
3. Intelligent User Interface
enables the inhabitants of the AmI to control
and interact with the environment in a natural
(voice, gestures) and personalized way
(preferences, context).
AmI Should be…
• Ambient Intelligence will raise some
concerns over privacy and security issue.
That is why Ambient Intelligence must be
user friendly, controllable and secure.
Besides it should be almost invisible and
moreover it should be nowhere unless we
need it.
Key Word
“CONTROL”
Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence
• 4 scenarios from ISTAG 2001 report :
“Ambient Intelligence In 2010”
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Scenario 1: `Maria' Road Warrior
Scenario 2:`Dimitrios' and the Digital Me' (D-Me)
Scenario 3 Carmen: traffic, sustainability & commerce
Scenario 4: Annette and Solomon in the Ambient for Social
Learning
ISTAG is a abbreviation of “ Information Society Technology Advisory Group ”
S1: `Maria' Road Warrior
• Socio-political issues:
– What makes people actually being afraid of
Ambient Intelligence?
– Maria’s P-com (“key of keys”) will contain
many personal and confidential information
about the user.
– privacy, confidence and security
S1: `Maria' Road Warrior
• Business environment:
– market is here primarily targeted at the highwage business-oriented users
– standard services (central billing, network
access management, programming)
– special services (booking hotel rooms, renting
cars, health services)
– Merging different nature of services or
different corporate culture
S1: `Maria' Road Warrior
• Technological issues:
– What must be done in the technological field
to make P-com reality?
• A micro-sized radio software transceiver interoperate
with different wireless protocols (e.g. GSM) or even
with satellite.
• ID key of keys: biometrics or chip implantation
S2: `Dimitrios' and the D-Me
• Socio-political issues:
– PRIVACY:
• Who are my data accessible to?
– AUTHENTICITY:
• People, and especially the “old guard”, may prefer
talking to realhuman being.
– ETHICS:
• fake identities
– CRIME:
• Misusing the D-Me’s for ethically suspicious activities
S2: `Dimitrios' and the D-Me
• Business environment:
– Market segmentation: Not all D-Me’s will have
the same performances
– Fashion design
– The core service : matching activity.
– Public service provision to counterbalance the
users that D-Me’s might acquire if driven only
by fun or hedonistic drivers.
S2: `Dimitrios' and the D-Me
• Technological issues:
– It should be micro-sized device with an
integrated data capture capacity and wireless
ad hoc network communication.
– The D-Me is meant to be a network device to
services such as virtual matching or
decentralized data warehousing
S3 Carmen: traffic, sustainability
& commerce
• Socio-political issues:
– AmI will not solve all transport and environmental
problems, but it aims at reaching a situation that can
deserve the attribute “tolerable.”
– Are there any pressures we would be faced with if
forced to accept all these changes?
– new taxes may be imposed (counterparts of the socalled subway-tax in some big cities), and this is
always considered a significant social cost
S3 Carmen: traffic, sustainability
& commerce
• Business environment:
– A “smart city” would demand a great deal of
new smart devices and systems
– There will be much room for the companies
providing software necessary to make these
complex systems function.
– E-commerce might be a driver of different
organizational patterns between the supplier
and the retailer. The supply of products would
be strictly on-demand.
S3 Carmen: traffic, sustainability
& commerce
• Technological issues:
– Whole traffic infrastructure must be renewed and the
whole network of multifunctional sensors
– PAN, the technological challenge would consist in
miniaturization, low power sources, wirelessness,
providing security, developing biosensors.
– The scenario is based on three levels of
communication networks.
• Level 1: ex. PAN (person with person)
• Level 2: ex. VAN (networks with networks)
• Level 3: ex. WAN (level with level)
S4 Annette and Solomon in the
Ambient for Social Learning
• Socio-political issues:
– Educational modern trends include life-long
learning or learning by doing.
– Learning is a social process and, additionally,
one of essential social processes
– One of the main achievements of the ASL
could be exceeding and removing learning
and interacting obstacles set by numerous
language and cultural backgrounds.
S4 Annette and Solomon in the
Ambient for Social Learning
• Business environment:
– 3D visualization technology including real-time
rendering of video and projection of holographs.
– Manipulation of sound fields so that people can lead
individual conversations in shared place
– Opportunities for multi-channel (web-TV, mobile)
services and for online storage, re-processing and
retrieval of content on demand
– Multimedia developers creating user-friendly
toolboxes for self-production of content
– Multi-skilled project-oriented teams that are available
to work with grassroots groups, firms or traditional
educational providers.
S4 Annette and Solomon in the
Ambient for Social Learning
• Technological issues:
– Ability to record and review experiences of past and
present participants.
– A network for communication and a collective
corporate memory must be provided
Some other requirements:
– Recognition- tracing, Interactive commitment,
– Natural language and speech interfaces
– Projection facilities for light and sound fields
– Reflexive learning systems
– Knowledge management tools
Structuring differentials between
the scenarios
Three main sustainability
dimensions
• Personal physical and psychological
sustainability
– Can AmI reduce (mental) health risks from
information stress, virtual identities and
information overload?
• Socio-economic sustainability:
– digital divides emerging from unequal
developments and access to the AmI
infrastructure
• Environmental sustainability:
– recycling and reclamation of electronic waste