Ambient Intelligence, known as “AmI,” is distributed electronic intelligence. It removes the necessary hardware to the background of the environment and works off microprocessors that interact with one another to share learned data. The AmI is able to learn and respond to the desires of humans in that environment to essentially enhance society in an abstracted way. The AmI algorithm perceives the state of the environment and of the user with sensors, reasons through the data it has mined, and acts upon the environment so that the algorithm achieves its intended output.
Through computing and Natural User Interfaces (NUIs), AmI can provide services autonomously by analyzing user input through means of voice, gesture, and other non-interruptive methods. AmI must be sensitive, adaptive, and responsive. Because AmI has so many complex elements, it is easier to grasp when it is broken up into its separate components to understand how it functions as a whole.
Ubiquitous computing, synonymous with pervasive computing, embeds computational capability into everyday objects to allow them to perform tasks without requiring the user to interact with a computer to initiate said task. An example of a product that uses ubiquitous computing is the FitBit, a bracelet that tracks various attributes of a user such as the heart rate and quality of sleep to help the user achieve their fitness goals.
NUIs are systems that allow humans to interact with computers. A human user operates the NUI with intuitive actions that remove the need for direct instructions. The latest NUI systems do not rely on intermediary devices but rather sensors, making them unobtrusive and near invisible to facilitate a seemingly organic user experience.
One example of an NUI is of a laptop prototype Lenovo released that uses eye tracking technology to trigger certain computer actions. It combines an infrared light source with a camera to catch reflective glints in a user’s eyes. Internal software calculates the area of the laptop screen that is being focused on by the eye and translates that into a response from the computer, such as expanding the taskbar or opening up a custom-made sidebar.
AmI is completely dependent on sentient or context computing. The system must be able to gather information about the environment at any given time and adapt behaviors accordingly. This type of computing utilizes software to automatically connect and analyze data to guide responses. Context awareness ties in with emotional analytics software, an audio mining technique that can collect data based on the user’s tone and how often a particular word is said to analyze the user’s emotional state of being and create output in response to the mined emotional state. That being said, over time, AmI becomes personal and tailored to the needs of the user whose information it is analyzing and processing. It is how AmI can preemptively know what a user needs with minimal provocation from the user.
AmI can be used to connect multiple softwares. Smart objects can speak to each other using the Semantic Web and interoperability, by sharing data learned about the user to other products in the overall AmI system. A world that works off ambient intelligence would connect all smart devices through the hidden network of the Internet of Things. The system would work synchronously to share and analyze collected data and aid users in carrying out daily tasks in a natural way, despite the significant manipulation from the AmI. AmI looks to enhance the natural physical environment without users recognizing its interference.
Using these components, AmI has now become not just a possible, but probable future for our society. The positive impact of AmI has been immense and even includes Stephen Hawking as a beneficiary to its technology. Intel created a user interface called ACAT (Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit) specifically for Hawking that uses his cheek and eyebrows as triggers for computer actions such as speaking, writing emails, and analyzing his desired timing for delivering parts of his speeches in front of audiences. The benefits in terms of physical well being that AmI can ensure is insurmountable.
a movement that implies physical injury or danger. Source: “Review: Ambient intelligence: Technologies, applications, and opportunities” by D. Cook, J. Wrede, and V. Jakkula
ACAT can predict the desired word to be output simply by reading Stephen Hawking’s input and matching it to known information the interface has saved over time. Intel made this interface open source so as to help anyone suffering from a motor neuron disease. While in this case, the AmI is not invisible due to the software that is reliant on Hawking’s touch, the ACAT can analyze user input and preemptively respond with the desired output without putting significant strain on the user.
Another example of AmI from the basic consumer industry is the Philips Hue Smart Light Bulb. Using a device called a “bridge,” the smart bulbs can “speak” to one another and respond to a user’s input from the app through the gateway the bridge creates. With this ambient technology, a user can control all of the light settings at once using intelligent personal assistants to voice commands without ever having to touch a technological device.
The more complex functionality lies in the capability of the bulbs to respond to the environment the user creates. The lights will increase in intensity in the morning to wake up the user by mimicking the effect of a natural sunrise and decrease at night to a warmer tone light to aid in relaxation before the user goes to sleep. Depending on the user’s activity, the lights can adjust to reflect the mood of the environment and even affect the emotional levels of the user.
As with any type of progressive technology, there are many who emphasize a need for caution when trekking into the world of Ambient Intelligence.
Stephen Hawking, himself, has warned against the development of Artificial Intelligence. Soon after Intel had reconditioned the ACAT interface for Hawking, he had expressed in an interview that as this AI learns and re-designs itself with the learned data, he believes our society takes one step closer to the end of the human race. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded,” Hawking noted. Furthermore, many scientists argue that any type of Artificial Intelligence such as AmI brings into question the unethical nature through which the user’s privacy is exposed by the learned information being available through the Web.
Part of what makes AmI successful in some areas as opposed to others is the rate of acceptance of the loss of privacy from the residents. Further questions arise as to when it is appropriate for AmI to interrupt a user’s daily life. Additionally, it is unknown what the human limit is in terms of how much intervention a user will tolerate before it tires of the AmI and wishes to remove it from the environment.