Last posts on ambient intelligence

RFID Powder Developed By Hitachi

2007-02-24T15:23:13+01:00

Hitachi researchers have developed a new micro-miniaturized radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that is 64 times smaller than their currently available 0.4 x 0.4 mm mu-chips.

At 5 microns thick, the RFID chips can more easily be embedded in sheets of paper, meaning they can be used in paper currency, gift certificates and identification

Intelligent rooms: RoomRender

2006-12-15T00:11:45+01:00

Via Pink Tentacle

SGI Japan has developed a system that can control the electronics, appliances and hardware in a room based on the spoken commands and emotions of the room’s occupants. RoomRender relies on AmiVoice voice recognition technology (developed by Advanced Media) to recognize and analyze spoken commands, enabling the room to close the blinds, turn on the heater, etc. as instructed.

Read the full story on Pink Tentacle

Interactive pillows

2006-12-06T00:49:08+01:00

re-blogged from infoaesthetics

a pair of interactive pillows designed to enhance long-distance communication. users can interact with a pillow in a specific location, which activate dynamic textile patterns in a pillow located elsewhere: by leaning against, touching, or hugging a pillow, the pattern on the other pillow activates & glows dynamically. these ambient patterns expand the vocabulary for remote communication through tangible & aesthetic interactions.

IMAI 2007

2006-10-30T15:05:00+01:00

Salt Lake City, July 16-22, 2007

From the conference website

In the last few years we have witnessed an explosive growth of multimedia computing, ambient intelligent (AmI), pervasive and ubiquitous computing. The few key technologies interact in an interesting and yet useful way, bringing profound impact and revolution. The revolution is transforming the way people live, work, and interact with each other, and is impacting the way business, government services, education, entertainment and health care are operating.

IMAI 2007 is the continuous of IMMCN (International Conference on Intelligent Multimedia Computing and Networking) series running since the beginning of this century. IMAI 2007 seeks the contribution of high quality papers addressing various aspects of multimedia and ambient intelligence, in particular the techniques that lead the merging of both intelligences, for presentation at the conference and publication in the JCIS(Joint Conference on Information Science) proceeding. For the topics of interest, go to the conference website

The paper should follow the JCIS 2007 ( http://www.jcis.org/jcis2007/ ) paper submission guideline. Seleted high quality papers will be published in Information Science journal.

Perimeters, Boundaries, and Borders

2006-09-30T19:39:02+02:00

Re-blogged from Networked Performance

Artists, architects, designers, and other practitioners are constantly fashioning new forms and challenging disciplinary boundaries as they employ techniques such as rapid prototyping and generative processes. In the exhibition Perimeters, Boundaries, and Borders, at Lancaster, UK's Citylab, organizers Fast-uk and Folly explore the range of objects, buildings, and products being conceptualized with the aid of digital technologies. Aoife Ludlow's 'Remember to Forget?' is a series of jewelry designs that envisioned accessories incorporating RFID tags that allow the wearer to record information and emotions associated with those special items that we put on daily. Tavs Jorgensen uses a data glove in his 'Motion in Form' project. After gesturing around an object, data collected by the glove is given physical shape using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling, creating representations of the movements in materials such as glass or ceramics. Addressing traces of a different sort is Cylcone.soc, a data mapping piece by Gavin Bailey and Tom Corby. These works and many more examples from the frontiers of art and design are on view until October 21st." Rhizome News.

MODIE: Modelling and Designing User Assistance in Intelligent Environments

2006-07-18T01:12:56+02:00

Re-blogged from Usability News

Ubicomp research continually develops novel interaction techniques, sensing technologies, and new ways of presenting personalized information to the user. Gradually, companies operating in environments such as airports, museums or even shopping malls are becoming aware of the potential benefits in letting such technologies assist their users and customers. Intelligent environments are predicted to aid their users in pursuing their activities, such as wayfinding or shopping, through the situated presentation of personalized information. However, due to the large design space that ranges from wearable computing to public displays, the conceptual and technological choices pose new challenges to the designer of such user-assistance systems.

Themes & Topics

We are interested in models, principles and methodologies, which guide the designer of an intelligent environment in the early stages of the development process, such as task and requirements analysis and conceptual design. We are looking for contributions, which will help the designer of user assistance systems to address the following questions:

- Which user activities and tasks require assistance?
- How to map an activity model into interactions with artifacts?
- How should the designer choose the best sensing and interaction technologies for a scenario?
- Which mobile or wearable personal devices can be employed?
- How should multiple users with concurrent activities be supported?
- How should the current state of the user assistance system be represented, especially when dealing with multiple tasks?

The intention of the workshop is to share experiences and perspectives on user assistance in intelligent environments from the different view-points of developers, designers, ethnographers and cognitive scientists. Each participant will give a short presentation about their contribution. The second half of the workshop will be focused on the discussion of key topics:

- How to unify the complementary concepts of public and personal devices
- How to model user activity (terminology, structure, notation)
- Suggest a terminology for intelligent Environments
- How tools can support the modelling and designing of user assistance
- What the problems of applying traditional software engineering methodologies are
- Are there principles that can be generalized for the design of IEs?

Intended Participants

We encourage researchers from the following disciplines to contribute position papers (2-6 pages) and knowledge to the discussion:

Computer Scientists (in the fields of Mobile HCI and Intelligent Environments): contribute experiences with working prototypes, discuss technical issues.
Designers: contribute new paradigms and concepts, discuss existing environments and current solutions to present information to the user, how might the future look like?
Ethnographers: contribute an analysis of user activities and problems in current environments, discuss application areas for Intelligent Environments.
Cognitive Scientists: contribute design principles for Intelligent Environments based on their knowledge about the limited resources of the human processor, discussion of pros and cons of interaction paradigms, concepts and technologies.

Workshop Format

MODIE will be a full day workshop. Each participant will give a short presentation on their position and experience in dealing with one or several of the workshop topics. It is assumed that the participants are already familiar with the position papers, which will be available as online proceedings prior to the workshop. In the afternoon, the participants will split into small groups and discuss interesting research topics. Afterwards we will present and discuss their results.

Important Dates
---------------
Submission Deadline July 10, 2006
Acceptance Notification July 13, 2006
Workshop Date September 12, 2006

Ambient Intelligence: algorithms, methods and applications

2006-02-19T22:55:00+01:00

9, 10 and 11 October 2006, at the 10th International Conference on Knowledge-Based & Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems:

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is an emerging paradigm concerned with the design of user-centric intelligent environments. AmI is made possible by permeating public and private spaces with intelligent technology that enhances quality of life. An AmI environment such as a home, an office, a shopping mall, a travel port, utilises data provided by users’ wearable devices to adapt the environment to meet the user’s needs and improving human-machine interactions. Ambient Intelligence brings together a number of research fields from computer science, such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, robotics and human-computer interaction as well as hardware design and architecture.

This special session will focus on Artificial Intelligence techniques, essential for implementing AmI systems, complementing past workshops, which are generally oriented towards computer vision for the AmI paradigm.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

- multi-agent methods,
- multi-sensor fusion,
- intelligent human-environment interaction,
- advanced human-computer interaction,
- conventional and embedded robotics solutions,
- ambient representation and innovative sensors

Submission of papers: 1 March 2006

Notification of acceptance: 1 April 2006 Final papers to be received by: 1 May 2006