Ambient Intelligence Programme
Throughout their history, humans had to continuously adapt themselves
to their surrounding environment, in order to survive, but also make
the best out of it. Today, Ambient Intelligence (AmI) technologies have
the potential to change this status quo through the creation of "intelligent"
environments able to proactively adapt to humans, as well as serve their
needs and goals, in the best possible way. In this context, our vision
is to improve the quality of life of all citizens of the emerging Information
Society through the creation and provision of safe, efficient and user-friendly
AmI technologies, which support and cater to the needs of each and every
individual user in a seamless, unobtrusive and invisible way.
The Ambient Intelligence Programme will constitute platform for cooperative
research towards developing and studying AmI-related technologies and
assessing their impact on the individual, as well as society as a whole,
but also as a unique showcase for demonstrating the potential, added-value
and benefits of AmI technologies in different aspects of everyday life
and activities. In this direction, the AmI Programme aims to realise
a link for technology transfer and know-how dissemination to industrial
actors. Particular emphasis will be given on the simulation and experimentation
with several indoors and outdoor environments of key importance, taking
into account related parameters ranging from domestic and rural environmental
features, to distinctive cultural and societal traits. Research and
development work will be predominantly human-, rather than technology-,
centred and will focus on selected key application domains: housing,
work, health, security, education, transport, and entertainment.
Last but not least, the AmI Programme will seek to develop
multidisciplinary research and promote collaboration with other
research and academic organisations around the world working
in this area.
The AMI Programme will support research and development activities in
numerous related scientific areas including, but not limited to:
- Human-computer interaction
- Networks and telecommunications
- Distributed systems
- Semantic-based knowledge systems
- Computer architecture
- Microelectronics
- Sensors
- Robotics and automation
- Computational vision
In the context the AmI Programme, the research activities will focus on six thematic areas, each related to a number of application domains. These thematic areas will also act as: (a) inspiration drivers for envisioning realistic, meaningful and added-value application scenarios for AmI technologies; and (b) test-beds for assessing and validating constituent AmI technologies in simulated real-life contexts. The selected thematic areas represent both private/restricted and public environments and include:
- Home: Intelligent living room
- Work: Intelligent Office
- Education: Intelligent classroom
- Transportation: Intelligent transportation
- Commerce: Intelligent exhibition
- Leisure: Intelligent playground
The key thematic areas in the context
of AmI Programme
Each thematic area will be equipped with basic AmI infrastructure components (e.g., sensors, actuators, screens, speakers, networks), as well as with special-purpose equipment required for the specific simulated environment, supported user activities and deployment scenarios (e.g., home electronics and healthcare equipment for the home). Additionally, a control center will be created, which will incorporate all the necessary equipment (e.g., servers and routers, chargers, video recorders) to effectively operate and monitor all the thematic areas. A structural representation of the AmI Laboratory is depicted below.
Structural overview of the foreseen laboratory
facilities for the AmI Programme.
Contact Person:
Prof. Constatine Stephanidis
Head of Ambient Intelligence Programme
cs@ics.forth.gr
