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energy saving, and enhance both personal and building security for everyone.
Real smart homes with all network islands and possible applications are limited to
demonstration houses so far. Home automation has been implemented in
thousands of houses world wide, but is still in its infancy. Several economic and
socio-cultural factors will cause changes in society, which are favourable for a
breakthrough of smart home technology.
Other factors that still account for the slow progress are: c o s t s, lack of
standardisation, problems with the integration and interaction of subsystems and
missing skills at installers. The Internet, broadband and wireless are keywords in an
irreversible move to further introduction of smart home technology. The question is
at which speed of progress. But it is absolutely certain that in the near future all
houses will be connected to the electronic highway. As the logic goes, these houses
will by themselves be smart by networking all devices and equipment in order to
get maximal benefit and fun. The benefit and usefulness has been demonstrated in
homes where older people live.
Currently Ambient Assisted Living markets are still very fragmented and have a
rather low level of maturity. Furthermore, national differences as for organisation
of social care and culture exist [Steg, Strese, Loroff, Hull & Schmidt, 2006].
There also seems to be a lot of knowledge about accessible housing, universal
design or design for all, but less research on related service systems. Service
systems are really context related, related to market, social relations and culture,
and that is why it is more difficult to make generalizations in that area. But there
are some ways to look at possible issues.
Also user involvement is essential in order to make a smart home something where
you can and will live. The user point of view implies also ethical issues, which
include, for example, the person's possibility to control the system, and privacy. It
should be possible for the user to switch the systems on and off and change the
rules according to which they operate.
All proposed requirements are goals. But the real challenge is HOW to achieve
them. It is about measures, which really are context related: some are possible and
function somewhere, others in other places. That is why one could add a
requirement that the smart home is a part of local social systems.
But standardized solutions and procedures are also needed. It is important to look
at how these goals can be financially, legally and organizationally achieved. With
such a consideration and action the goals could become closer.
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In order to achieve goals, the five main orientations in Europe’s ICT research effort
are [European Commission, 2006]:
1. Addressing complexity and the need for a systems approach. The successful
exploitation of these technologies requires the integration in managed
services and solutions to be applied across broadening range of sectors and
markets
2. Fostering interdisciplinarity and synergies. There is a need for stronger
involvement of domain expertise and for greater interaction with other
science and technology disciplines. Thus the range of interactions around ICT
research must be both wider and deeper
3. Creating an open engagement with users. Users should be integrated into
the processes of research and development, and new product creation and
introduction. Users should be at the centre of the innovation process, a
source of ideas, and not just a resource to evaluate ideas generated by
professionals
4. Stimulating the consumption side (services and content). Networks become
service- and application centric and will be visible for the user
5. Focus on value chains and ecosystems. Successful exploitation of ICT
research results requires not just innovative technology but also innovative
business models. While keeping user needs centre-stage, the user focus
needs to be shifted from discrete systems to the value chains of which they
are a part and the societal challenges to which they are applied.
The efforts should lead to ICT that “will enable the creation of systems that are
more intelligent and personalized, and therefore more centred on the user”
[European Commission, 2006]. In the end the user is the key factor in realizing the
goal of improving the quality of life for people with a disability and elderly persons.
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Further information
Overview of research projects and research facilities:
• Adaptive House: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~mozer/nnh/
• Agent-based Intelligent Reactive Environments (AIRE):
http://aire.csail.mit.edu/
• Ambiente roomware:
http://www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ambiente/english/index.html
• AMIGO: http://www.hitech-projects.com/euprojects/amigo/
• AVIARY: http://cvrr.ucsd.edu/aviary/
• The Aware Home: http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/fce/ahri/
• Changing Places/House_n: http://architecture.mit.edu//house_n/
• Creative Studio Lab:
http://www.francetelecom.com/en/group/rd/activities/vision/customer/studio_
crea.html
• Cybermanor: http://www.cybermanor.com/
• Domolab Ikerlan: http://www.ikerlan.es/pub/ingl/index.htm
• Duke SmartHouse: http://www.smarthouse.duke.edu/
• E-House: http://www.e-house.us/
• Elite Care assisted living facility: http://www.elite-care.com/
• Essex Intelligent Inhabited Environments (IIEG):
http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/intelligent-buildings/index.htm
• Elux House:
http://nweb.waymaker.se/bitonline/2000/09/11/20000911BIT00760/bit0002.
• Futurelife: http://www.futurelife.ch/
• Gloucester Smart House: http://www.dementia-voice.org.uk/
• Humboldt State CCAT: http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/
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• IBM Wired Home: http://www-
306.ibm.com/software/info1/websphere/index.jsp?tab=products/
mobilespeech
• Icepick Technologies: http://www.webcam.nl/
• Inamilab: http://www.hi.mce.uec.ac.jp/~inamilab/en/lab/index.html
• InHaus: http://www.inhaus-zentrum.de/en/index.htm,
http://www.inhaus.de/index_flash2_engl.html
• Intel Proactive health: http://www.intel.com/research/prohealth/
• Intelligent Building Group: http://www.ibgroup.org.uk/index.asp
• Intelligent Home Project:
http://mas.cs.umass.edu/research/ihome/
• Intelligent Space Project:
http://dfs.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~leejooho/ispace/
• Internet Home Alliance: http://www.caba.org/iha/
• Italdesign: http://www.italdesign.it/dinamic/index.html
• Joseph Rountree Foundation Demonstration Project:
http://www.jrf.org.uk/housingandcare/smarthomes/
• MavHome: http://www.uta.edu/
• Medical Automation Research Center:
https://smarthouse.med.virginia.edu/
• Microsoft Easy living: http://research.microsoft.com/easyliving/
• MIT media Laboratory: http://www.media.mit.edu/
• Philips Homelab:
http://www.research.philips.com/technologies/misc/homelab/
• PRIMA: http://www-prima.imag.fr/Prima/
• SENTHA: http://www.sentha.tu-berlin.de/
• Singapore connected home
projects:http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/broadband/infopage.jsp?infopagecate
gory=&infopageid=I2122&versionid=1
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• Smart Homes: http://www.smart-homes.nl/engels/index.html
• Smart Medical Home Research Laboratory:
http://www.futurehealth.rochester.edu/validation/smart_home.html
http://www.futurehealth.rochester.edu/smart_home/
http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V64N3/feature2.html
• Smart Spaces Lab NIST: http://www.nist.gov/smartspace/
• Stanford Interactive Workspaces: http://iwork.stanford.edu/
• Sun Dot Com Home:
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2000-01/sunflash.20000106.1.xml
• Swindon SmartHouse:
http://archive.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/2005/2/26/92647.html
• Telenor Home of the Future:
http://press.telenor.com/PR/200110/837959_5.html
• TRON Intelligent House:
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/tronintlhouse.html
• Toyota Dream House PAPI:
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/toyotadreamhousepapi.html
1In the literature, reference is made to the same concept but using other terms: for example, “ubiquitous computing” or “pervasive computing”.
2http://www3.who.int/icf/icftemplate.cfm
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people with disabilities
4. Ambient Intelligence and implications for
people with disabilities
4.1 Introduction
Ambient Intelligence (AmI)1 is considered one of the possible instantiations of the
emerging Information Society and a debate is going on about the possible impact
of this emerging environment on the socio-economic integration of all citizens and,
in particular, of older citizens and citizens with disabilities.
As all technological innovations, ambient intelligence is not good or bad per se, but
its impact on people will depend on how it is deployed and used, the time and
scale of deployment and the care devoted to involve people in its development,
taking care of their needs, requirements and preferences (design for all approach).
This chapter is a contribution toward the identification of new opportunities and
challenges for the socio economic integration of older people and people with
disabilities in an AmI environment. It is divided in two parts. The first part, starting
from European development scenarios that describe possible activities to be
carried out in future ambient intelligence environments, aims at anticipating to
what degree and how people with different disabilities will be able to cope with
the foreseen activities. People are considered as “immersed” in the described
environments and a preliminary analysis is carried out about the potential
integration of individuals who cannot see, hear, speak, manipulate objects, move
around or have difficulties with memory, concentration or problem solving. The
second part considers the ethical and legislative issues related to AmI and some of
the technology necessary for its implementation. The discussed problems include
privacy and transparency, product safety, and trust can be cited.
1 In the literature, reference is made to the same concept but using other terms: for example, “ubiquitous computing” or “pervasive computing”.
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4.2 The ISTAG scenarios: a case study
Margherita Antona, Laura Burzagli, Pier Luigi Emiliani, Constantine Stephanidis
4.2.1 Introduction - The information society
It is commonly accepted that contemporary society is undergoing a fundamental
transition, from the present industrial society towards an information society.
Among the possible embodiments of the emerging information society, an
interesting and widely discussed potential instantiation is the Ambient Intelligence
paradigm. The information society is not seen as being characterised by an
increased diffusion and use of present-day computers and telecommunication
terminals, but as the emergence of an environment in which “people are
surrounded by intelligent intuitive interfaces that are embedded in all kinds of
objects and an environment that is capable of recognising and responding to the
presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible
way” [Ducatel et al., 2001, p.8]. This concept provides a vision of the information
society in which emphasis is put on greater user-friendliness, more efficient support
of services, user-empowerment, and support for human interaction. Interaction is
intended as taking place through “natural” interfaces in the context of an
environment which meets the requirements of being unobtrusive (that is, it
impinges on people’s consciousness only when needed), personalisable, adaptive
to different user needs, and anticipatory (that is, it tries to anticipate user needs).
The emergence and shaping of AmI is currently subject to debate. In order to
produce a structured way for obtaining an impression on how an information
society could emerge, a scenario planning exercise was conducted in Europe in
2000, leading to the publication of the report “Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence
in 2010” [Ducatel, 2001]. In this document, the vision of an information society is
based on ambient intelligence as defined in the previous paragraph. The presented
scenarios offer a view of a potential future, based on anticipated developments in
t e c h n o l o g i e s, s o c i e t y, the economy and networks which are necessary for
implementing an environment in which the scenarios could actually become a
reality. They are not technology forecasts, but descriptions of potential activities to
be carried out in future ambient intelligent environments.
Despite the current limited knowledge on how AmI will materialise, it is commonly
recognised that it is likely to bring about new opportunities for all citizens in the
Information Society, including people with disabilities and older people, but, at the
same time, new challenges for access to computer-based products and services.
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The purpose of the present chapter is to analyse, through the ISTAG (IST Advisory
Group) scenarios, the potential impact and consequences of AmI for people with
activity limitations. This implies analysing how the scenarios would be affected in
the case that their characters would not have all the abilities that are usually taken
for granted for a “typical” user (for example if they cannot see, hear, move
<