Ambient intelligence: vision, research and life

This paper evaluates the progress in the field of Ambient Intelligence since its early days. It discusses the extent to which earlier visions of Ambient Intelligence have materialized arguing that to a large extent we already live in an era of Ambient Intelligence, despite that ‘true intelligence’ appears to remain elusive. We examine the extent to which this is so, focusing on shifting mind-sets and ambitions for researchers in the last years. We discuss the various reincarnations of the vision from a historical and societal perspective, together with some of the critiques leveled against it. With many research challenges still remaining open, we discuss how Ambient Intelligence research can be aligned to contemporary societal needs. Particularly important is to create mechanisms that will enable people to interact and benefit from the envisioned technological infrastructure avoiding some of the dangers that embedding computational intelligence in our physical environment brings about. Observing the diversification of research to address different application areas, we note how the impetus towards Ambient Intelligence needs to be renewed with a uniting challenge that transcends the development of technological infrastructure.