Ambient+Systems

An ambient system is an environment where the "computing infrastructure can sense and react directly to its environment." The idea is that the system recognizes what the user needs and reacts accordingly to provide the necessary information or alters itself to assist the user.

Ideally it should be free of distraction, that is different to the average environment. It should be "seamless" and should be focused on adapting itself to specific individuals. The goal is to provide new insight to the term "user-friendly" by not just providing the correct information to the user, but providing it in a way that keeps in mind the intended use.

Although ambient systems are still in very basic developmental stages, some possible ideas do exist. Major problems exist with, neural sensors, which would be able to know what you are thinking as well as, adaptive programs that could learn and therefore predict, something like artificial intelligence. (It is considered part of the definition of an ambient system, that it also be an adaptive system.)

The goal isn't really to provide an interactive space in the traditional sense, like a computer. For example, a user controls the interaction between themselves and the computer. An ambient space, would be an environment that adapts and changes according to the user. So, its the computing system that controls the environment, that controls the interaction.

ie. if you a room with big windows and a baking hot sun, the computer would be able to detect how you feel, and therefore adjust the temperature levels based, not on the temperatue, but on how you feel.

One potential example of this type of system is The Digital Aura. Although it doesn't actually exist it is a theoretical example.

Another potential example might be [|HAL 9000] of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also once I read that Bill Gates house could sense who was in each room at what time and would change the temperature and the music accordingly. But I don't know how true that is.

Sources (APA)

Lugmayr, Artur, Saarinen, Teemu & Tournut, Jean-Philippe (2006) //The Digital Aura - Ambient Mobile Computer Systems//. Retrieved January 21, 2008, from ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/10741/ 33865/01613294.pdf?arnumber=1613294

Dobson, Simon (2003) //Applications considered harmful for ambient systems//. Retrieved January 21, 2008, from [|portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=963634]

By Brian Santangelo