Ambient Intelligence

Abstract

This volume contains the papers and posters selected for presentation at the International Joint Conference on Ambient Intelligence (AmI 2012) held in Pisa in November 2012. The vision of ambient intelligence is to provide environments enhanced by intelligent interfaces supported by computing and networking technology embedded in everyday objects, and which enable users to interact with their surroundings in a seamless manner. More specifically, such environments should result in systems that are aware of the characteristics of users, recognize their needs, learn from their behavior, and are able to intelligently and even proactively act in order to support humans in achieving their goals. Ambient intelligence should also be unobtrusive – interaction should be natural and engaging for the users. From a scientific point of view, ambient intelligence (AmI) comprises a multidisciplinary approach covering fields such as computer science, human computer interaction, electrical engineering, industrial design, behavioral sciences, aimed at enriching physical environments with a network of distributed devices, such as sensors, actuators, and computational resources, in order to support users in their everyday activities. From a technological perspective, AmI represents the convergence of recent achievements in ubiquitous and communication technologies, pervasive computing, intelligent user interfaces and artificial intelligence, just to name a few. This conference started as the European Symposium on Ambient Intelligence in 2003, and has grown to an annual international event that brings together researchers and serves as a forum to discuss the latest trends and developments in this field. These AmI 12 proceedings include the latest research into technologies and applications that enable and validate the deployment of the AmI vision. This year the program contained 18 full papers carefully chosen from a total of 47 submissions (38% acceptance rate). There were also five short papers accepted out of 14 (acceptance rate 36%). All papers were reviewed in a doubleblind review process. For some papers this included a conditional acceptance step which required further revisions finally checked by reviewers and Chairs. In addition, the program included five landscape papers (papers that brainstorm on the future evolution of AmI), ten posters, and two demos. The competition for paper acceptance was strong and final selection was difficult. The published material originates from 27 countries, including Africa, Australia, North and Central America, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Europe. VI Preface Each paper had at least two independent reviews from reviewers who were matched by expertise area to the topic of each paper. The Chairs handled borderline cases, and requested additional reviews when needed. In addition to the main conference, seven workshops were held prior to the main AmI 2012 event, and stimulated interesting discussions on specific relevant topics. A special thanks goes to the dedicated work of the 54 Program Committee members involved in the review panel who came from Europe and North America, thus reflecting the international spirit of AmI participation. Their names are listed in the conference proceedings and on the website. We would also like to express our gratitude to ACM SIGCHI, Interactiondesign. org, SIGCHI Italy, IFIP WG 2.7/13.4 for their help in creating interest in the conference. Finally, we would like to thank the conference Organizing Committee for their dedicated support, as well as the paper presenters and conference participants who contributed to the vibrant discussions, presentations, and workshops held at AmI 2012. Fabio Patern`o Boris de Ruyter Panos Markopoulos Carmen Santoro Evert van Loenen Kris Luyten