Ambient intelligence

Manufacturing News, Source : British Industry
Published : 10 Apr 2002 13:59
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A futuristic report commissioned by ISTAG (the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group) offers an intriguing glimpse of life in 2010, anticipating the integration of microcomputers into everyday objects.

The DTI’s EU funding support initiative UKISHELP believes this could inspire more UK companies to achieve European IT funding success. The report draws on current EU-funded research and uses real life scenarios to describe what living with so-called ‘ambient intelligence’ will be like. One of the scenarios uses a character called Dimitrios, a 32 year-old employee of a major food multinational.

Dimitrios is wearing, embedded in his clothes (or even in his own body), a voice activated ‘gateway’ or digital version of himself, familiarly known as his ‘Digital Me’ or ‘D-Me’. This learns about Dimitrios from his interactions with his environment, and offers communication, processing and decision-making functionality.

While Dimitrios is in a meeting with his boss and some colleagues, his D-Me receives and deals with incoming calls and mails, answering in a nice reproduction of Dimitrios’ voice. A call comes in from his wife, and the D-Me explains that Dimitrios is busy. Meanwhile, an elderly man has left home without his medicine and would like to know where he can access similar drugs. Dimitrios suffers from similar heart problems, so his D-Me picks up his message and responds with a list of the closest drug shops, without having to reveal Dimitrios’ identity.

The call from Dimitrios’ wife is soon interpreted by his D-Me as sufficiently pressing to mobilise him. Their son has a homework project on everyday life in Egypt. Dimitrios passes the query to his D-Me to search for an available contact. Ten minutes later, his son is videoconferencing at home with an Egyptian girl of his own age, recording the real-time translated conversation as part of his homework.

It’s amazing stuff, but if you ask me, Dimitrios has got it all wrong. This kind of technology should allow us more social and leisure time. Let the D-Me deal with the boss.

To find out more about European Information Society funding programmes, visit the website (www.ukishelp.co.uk) or call the telephone support line on

0870 606 1515.

 

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