Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence: New Challenges for Computing

The IST Advisory Group (ISTAG) of the European Union had a vision of "Ambient Intelligence" (AmI) in 1999. It refers to " an exciting new paradigm of information technology, in which people are empowered through a digital environment that is aware of their presence and context sensitive, adaptive and responsive to their needs, habits, gestures and emotions ". In AmI the technology will become invisible, embedded, present whenever we need it, enabled by simple interactions, attuned to all our senses and adaptive to users and contexts (Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence). AmI proposes a shift in computing from the traditional computer to a whole set of devices placed around us providing users with an intelligent background. AmI involves three key technologies: Ubiquitous Computing integrating microprocessors into everyday objects; Ubiquitous Communication, which allows these objects to communicate with each other and with users; and finally, Natural Interfaces, which allows interacting with the environment in an easier and more personalized way. This special issue is aimed to join research efforts in these three technologies, although emphasis will be placed on the first one, which emerges directly from the seminal vision of Mark Weiser in the Xerox Lab. Nine papers have been selected to represent this area of research. The first one, " Development of Ambient Intelligence Applications using Components and Aspects " by Fuentes et al. focuses on applying aspect technologies to components in order to improve AmI application modularization. Their work presents the benefits of aspect technologies with regard to reusability and adaptability, by showing the limitations of a well-known component-based AmI middleware platform named PCOM. " Quality of Privacy (QoP) for the Design of Ubiquitous Healthcare Applications " by Tentori et al. describes a workplace study conducted in a hospital, aimed at understanding the privacy issues that hospital workers might face in a pervasive computing environment. From the results of the study the authors propose