Untitled CONCLUSION

Conclusion

The concept of AmI is largely based on the idea that by augmenting an environment with sensor technologies and by providing near unlimited storage and processing capabilities, the intentions, needs and desires of people can be predicted and catered for. The result is that people will not need to know how to operate complex technologies – instead the technology will interact with them in intelligent and intuitive ways. Clearly collating information is the key. However, if an environment is to know what a person wants or needs without being explicitly told, then this information needs to come from indirect means – i.e. the technology, or rather the environment as a whole becomes less interactive, and more proactive. Through varying levels of sensor data gleaned from pervasively embedded sensors, dynamic autonomic profiles can be drawn to enable this proactive ability. Intuitively these profiles can only be as good as the data that feeds them, and the processing available to create them, and hence the focus of development is to extract as much data as possible from all aspects of the users and their interactions within an AmI space, as well as developing the underlying infrastructure through which this data can be ‘mined’ for new information. 

Here we have presented a range of technologies which are considered applicable in the fabric of an AmI environment. These stem from fundamental sensor technology for AmI spaces which will enable the data capture from which new information can be inferred, to enabling technology, i.e. technology which will serve in the underpinning infrastructure to provide the networking and processing capabilities necessary in the envisaged future scenarios of augmented living. Notably, and in contrast to other texts on AmI related technology, we have also presented the concept of ‘sensors which detect sensors’ which may prove to be a way in which our privacy can be conserved to a greater extent in environments where data capture becomes ubiquitous. 

In any case, it is clear that the user and the controller of the data are not one of the same. Indeed in some cases it may be unclear who is collecting data from sensors and what it is being used for. One route to counteract such issues is the idea that new technologies should incorporate ‘privacy by design’, that is the mechanisms necessary for user control of their data should be an inherent aspect of the technology. To this end, many privacy advocates have suggested that emerging technologies and applications should undergo mandatory privacy assessments before they are released into the mass market. To a large extent the technologies discussed above are speculative in that, in the main, they have not reached a mature level of development or deployment. Thus, it is exactly at this point where such technology needs to be discussed beyond the domain of those creating it to ensure that we are able to stay in control. ‘Staying in control’ is a broad turn of phrase, and indeed its exact meaning and context here is open to interpretation. However, what is for sure is that there are fundamental rights and freedoms which must be ensured with the development of any technology and, with this in mind, in the next chapter the technologies discussed above will be considered from a legal and ethical standpoint.