Untitled THIS DELIVERABLE

This Deliverable

The goal of this deliverable is to analyse supporting and enabling technologies for identity and identification which will play a central role for future implementations of profiling in AmI (as extensively discussed in FIDIS WP7). Therefore the following explanations have to be read with the context and concepts of AmI in mind. Nevertheless some of the selected technologies and their impact on identity, identification and, more generally speaking, on privacy will also be explained using examples from other fields of application. This is especially done when it helps the reader to more easily understand the problems arising from a given emerging technology. 

As stated in FIDIS D7.3 profiling is an essential part of the idealised AmI, and according to the findings of D7.2 the process of automated profiling includes:

1. recording and storing of data, and 

2. identifying patterns and trends in the data (by running algorithms through the databases) 

In a report of the Winter Corp. [Winter et al. (2006)] the growth of database size was analysed based on surveys. They not only found that in 2004 the largest system in the world (100 terabyte of data) was 100 times larger than in 1995 (1 terabyte of data), but they also identified that the “database size is growing at a staggering rate”. Moreover the report emphasises ongoing demands on the scalability of databases in terms of query complexity and volume, number of users and data latency (summarised as multidimensional scalability).

Putting all this together the world of an idealised AmI requires emerging technologies, which are able to store huge amount of data and offer nearly unlimited computing power. Both have to be available in every place which wants to implement ambient intelligence. Even if we take Moore’s law into account, it cannot be foreseen that this would be possible in an economic manner without decoupling the places where these resources are needed and the actual locations of the sources of them. This simply arises from the fact that the demand increases at least at the same rate as the available resources increase. In other words: the envisaged AmI café-bar would need a computing centre in its cellar.

This problem can theoretically be solved by using the following (emerging) technologies: 

1. grid computing, which can provide the necessary computing power and storage capacity without the need to install extensive hardware in the places where the computing power is needed, and

2. peer-to-peer based network architectures, which can be used to economically transfer the huge amount of collected data to the processing elements of the grid

Both technologies are not ‘emerging’ in terms of only recently being mentioned in the literature. However, their practical usage is still far behind its potential. Especially the vision of grid computing, to make computer power as easy to access as an electric power grid, is still just a vision. Nevertheless both technologies have made big steps toward their goals so that one can conclude that they are still in their ‘emerging’ state. Moreover the usage of these technologies in the field of AmI (which in itself is an emerging technology) is a new approach which could raise them to a new level, if AmI becomes a real success.

Linked to this are a wide range of “emerging” identity and identification, privacy and data protection related problems. They are to some degree inherently present in the aforementioned technologies, but using them in the context of AmI would dramatically increase their quality and quantity as well as their impact on society at large. Details of these technologies are discussed in section , whilst the implications from a legal perspective are discussed in section .

Besides the basic capabilities to process huge amounts of data quickly, there is a need for technologies which deal with the problem of exactly how this processing should be done. In the field of AmI, there is one notable area of research that addresses context awareness and context aware systems. Although it is controversial among researchers exactly what context awareness actually means, it is fair to say that a context aware system is able to perceive its environment and bases its (algorithmic) decisions on this perception. In FIDIS deliverable D7.3 this was called “environmental awareness” and identified as a central aspect of AmI. More details on context awareness and context aware systems are given in section .

The existence of huge amounts of data has been identified as a necessary basis for AmI and has been assumed to pre-exist. But in fact in the AmI world new data are constantly collected using all kinds of sensors. As identified in FIDIS deliverables D7.2 and D7.3 the ubiquitous presence of sensors (as envisioned in basic AmI scenarios) leads to high risk for privacy and threats on the protection of personal data. The fundamental problem would be a problem of control - especially the control of the end user about his personal data. D7.3 discusses some technical measures to overcome that problem. Although the listed mechanisms demonstrate that service providers do not necessarily need to collect and store huge amounts of personal data to provide sophisticated AmI spaces, there is no solution inherent way to prevent them from collecting and processing the data. Therefore new emerging technologies are needed to solve this problem. One prerequisite for this kind of new technology is some means (e.g. sensors) which are able to detect sensors. Details of emerging trends in sensor technologies and the resulting applications can be found in section , whilst section specifically presents details on such sensors which detect sensors and gives a broader overview how this technology could be used to solve privacy problems with the AmI world. Further legal discussion is given in section

Emerging Technologies and Society

Both emerging and converging technologies describe the emergence and convergence of new and potentially disruptive technologies. These address areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, cognitive science, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Advocates of the benefits of technological change typically see emerging technologies as offering hope for the betterment of the human condition. However, critics of the risks of technological change, and even some advocates, warn that some of these technologies could pose dangers. In some scenarios, it is considered that these could even contribute to the extinction of humanity itself. 

Clearly we have adopted a technologically mediated way of living which inherently has far reaching consequences. Here we offer a forum for an initial inter-disciplinary discussion based on the complex issue of this technology evolution in its wider socio-cultural context. Following an initial statement on the topic from an anthropological perspective, we invite the responses of individuals and groups from the technical and legal disciplines. In this way we hope to contribute to the growing debate on the wider implications of emerging technology for our (continued) way of life.