Title: POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS OF AMI

In the ISTAG report of 2003, Ambient Intelligence: from vision to reality, empowerment of ordinary people by means of AmI is emphasised over and against a systems view of AmI. According to the report the focus should be on facilitation of end users, enhancing their opportunities to participate. Insisting that AmI should be treated as an imagined concept or an emergent property - not as a set of specified requirements, the ISTAG pleads a holistic approach to AmI. Instead of defining the concept it strives to create a vision of AmI that is still in the making, dependent on stake holder’s consensus (promoting open standards), end user trust (control) and a plurality of scientific perspective (computer science, cultural studies).

The following eight fields of application are presented as exemplary for the emancipating potential of this holistic AmI vision: 

1. Community building: reinforcing existing bonds and formation of new social groups; 

2. Health care: e.g. creating smart homes with responsive and pro-active health care environments; 

3. Smart home: building a comfortable cocoon and facilitating flexible participation in work and other relations; 

4. Civil security: AmI should allow a move form traditional monitoring tools to advanced forms of risk assessment and decision support; 

5. Environment: the same move from traditional monitoring tools to real time profiling technologies could greatly enhance both the diagnosis and the sustainability of environmental developments; 

6. Mobility and transport: virtual mobile environments (SMEs) can be constructed;  

7. Sustainability: AmI could facilitate new technologies; 

8. Enterprise: enabling the formation of virtual enterprises. 

The utopia that seems to await us in the near future as we build the infrastructure to facilitate the vision of AmI to become reality must be regarded with some sober scepticism. As the ISTAG and reports of many others stress, technology in itself will not solve all our social problems. What is important, however, is to keep track of the process of emerging AmI technology design, anticipating the implications of different types of design. In this FIDIS Workpackage the focus is on the aspect of profiling technologies, on which the vision of AmI (and its reality) seems to depend. We shall thus briefly refer to the finding of FIDIS deliverable 7.2 “Description and analysis of profiling practices” followed by special attention to the relevant issues for profiling in the AmI environment.