The new AI: Europe embraces ambient intelligence.

At the recent IMAPS Nordic conference held in Espoo, Finland, discussions were abuzz with the next concept in computing and communications. Ambient intelligence is an entirely new concept in man-machine interfacing; it is responsive to people's presence, sensitive to their needs, personalized to their individual requirements and anticipatory of their behavior. In the ambient vision of the future, proactive interfaces supported by computing and networking technology platforms will be everywhere--embedded in furniture, clothes, vehicles, roads and even wallpaper. The nearly invisible methods of communication may be in the local infrastructure or a mobile environment.

Imagine a world of objects capable of communicating with each other and anticipating human needs. Applications would be based in industrial workplaces, offices, private homes, nursing homes, shopping malls, museums, vehicles and health care centers and hospitals.

The functional focus of ambient intelligence includes information delivery, entertainment, communication between people, ticket booking, payment by mobile terminals, industrial automation, building automation and home appliance control. One can even envision smart soldiers with smart battlefield equipment, medical monitoring systems and telemedicine. Imagine hospital gowns with sensors to monitor patient needs or an embedded sensor in prosthesis to compensate for drop-foot syndrome. Even more dramatic is the idea of a wearable dialysis system with micro-nano robots that filter and maintain components, making the system last longer. Sound like science fiction? Not in Europe, where government-funded programs are being formed to introduce such concepts.

Organizations and Applications

Organizations researching ambient intelligence include companies such as Philips and institutes such as Ireland's National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC), VTT Electronics and the Fraunhofer IZM. According to VTT Electronics, advances over the past decade in low-power electronics, complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS), radio frequency (RF), microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), wireless and wire communications, processor architectures, software technologies and communications systems are enabling this research. Many European companies see ambient intelligence as a promising business development in the information technology field. Several U.S. universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech), have research programs in the field. Research is also underway at Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sandia National Labs, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and a number of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)-funded companies.

European Projects

European programs include the Disappearing Computer initiative to develop information technology that can be diffused into everyday objects and settings. Two projects in the program are Extrovert Gadgets and Fiber Computing. Extrovert Gadgets aims to provide a technological framework that will engage and assist ordinary people in composing, configuring or using systems for computation in everyday products such as kitchen appliances, entertainment units, clothing and furniture. Fiber Computing's goal is to fabricate electronic components and circuits into silicon fibers that can ultimately create objects--ranging from clothing to carpets--that can interact with their surroundings. Common hardware goals are to develop highly miniaturized wireless micro-sensor networks from 1 to 5 [mm.sup.2].

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Key Technology Developments

One key to the realization of ambient intelligence is the development of software and hardware technology platforms incorporating three-dimensional (3-D) stacking, multichip and microsensor integration, thin and flexible substrates, active polymeric materials, smart materials and, ultimately, micro-nano systems.

Demonstration platforms include a 90 x 30 mm two-layer printed circuit board (PCB) that can be mounted into three 30 x 30 mm panels for a wearable system application. The panels are an inertial measurement panel, a force sensor interface panel and the wireless transceiver panel. The next stage is a 10 x 10 x 10 mm distributed sensing system using off-the-shelf components such as low-power microcontrollers, programmable logic devices, accelerometers, temperature sensors, light dependant resistors, crystal and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The 5 mm platform uses modular units such as a cube of stacked die, including commercially available microprocessors, wireless chipsets and micro-sensors purchased as bare die. The 1 mm platform is called an intelligent seed and will require significant levels of innovation in hardware platforms. Novel substrates (50 x 1[micro]m silicon fibers) and new fabrication processes--including self-assembly--will be required. An incredible amount of sensor integration will be required and MEMS technology will also be important.

Future Technology?

While some of these concepts sound far-fetched, the goal of developing new, proactive interfaces for computing and networking is real and the dream is not impossible. The world we know today may have an entirely new look and feel in the next few decades.

Bibliography

All titles from IMAPS Nordic Annual Conference Proceedings, Espoo, Finland, Sept. 21-24, 2003:

1. G.Q. Zhang, "Ambient Intelligence--The Challenges for Packaging and Reliability."

2. K. Delaney, et al., "Systems Integration and Packaging Requirements for Ambient Intelligence."

3. E. Strommer, "Ambient Intelligence, the IT Boom of this Decade?"

4. B. Majeed, et al., "Implementing Ultra Thin Autonomous Modules for Ambient System Applications Using 3-D Packaging Techniques."

E. Jan Vardaman is president of TechSearch International, Austin, TX; email: jan@TechSearchInc. com.