Presence 2010: The emergence of ambient intelligence

Abstract

In the last five years we have seen significant advances in three promising technology areas: virtual environments, in which 3D displays and interaction devices immerse the user in a synthesized world, mobile communication and sensors, in which increasingly small and inexpensive terminals and wireless networking allow users to roam the real world without tethered to stationary machines. The merging of these areas allows the emergence of a new vision: the Ambient Intelligence (AmI), a pervasive and unobtrusive intelligence in the surrounding environment supporting the activities and interactions of the users. The most ambitious expression of AmI is the Mobile Mixed Reality: the enhancement of information of a mobile user about a real scene through the embedding of one or more objects (3D, images, videos, text, computer graphics, sound, etc) within his/her sensorial field. Within this vision, the concept of presence evolves, too. The sense of being there covers only the simulation and immersive sides of the sense of presence. To be present in the augmented context offered by the AmI, the user has to be aware of its meaning and accept its hybridity. Only making sense there, the user experiences a full sense of presence.