Intelligent Environments (IE) are spaces with embedded systems and information and communication technologies creating interactive spaces that bring computation into the physical world. "Intelligent environments are spaces in which computation is seamlessly used to enhance ordinary activity. One of the driving forces behind the emerging interest in highly interactive environments is to make computers not only genuine user-friendly but also essentially invisible to the user" (Steventon and Wright 2006).
IEs describe physical environments in which information and communication technologies and sensor systems disappear as they become embedded into physical objects, infrastructures, and the surroundings in which we live, travel, and work. The goal here is to allow computers to take part in activities never previously involved and allow people to interact with computers via gesture, voice, movement, and context. The annual IET conferences on Intelligent Environments (IE06; IE07) present current trends and applications.
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As the Intelligent Environments Conference (2007) points out: 'Types of Intelligent Environments range from private to public and from fixed to mobile; some are ephemeral while others are permanent; some change type during their life span. The realisation of Intelligent Environments requires the convergence of different prominent disciplines: Information and Computer Science, Architecture, Material Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Sociology and Design. In addition, technical breakthroughs are required in key enabling technology fields, such as, microelectronics (e.g., miniaturisation, power consumption), communication and networking technologies (e.g., broadband and wireless networks), smart materials (e.g., bio-implants) and intelligent agents (e.g., context awareness and ontologies)'.
An example of such spaces is the 'Intelligent Room'; a laboratory room which supports computer vision, speech recognition, and movement tracking, based on about fifty distinct intercommunication software agents that run on interconnected computers (Cohen 1997). Another is Intelligent cities, territories that sustain innovation processes with virtual spaces and ICTs (Komninos 2002). An extremely rich source of applications and experimentations in the field is to be found in the Intelligent Community Forum (2007) and the cities selected by ICF as top intelligent communities.
The critical question is not whether we may build intelligent environments, but how we may use these environments as instruments for distributed problem-solving (Bowen-James 1997; Novak 1997).
Bowen-James, A. (1997) 'Paradoxes and Parables of Intelligent Environments' in P. Droege (ed.) Intelligent Environments - Spatial Aspect of the Information Revolution, Oxford, Elsevier, <http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Environments-Peter-Droege/dp/0444823328>
Cohen, M. (1997) 'Towards interactive environments: The Intelligent Room', Proceedings of the 1997 Conference on Human Computer Interaction, Bristol, U.K.
Droege, P. (ed.) (1997) Intelligent Environments - Spatial Aspect of the Information Revolution, Oxford: Elsevier, <http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Environments-Peter-Droege/dp/0444823328>
Intelligent Community Forum (2007), <http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/index.cfm>.
Intelligent Environments Conference (2007), <http://www.uni-ulm.de/ie07/>.
Komninos, N. (2002) Intelligent Cities: Innovation, knowledge systems and digital spaces, London and New York, Routledge.
Novak, M. (1997) 'Cognitive Cities: Intelligence, Environment and Space' in P. Droege (ed.) Intelligent Environments - Spatial Aspect of the Information Revolution, Oxford, Elsevier, <http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Environments-Peter-Droege/dp/0444823328>
Steventon, A., and Wright, S. (eds) (2006) Intelligent Spaces: The Application of Pervasive ICT, Springer-Verlag.
Intelligent Environments (iE) plc is a British company that provides online software products for financial services organisations and their customers, particularly in the credit card and investment markets.
iE is a Public Limited Company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
iE produces an online application, account management and administration product built using Microsoft .NET technology and operating using a single product platform called NetFinance, which integrates into existing online banking systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, call centre databases, workflow and back-office systems.
iE is best known for producing a client/server development tool called Application Manager (AM), originally on OS/2 and later for Windows. The Windows version was funded by a loan from Microsoft. AM was widely used by Financial institutions worldwide as a client/server development tool for in-house development[1]