Technology
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 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).
Read more about this topic: Intelligent Environments
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“If the technology cannot shoulder the entire burden of strategic change, it nevertheless can set into motion a series of dynamics that present an important challenge to imperative control and the industrial division of labor. The more blurred the distinction between what workers know and what managers know, the more fragile and pointless any traditional relationships of domination and subordination between them will become.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)