Living without a safety net in an Intelligent Environment

• Main Authors: Juan Carlos Augusto, Paul J. McCullagh, Julie-Ann Augusto-Walkden
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) 2011-12-01
• Series: EAI Endorsed Transactions on Ambient Systems
• Subjects: Ambient Intelligence; Intelligent Environments; safety critical
• Online Access: http://eudl.eu/doi/10.4108/trans.amsys.2011.e6

Computing systems comprise a surreptitious and intrinsic part of our daily life activities. Applications that support humans in daily life facilitate the development of the so-called Intelligent Environments. Like any technology Intelligent Environments can fail. This paper examines potential negative consequences of such systems if they are too naively or optimistically developed and used. The aim of this work is to encourage those contributing to the technical area to reflect on these issues and to provide symbiotic solutions which make such a powerful technical development safer for humans so that it can unfold all its potential to empower future citizens, especially the vulnerable.