Title: From Devices to
1From Devices to Ambient Intelligence The
Transformation of Consumer Electronics
- ROEL PIEPER
- EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
- ROYAL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS
2Whats Different About the Living Room?
Living Room
Office
Office
Lean-forward mode We are concentrating Where
were productive
Laid-back mode Our guard is down
Where we relax, socialize, and live
functionality attention required
Value
Value functionality
Whatever we think, our kids will prove us wrong
3Imagining the Destination, and Steps Today
- Where were going
- Road signs, not a crystal ball
- Experiments and prototypes
- Focus on all ages, especially the younger ones
4Envisioning the Destination The Unmediated
Fulfillment of Needs
Walk from place to place
Degree of Conscious Mediation
Circulate blood to limbs
Need
High
Needs should be consciously mediated only to the
extent that they are out-of-the-ordinary, or
unpredictable Our ordinary needs should be
satisfied with minimal effort
Write a letter
Walk from place to place
Circulate blood to limbs
Low
5Envisioning the Destination Moving to an
Implicit, Anticipatory Model
Anticipatory Implicit
Instructional Explicit
Examples
Unconsciously riding a bicycle
The Learning Process
Learning to ride a bicycle
The Development of Computers
Personalized, anticipatory need-fulfillment
VUI
GUI
High-level languages
Assembly and machine code
- Oliver Sacks To See and Not See
6Envisioning the DestinationAmbient Intelligence
- Embedded Many invisible dedicated devices
- throughout the environment.
- Personalized The devices know who you are.
- Adaptive Change in response to you and to
the environment. - Anticipatory Anticipate your desires as far as
possible without conscious mediation
PRE-sponsive, not responsive.
Desktop metaphors
Life metaphors
7Examples Today, and for the Future
- Experiments weve done at Philips and elsewhere
- Great successes and striking failures
- Cassette Tape, CD Player, Laser Video Disc
- CD-I, System 2000
- Human needs are complex, hard to predict
- Requires substantial experimentation and
investment - But making huge strides in learning about
people, and filling individual needs, with
ambient intelligence
8Experiments in Natural InterfacesReducing the
Difficulty of Mediating / Instructing
- Multimodal Interfaces
- Input Speech, gesture, tactile
- Feedback Tactile, auditory, visual
- ...Redundancy, naturalness of use
Human-like Interaction (HUI VUI) The importance
of voice speech recognition (FreeSpeech98) Unexp
ected outcomes a voice-activated remote control
Clearboard Dr. Hiroshi Ishii
9Experiments in Situational AwarenessAnticipating
Needs in a Changing Environment
- Environment changes constantly
- Devices must track and adapt
- Seamless, plug-free networks
- Self-configuring
- Short-distance wireless, IR
- Mobility, Control Wands
- Sensor technology
- Penny tags and smart materials
GPS Intelligence Self-positioning,
Contextual adaptation
Philips control wands
Communicating Devices
10Experiments in PersonalizationThe Environment
Understands You
- Adaptation to user involves understanding
- Who the user is
- Users particular needs, desires, and habits
- Biometrics crucial to identify the user
- Voice, fingerprint, face, position
- Personalization learning your explicit and
implicit needs - Double Agent
- Security both individual and family
- Absolutely critical for market acceptance
Double Agent
11Experiments in Ambient IntelligenceMaking
Everyday Objects Smarter
- The most radical, futuristic vision involves the
most prosaic, mundane objects - Technologies need to adapt to economic
constraints - Plastic semiconductors
- TriMedia Chip Architecture (Audio, Video, Data)
- for Digital TV
- Light-emitting Polymers
- The economics of Ambient Intelligence
12Scale Consumer Devices, Rather Than PCs
- The entire market for consumer PCs, 1998
- 20 Million PCs sold to consumers
- Philips alone in 1997 shipped
- 11 M Shavers
- 30 M Displays (monitors, plasma, tubes)
- 2.4 Billion Lights
- 18 Billion Semiconductors
Philips covers a broad CE market with 40B in
sales and 280,000 people with a huge retail and
direct sales network Hundreds of intelligent
points-of-presence throughout home
13C O N C L U S I O N
The digital living room succeeds only insofar as
it actively recognizes, builds on, and embraces
our humanity. Our homes and tools will adapt to
us and to our dynamic environments anticipating
and fulfilling our needs.
- Only when theres a seamless integration of
technology with life, when its no longer a
curiosity but an ordinary and unsurprising way of
satisfying our everyday needs and desires only
then will we have seen the beginnings of a true
technological revolution.
The Consumer Electronics industry is well
positioned to use high-volume economics and ICT
in their products