Ambient Intelligence

In an era where technology celebrated steep growth and its applications were promoted by lengthy lists of technical features, a need for a more human-centric approach toward technology and application development emerged. Situated in the late 1990s, the endless fascination with technological developments made room for some critical reflection on the role and impact that the application of these technologies would have on people. At the turn of the century, researchers identified the potentially devastating effects of rapid technological developments for the balanced relationship between humans and technology. A need for changing the focus from technology development toward understanding the effect and impact of technology applications was identified. In this chapter, we discuss the context and impact of the concept of Ambient Intelligence (AmI).