Martin Ouwerkerk – författare

Ambient Intelligence is one of the new paradigms in the development of information and communication technology, which has attracted much attention over the past years. The aim is the to integrate technology into people environment in such a way that it improves their daily lives in terms of well-being, creativity, and productivity. Ambient Intelligence is a multidisciplinary concept, which heavily builds on a number of fundamental breakthroughs that have been achieved in the development of new hardware concepts over the past years. New insights in nano and micro electronics, packaging and interconnection technology, large-area electronics, energy scavenging devices, wireless sensors, low power electronics and computing platforms enable the realization of the heaven of ambient intelligence by overcoming the hell of physics. Based on contributions from leading technical experts, this book presents a number of key topics on novel hardware developments, thus providing the reader a good insight into the physical basis of ambient intelligence. It also indicates key research challenges that must be addressed in the future.

The authors of this book analyze the influence of specific everyday life situations and contexts on the emotional state of people and the ways in which this can impact measurements of user experience. The book anticipates a future in which products and machines know how we feel and adapt to the feelings they sense (music systems that effectively enhance our current mood with a personalized choice of music, computer dialogues that avoid upcoming frustration, and photo cameras that take pictures whenever we''re excited). In all these situations, knowledge of the emotional state of the user is prime information.

A previous book published in the Philips Research Book Series, "Probing Experience", illustrated ways to evaluate the user experience through behavioural and physiological parameters. The present book focuses on the influence of context in these measurements. The everyday-life contexts of future products and machines will be always specific, especially in comparison to the standard laboratory situation. Context can impact the experience measurements and influence the occurrence and characteristics of certain signals. On the other hand, independent knowledge of the context could be very valuable for the interpretation of experience measurements. This book provides an overview of the present knowledge on the impact of context, and advocates the need for a joint understanding of its role in the measurement of experience.

The authors comprise many experienced researchers on this topic with a wide variety of backgrounds, including business and academia, covering a broad range of context situations.