Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence

Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence- 

Ubiquitous Computing is an approach in information technology that aims to move computers away from the single workstation and embed microprocessors into everyday working and living environments in an invisible and unobtrusive way. Ambient Intelligence is an advanced form of ubiquitous computing that incorporates wireless communication and Intelligent User Interfaces, which are interfaces that use sensors and intelligent algorithms for profiling (recording and adapting to user behavior patterns) and context awareness (adapting to different situations). In Ambient Intelligence environments, people are surrounded with possibly hundreds of intelligent, networked computers that are aware of their presence, personality and needs, and perform actions or provide information based on their perceived needs. Marc Langheinrich  has claimed that ubiquitous computing has four unique properties that are potentially threatening to privacy:

1. ubiquity;
2. invisibility
3. sensing; 
4. memory amplification (the continuous recording of people’s actions to create searchable logs of their past). Ambient Intelligence adds two properties to this list: 
5. user profiling; and 
6. contentedness (wireless communication between smart objects) .

These unique features of the two technologies make the protection of privacy in them a major challenge. As critics have argued, ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence have the ability to create a Big Brother society in which every human activity is recorded and smart devices probe people’s actions, intentions and thoughts. The distinction between the private and the public sphere may be obliterated as dozens of smart devices record activity in one’s  home or car and connect to corporate or government computers elsewhere. Major privacy safeguards will be needed to avoid such scenarios