Abstract: While intelligent environments are often cited as a reason for doing work on visual person-tracking, really making an intelligent environment exposes many real-world problems in visual tracking that must be solved to make the technology practical. In the context of our EasyLiving project in intelligent environments, we created a practical person-tracking system that solves most of the real-world problems. It uses two sets of color stereo cameras for tracking multiple people during live demonstrations in a living room. The stereo images are used for locating people, and the color images are used for maintaining their identities. The system runs quickly enough to make the room feel responsive, and it tracks multiple people standing, walking, sitting, occluding, and entering and leaving the space.

Abstract: This paper presents our Intelligent Environment called Smart Office. In the Smart Office the user can work as in a normal office. The office’s intelligence observes the user in order to anticipate his intentions and augments his environment to communicate useful information. Computers are involved in user activities in order to help in everyday tasks. The system interacts with users using voice, gesture or movement.

Abstract: Much has been written about smart mobile computing devices and how they will make “ubiquitous computing” a reality, but simply having smart devices in the world is not enough. An infrastructure is needed to bind these devices together in a meaningful way. This infrastructure is known as “intelligent environments”. But, what are the elements of this “intelligence” behind ubiquitous computing? In this position paper, we propose ten dimensions along which this intelligence might be described. They can be summarized as: meaningfulness, world modeling, user modeling, distribution, accessibility, extensibility, heterogeneity, automation, usability, and ubiquity. The intelligent environment systems of today are demonstrations of subsets of this vision; the task before us is to generalize from these examples and develop the standards that will allow ubiquitous computing to be fully developed.

Abstract: How can computer intelligence best be employed in the theatre? Imagine that a computer is given the ability to control electronically all the media of the stage, and is able to sense and understand in an abstract way what is happening in that space. Furthermore, suppose that the computer is given the ability to reason about what is happening and could construct abstract responses through media. What would it be possible for the computer to do? The theatrical space is the computer's body, the electronic media the limbs, cameras and microphones used as sensors are the eyes and ears, a speech generation program the mouth, and the CPUs and internal programming are the brains, used to interact with the physical world. The space that holds the performance becomes an environment generated from behaviours of the computer, responding to and shaped by performers, designers, and technicians. Robb E. Lovell describes how this kind of intelligent environment can expand the expressive potential of traditional theatre in many ways, and considers how this will affect the viewers' and performers' perceptions, setting out some of the pros and cons of the involvement of computer intelligence in performance settings. Computer involvement is not, he argues, about the death of traditional theatre forms, but rather about their growth into new realms of expressiveness. Robb Lovell is a resident artist/technologist at the Institute for Studies in the Arts (ISA) at Arizona State University. He is co-creator of the Intelligent Stage, a theatrical space that registers sensory input through video and audio, and responds through lights, sound, video, animation, and robotics. He is currently creating tools for artists and technicians based on the technology of the Intelligent Stage – tools that allow artists to create interactive mediated works. He is working on a practical PhD in Interactive Theatre Design through the Institute for New Media Performance Research.

Abstract: A system is disclosed that enables intelligent environments comprised of physical spaces that sense and respond to the people and events taking place in them to dynamically influence environmental factors that affect them, such as the lighting, temperature, decor or background music. An intelligent environment in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention controls the selection of music played in a fitness center. Two different algorithms are utilized to arbitrate preferences in a shared environment: one seeks to maximize the average satisfaction of the inhabitants, the other seeks to maximize the equitable distribution of satisfaction among the inhabitants. The resultant system is an approach that affords effective environmental control.