Every day, wherever we go, it is likely that we are surrounded by electronic systems designed to serve our needs, although we may not notice them at first glance. This type of technology has been around us for some time, to make life safer and more comfortable in our homes and offices, as well as in public places.
We could summarize the recent history of consumer electronics by sorting it into four well-defined periods, each corresponding to one decade. During the first period (1970-1979), systems were primarily hardware based, and differentiation came from component technologies and systems architectures (typical examples are televisions and video recorders). In the next phase (1980-1989), product innovation and differentiation were provided mainly through software (examples of this period are the personal computer and the CD player). The third period (1990-1999) was characterized by the network wave of the cellular phone and the Internet, where the main differentiating factors were connectivity type and network performance. The current decade (2000-2009) is the era of ambient intelligence (AmI), where invisible electronics embedded in our environment will automatically respond to our needs, and possibly anticipate them. The promise of AmI, together with commodity hardware and standardized software and networks, is a transformation of the use of traditional products and services, changing our lifestyle in a fundamental manner.
One example of this transformation will be evident in the living room, with the disappearance of entertainment boxes (TVs, VCRs, DVD players, and personal computers (PCs)), and the appearance of an environment where unobtrusive displays and sound reproduction systems provide a radical change in the overall living experience. Other examples may include body area networks, to provide real-time monitoring of clinical data and even three-dimensional (3D) real-time visualization of vital organs, or compact near-field communication devices, providing services such as mobile banking, money transactions, public transport access, building access, e-business cards, and information display on the move.
This book presents state-of-the-art research on hardware for AmI, by means of a comprehensive collection of papers written by Philips researchers actively involved in the field. As a matter of fact, AmI innovations require the development of new hardware technologies, namely system-in-package (SiP) components, where complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) digital computing is supplemented by radio frequency (RF) circuits, high-voltage circuits, different types of sensors, and even microfluidics and solid-state light sources.
The book’s contents are divided into five sections, covering wireless communications, smart sensors, low-power electronics and system architecture, energy supply and management, and enabling technology and devices. A couple of topics especially triggered my interest: “Techniques for Energy Scavenging in Support of Ambient Intelligence” discusses the production of electrical power using vibration-based piezoelectric structures, and “Secret Key Generation from Classical Physics” describes innovative methods of providing security to the AmI environment through cost-effective unclonable and tamper-protected physical tokens.
Such a short review can only offer a brief summary of this comprehensive volume. I can only add that this work is recommended to researchers working on the development of future customer electronics, as well as to end users with background knowledge in computing and networking who want to know more about their future living experience.
