Ambient Intelligence refers to smart electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Since its introduction in the late 1990s, this vision has matured, having become quite influential in the development of new concepts for information processing as well as combining multi-disciplinary fields including computer science, electrical engineering, industrial design, architectural design, user interfaces, and cognitive science.

Originating from the Workshop on Ambient Intelligence in Everyday Life held at the Miramar Congress Center, San Sebastian,...

Simplicity in nature is the ultimate sophistication. The world's magnificence has been enriched by the inner drive of instincts, the profound drive of our everyday life. Instinct is an inherited behavior that responds to environmental stimuli. Instinctive computing is a computational simulation of biological and cognitive instincts, which influence how we see, feel, appear, think and act. If we want a computer to be genuinely secure, intelligent, and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, and even to have primitive instincts.

This...