Abstract

Abstract
Ambient Intelligence emerged more than two decades ago, with the exciting promise of technologically empowered environments that would be everywhere, cater to all our needs, be constantly available, know who we are and what we like, and allow us to make explicit requests using natural means instead of the traditional mouse and keyboard. At a time in which this technological unravelling was expected to have already happened, we still use the mouse and the keyboard. In this paper we make a brief analysis of why is this evolution taking more than initially expected. We then move on to analyse several different projects that are innovative, in the sense that they encompass fields of application that go beyond the initially envisioned, and show the diverse areas that AmI systems may potentially come to change. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.

Abstract
In the last years, the amount of devices that can be connected to a network grew significantly allowing to, among other tasks, collect data about the environment or the people in it in a non-intrusive way. This generated nowadays well-known topics such as Big Data or the Internet of Things. This also opened the door to the development of novel and interesting applications. In this paper we propose a distributed system for acquiring data about the users of technological devices in a non-intrusive way. We describe how this data can be collected and transformed to produce meaningful interaction features, that reveal the state of the individuals. We analyse the requirements of such a system, namely in terms of storage and speed, and describe three prototypes currently being used in three different domains of application.

Abstract
The collection, storage, management, and anticipation of contextual information about the user to support decision-making constitute some of the key operations in most Ambient Intelligent (AmI) systems. When the instructor has a computer-based class it is often difficult to confirm if the students are working in the proposed activities. In order to mitigate problems that might occur in an environment with learning technologies we suggest an AmI system aimed at capturing, measuring, and supervising the students' level of attentiveness in real scenarios and dynamically provide recommendations to the instructor. With this system it is possible to assess both individual and group attention, in real-time, providing a measure of the level of engagement of each student in the proposed activities and allowing the instructor to better steer teaching methodologies.

Abstract

Abstract
Attention is strongly connected with learning and when it comes to acquiring new knowledge, attention is one the most important mechanisms. The learner's attention affects learning results and can define the success or failure of a student. The negative effects are especially significant when carrying out long or demanding tasks, as often happens in an assessment. This paper presents a monitoring system using computer peripheral devices. Two classes were monitored, a regular one and an assessment one. Results show that it is possible to measure attentiveness in a non-intrusive way.