Ambient intelligence - Seamless integration of digital media into the social fabric of everyday life

What will the digital future look like? If we would ask technologists, we probably would get different answers than the responses 'ordinary' people would give us. In this paper, we explore viewpoints from both sides. First, we present the Philips Ambient Intelligence vision on the future of electronic systems. This vision shares a number of common elements with visions that are currently being pursued by many other industrial and academic institutions. Next, we zoom in on the home domain and present the views of 10 Dutch families on the home of the future. We conclude the paper by formulating some general design principles that were derived from the family sessions and from a number of different projects that have been carried out in the context of the Philips Ambient Intelligence research programme