Taking Ambient Computing to the Next Level
From Arm’s perspective, there are significant opportunities to expand ambient experiences through more compute and personalization within different contexts and environments. Arm has identified the following areas of ambient computing that can provide the most benefit to the user:
Human digital augmentation
Ambient buildings
Healthcare services
The smart car in-vehicle experience
More personalized environments
Human digital augmentation essentially means the ability to amplify human decision making, capacity, and experiences thanks to a range of digitally connected devices built around the user. One great example of human digital augmentation is the amplification of human senses. This means seeing, hearing, or even touching and smelling to unprecedented levels that we have never seen before, essentially a “digital sixth sense.”
This is likely to be achieved via today’s smartphones, ‘hearables,’ future augmented reality (AR) smart glasses, or even other devices that have yet to be created. When combined with ambient compute systems, these devices could bring sounds to the fore that are important to the user and their environments, like the sounds of a car when a person is crossing the road at a blind corner. The amplification of human senses also has profound implications for those who are hard of hearing, with devices like hearing aids or hearables having the potential to provide advanced hearing capabilities.
Through ambient computing, how people interact with buildings will be more seamless, while providing more relevant insights for them and those around them. For example, future workplaces will be able to automatically book desks or rooms for workers as they walk into the building. These ambient buildings could even deliver automated cleaning schedules based on dynamic real-time information, showing parts of the building that are occupied or not in use.
For healthcare, ambient computing could mean future smart hospitals and care homes can detect physical or physiological movements, such as breathing and heart rates, or even falls among patients through simple sensors installed at various points throughout buildings. This means that healthcare issues can be identified early without the need for constant supervision or each patient can have their own personal device that continuously monitors their health.
In addition, ambient intelligence in healthcare environments will use advanced, voice-enabled AI to automatically document conversations between physicians, patients and families, rather than relying on paperwork from memory after these encounters. This can save health services time and improve the accuracy of what was agreed with patients.
In the smart car of the future, in-vehicle ambient experiences will be entirely personalized to the driver and passengers, from temperature preferences to preferred driving routes. The acceleration to software-defined vehicles in the automotive industry will help provide these proactive, automatic driving experiences.
Ambient computing and its ability to deliver more personalized environments provides multiple opportunities to positively impact the lives of those with accessibility or neurodiversity challenges. For example, for those with autism, public environments could be altered to lessen the impact of noise and people in crowded spaces or pointing them to more appropriate areas that are less crowded and noisy. This will be delivered through a concept called “dynamic preference lists” that are entirely personal to users. These lists adapt different environments based on user preferences, like temperature and noise levels.
From a device perspective, users will continue to rely on their smartphones as the facilitators of ambient experiences. This will aggregate data from users and across different environments to action highly personalized experiences. Smartphones will also be the trusted custodians and protectors of personal data. In the future, it is anticipated that there will also be a new generation of devices and hubs, alongside smartphones, to support and facilitate the ongoing evolution of ambient experiences.
