AMBI-SYS 2011

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Ambi-sys 2011, the Second International Conference on Ambient Systems and Media, was held in Casa da Musica, Porto, during March 24-25, 2011. The conference focus was on emerging technologies, services and solutions for new, human-centric ambient environments. It aimed at bringing together international senior and junior researchers, as well as developers and industry delegates to discuss issues and trends, research and technological advances in the area of design and deployment of Ambient Systems and Media.

The conference was structured as a single-track, multi-session event. To encourage active participation and the potential formation of new collaborations among attendees, the atmosphere was kept informal. This was also helped by the original and inspirational conference venue of Casa da Musica, which represents today a cultural meeting point in the city of Porto, providing an ideal space to share with their audiences for different types of artists and knowledge creators.

Contributions to the conference were solicited in the form of full and short research papers and workshop proposals. After a thorough review process of the papers received, for which we thank the Technical Program Committee, 10 were accepted for the main conference and one as a workshop proposal.

This was eventually organized as a thematic session on the topic of Advanced Materials and Creative Design Thinking for Ambient Intelligence, moderated by Prof. Raymond Oliver (Northumbria University, UK) and Dr. Anne Toomey (Royal College of Art, UK), which opened the conference. During this session all delegates were invited to participate in brainstorming and in-depth discussions on the opportunities offered by new materials, such as active polymers, to inspire innovative solutions in the field of Ambient Assisted Living, providing a new physical basis for ambient intelligence by also leveraging on contributions offered by Interaction Design methods and approaches.    

We would like to thank ICST and Create-Net for technical sponsorship of the event. A special thank also to the volunteer efforts of Fraunhofer AICOS group and Susana Hotz, in particular, for taking care of the local organization of the event, and a very interesting guided tour of the city of Porto and its main attractions.