8.1 Introduction

The basic components of any intelligent environment are intelligent devices. Intelligent appliances will become the signature of this new era. They will do what we want, when we want, how we want, and where we want. One common perception of an intelligent device is any traditional device that now contains an embedded processor, thus providing new functionality.

Personal computers today are quite obvious. When you look at a portable MP3 player or a cell phone, you do not see a computer, you see the functionality that the computer inside is enabling. But when you look at the box that your monitor is connected to, you instantly think "computer." Intelligent appliances often cannot be seen, but their impact can be felt. They're embedded within some device, which is something very different from what most people think of as a computer.

In a recent commercial on Japanese television, a baby takes his first tentative step. The mother grabs her cell phone, captures the moment on the phone's camera, and sends it to dad. Alfa Romeo supplies its cars with navigation systems that are capable of providing additional information such as good restaurants around you or your destination. The embedded system transmits the geographical data to the Alfa Romeo call center while you talk. It's becoming more and more common for electronic devices to be enriched through such additional services.

To become truly ubiquitous, devices will need to know much about the world in general and how to do tasks well. They will also need to be able to understand our instructions and requests , as well as take feedback from us that enables them to do better. Of course, most of these appliances will be supported by knowledge-based services provided over the net. When we speak to our phone, for example, we will be exploiting advances in the handheld device as well as in the intelligent network services running on back-end servers. There will be many agents to do many tasks, and these will benefit from composing and using the capabilities of others.

The single defining characteristic of the intelligent appliance is its capacity to accept user goals or intents and responsibly carry them out in an intelligent (efficient, effective, appropriate, acceptable) manner while assuring that the human user 's trust in the appliance is maintained intelligently (in ways that are efficient, effective, appropriate, and acceptable).

Intelligent appliances are networked, and they work in a distributed computing environment. Typically, they depend on interacting with other devices or network services. Three main rules must be applied. First, a compelling set of benefits must be presented. Second, the product should be easy to install and use. The device form-factor and user interaction must be optimized for the location and tasks being performed. And third, the technology must be transparent. Users should be able to focus on the tasks they are performing, rather than on the tools they are using. The users should always have the feeling that they are interacting with a single underlying system and the devices simply serve as access points to, or controllers of, that environment.

Compensation will be based on micro-payments and service contracts. Billing for services and products procured will be fully automated. Information from accounts, suppliers, and organizations we each use will be aggregated for us and interpreted. In short, the economy will expand around thousands of knowledgeable agents that can do what we want in a credible way. We will select which ones to employ based on rated performance, much the way the average pro sports franchise chooses its players. For those of us with no desire to dip into that level of choice, we will contract for services from businesses that provide a suite of intelligent agents to cover our needs. Each of these new benefits creates business opportunities, and these span the entire range of IT and service industries.

The concept of intelligent devices has become an important topic. Internet appliances must be dynamically upgradable for software replacements , software patches, and software extensions. Ease of adaptability is an important aspect of Internet appliance development. The commercial world is developing devices that can exist in an intelligent environment. Commercial products can be found that support the distribution of software components across computing resources as well as the Internet. Distributed and Internet platforms exist in abundance . The hardware components and networking infrastructure exist to support ubiquitous computing.