As the number of IoT devices and sensors increases, the scope and potential of ambient intelligence will rise too.

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is rapidly transforming the healthcare industry. What started out as a concept by tech company Philips, and European Commission's Information Society and Technology Advisory Group (ISTAG), in 1990s ago, today, is an amalgamation of two primary disruptive technologies. These are artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). Because of ambient intelligence, the world has witnessed impressive development in AI assistants like Siri, robotics, sensors and more. Now, this discipline is on the crux of disrupting healthcare too.

What Ambient Intelligence?

Ambient intelligence refers to the combination of IoT sensors, sensor networks, and human-computer interaction (HCI) technologies powered by Pervasive-Ubiquitous Computing, big data and artificial intelligence frameworks. This technology paves way to a futuristic world where sensors, embedded in everyday use devices will create an intelligent environment that adapts to the user's needs and wishes seamlessly.

Ambient intelligence can be leveraged in a wide range of technologies viz., biometrics, affective computing, RFID, Bluetooth low energy, microchip implants, sensors like the thermometer, motion detectors, photo-detectors, proximity sensors, and nano-biometrics. The sensors will gather data that shall be interpreted and analyzed to adjust or predict user expectations.

As per the proposed idea by ISTAG and Philips, ambient intelligence-powered environments have the following characteristics:

• Awareness of the presence of individuals
• Recognition of the individual's identities
• Awareness of the contexts (e.g. weather, traffic, news)
• Recognition of activities
• Adaptation to changing needs of individuals

How will it help Healthcare?

In the healthcare arena, it can help by recording patient health stats (with patient permission) and update the patient Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to provide a better and more accurate narrative. It can aid health care workers such as physicians and nurses in delivering quality care by analyzing patient information like prior treatments, allergic responses of the patient and more.  In countries with a higher population of senior citizens, through Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technology, ambient intelligence helps the elderly by remotely monitoring their health and enables them to have an independent living. Overall, employing this technology will enrich patient experience, physician satisfaction, and quality of care.

According to a Nature paper co-authored by Arnold Milstein, a Professor of medicine and Director of Stanford's Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC), computer science professor Fei-Fei Li and graduate student Albert Haque, ambient intelligence can also lead to creation of smart hospital rooms which shall be equipped with AI systems that can do a range of things to improve outcomes.

The research paper reports that the School of Engineering at Stanford University is exploring how a combination of electronic sensors and artificial intelligence could be installed in hospital rooms and elder care homes to help medical professionals monitor and treat patients more effectively. It suggests using two types of infrared technologies, i.e., low-cost active infrared and passive detectors, which can be incorporated into the patient environment. The first type of infrared is already being used outside hospital rooms, for instance, to discern whether a person washed their hands before entering and, if not, issue an alert.

The second infrared technology i.e. passive detectors will help night vision goggles to create thermal images from the infrared rays generated by body heat. In a hospital setting, a thermal sensor above an ICU bed would enable the governing AI to detect twitching or writhing beneath the sheets, and alert clinical team members to impending health crises without constantly going from room to room.

During the research, passive detectors helped the team of researchers avoid relying on high-definition video sensors since capturing video imagery could unnecessarily infringe the privacy of clinicians and patients. Meanwhile, the active infrared helped them tracking hospital-acquired nosocomial infections. School of Engineering at Stanford University suggests that leveraging such ambient intelligence applications can also help in computer-assisted monitoring of patient mobilization in intensive care units, and automating surgical tool counts to prevent objects from being accidentally left in a patient.

Uptake

Ambient intelligence is still emerging. Currently, it has already empowered users' capabilities via creation of sensor-based environment that is sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to human needs, habits, gestures, and emotions. In healthcare, it will help in numerous ways like continuous monitoring, smart hospitals, assisted therapy, etc. Not only that, ambient intelligence is also on the threshold of disrupting businesses and industries like e-commerce, retail and more. With proliferation of IoT devices, ambient intelligence will surge. However, company vendors should be careful about factors like data usage, privacy and overall security.