Distributed solutions for ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence

This special issue of the Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) journal is devoted to papers selected from the 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI 2012) and the 4th International Workshop on Ambient Assisted Living (IWAAL 2012), held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, on 3–5 December 2012. On the one hand, UCAmI focuses on the ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence research, which represent a new generation of user-centred computing solutions, aiming to find new ways to obtain a better integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in everyday life devices and activities. On the other hand, IWAAL focuses on Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), an important application domain of ambient intelligence that aims to contribute with ICT research applied to enabling assistive living environments. Advances in computing and wireless communication have allowed the development of novel distributed computingmethods, middleware and applications that support ubiquitous and ambient intelligence systems. With this in mind, this special issue of Future Generation Computer Systems has aimed to explore the recent state-of-the-art developments in theory and application of distributed solutions to support the design, implementation and evaluation of these system types. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks, empirical research and case studies on distributed solutions applied to ambient intelligence and ubiquitous systems are presented. Concretely, the revised versions of the papers selected for this special issue cover topics such as the distributed systems and artificial intelligence support to enable personalization and adaptation of ubiquitous systems, the rising importance of cloud computing as a key component of ubiquitous systems and the still prevalent need of mixing mobile devices, wireless embedded sensors and coordination middleware to carry on giving place to smarter environments. A first important issue addressed by some of the selected papers has been personalization and adaptation of ubiquitous system using context information. The increasing use of context-aware technologies has sparked the growth of assistive applications, resulting in a need to enable adaptation to reflect changes in the user behaviours. The paper entitled ‘‘Ontological UserModelling and Semantic Rule-Based Reasoning for Personalisation of Help-onDemand Services in Pervasive Environments’’ by Kerry-Louise Skillen et al. [1] deals with the limited support of user personalisation in existing context-aware applications. This proposal introduces a systematic approach to service personalisation for mobile users in pervasive environments. The approach uses semantic technologies for user modelling and reasoning techniques for personalisation. User behaviours and needs in pervasive environments are represented through ontological user models with special emphasis on ontological modelling of dynamic and adaptive user profiles.