Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environments development

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Ethics and Information Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Intelligent environments aim to provide context-sensitive services to humans in the physical spaces in which they work and live. While the ethical dimensions of these systems have been considered, this is an aspect which requires further analysis. A literature review shows that these approaches are disconnected from each other, and that they are making little impact on real systems being built. This article provides a solution to both of these problems. It synthesises the ethical issues addressed by previous work and highlights other important concerns which have been overlooked so far. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative, more holistic approach that can be used to guide the development of intelligent environments. The validity of the framework is demonstrated by its integration into an actual project.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aarts, E. (2004). Ambient intelligence: A multimedia perspective. IEEE Multimedia, 11(1), 12–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albrechtslund, A. (2007). House 2.0: Towards an ethics for surveillance in intelligent living and working environments. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of Computer Ethics Philosophical Enquiry (pp. 7–16). San Diego, USA: University of San Diego.

    Google Scholar 

  • Augusto, J., Callaghan, V., Kameas, A., Cook, D., & Satoh, I. (2013a). Intelligent environments: A manifesto. Human-Centric Computing and Information Sciences. doi:10.1186/2192-1962-3-12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Augusto, J., Grimstad, T., Wichert, R., Schulze, E., Braun, A., Rodevand, G. M., & Ridley, V. (2013b). Personalized smart environments to increase inclusion of people with down’s syndrome. Proceedings of the 4th International Joint Conference on Ambient Intelligence (pp. 223–228). Berlin: Springer International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Augusto, J.C., Huch, M., Kameas, A., Maitland, J., McCullagh, P., Roberts, J., Sixsmith, A., & Wichert, R. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook on ambient assisted living—Technology for healthcare, rehabilitation and well-being. Volume 11 of the Ambient intelligence and smart environments book series, Amsterdam: IOS Press.

  • Augusto, J. C., McCullagh, P. J., & Augusto-Walkden, J.-A. (2011). Living without a safety net in an intelligent environment. ICST Transactions on Ambient Systems. doi:10.4108/trans.amsys.2011.e6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, M., & Callaghan, V. (2011). Perceptions of autonomy: A survey of users’ opinions towards autonomy in intelligent environments. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Intelligent Environments, (pp. 277–284). Amsterdam: IOS Press. doi: 10.1109/IE.2011.68.

  • Barkhuus, L. & Dey, A. (2003). Is context-aware computing taking control away from the user? Three levels of interactivity examined. In Proceedings of UbiComp 2003, 5th International Conference, (pp. 149–156). Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-39653-6_12.

  • Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2001). Principles of biomedical ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohn, J., Coroama, V., Langheinrich, M., Mattern, F., & Rohs, M. (2004). Living in a world of smart everyday objects—Social, economic, and ethical implications. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 10(5), 763–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brey, P. (2005). Freedom and privacy in ambient intelligence. Ethics and Information Technology, 7(3), 157–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, I., & Adams, A. (2007). Ethical challenges of ubiquitous healthcare. International Review of Information Ethics, 8(12), 53–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caire, P., Moawad, A., Efthymiou, V., Bikakis, A., & Le Traon, Y. (2014). Privacy challenges in ambient intelligence systems: Lessons learned, gaps and perspectives. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, 1, 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan, V., Clarke, G., & Chin, J. (2009). Some socio-technical aspects of intelligent buildings and pervasive computing research. Intelligent Buildings International, 1(1), 56–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. M. (Ed.). (2009). Context-aware mobile computing: Affordances of space, social awareness, and social influence. San Rafael, USA: Morgan and Claypool.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan, M., Campo, E., Estève, D., & Fourniols, J.-Y. (2009). Smart homes—Current features and future perspectives. Maturitas, 64, 90–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coeckelbergh, M. (2010). Health care, capabilities, and AI assistive technologies. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 13(2), 181–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, D., Augusto, J., & Jakkula, V. (2009). Ambient intelligence: Technologies, applications, and opportunities. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 5, 277–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coughlin, J.F., D’Ambrosio, L.A., Reimer, B., & Pratt, M.R. (2007). Older adult perceptions of smart home technologies: Implications for research, policy & market innovations in healthcare. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, (pp.1810–1815). doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4352665.

  • Dorrestijn, S. (2009). Design and ethics of product impact on user behavior and use practices. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (pp. 253–260). Amsterdram: IOS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ducatel, K., Bogdanowicz, M., Scapolo, F., Leijten J., & Burgelman, J-C. (2001). Information societies technology advisory group (ISTAG): Scenarios for ambient intelligence in 2010. Seville: Institute for Prospective Technology Studies/European Commission. Retrieved Feb 10, 2014 from http://www.ist.hu/doctar/fp5/istagscenarios2010.pdf.

  • Friedewald, M., Da Costa, O., Punie, Y., Alahuhta, P., & Heinonen, S. (2005). Perspectives of ambient intelligence in the home environment. Telematics Informatics, 22, 221–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hert, P. D., Gutwirth, S., Moscibroda, A., Wright, D., & González Fuster, G. (2009). Legal safeguards for privacy and data protection in ambient intelligence. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 13(6), 435–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hlauschek, W., Panek, P., & Zagler, W. L. (2009). Involvement of elderly citizens as potential end users of assistive technologies in the Living Lab Schwechat. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA 2009). New York: ACM. doi: 10.1145/1579114.1579169.

  • Ikonen, V., Kaasinen, E., & Niemelaa, M. (2009). Defining ethical guidelines for ambient intelligence applications on a mobile phone. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (pp. 261–268). Amsterdam: IOS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaasinen, E., Kymäläinen, T., Niemelä, M., Olsson, T., Kanerva, M., & Ikonen, V. (2013). A user-centric view of intelligent environments: User expectations, user experience and user role in building intelligent environments. Computers, 2, 1–33. doi:10.3390/computers2010001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landau, R., Auslander, G. K., Werner, S., Shoval, N., & Heinik, J. (2010). Families’ and professional caregivers’ views of using advanced technology to track people with dementia. Qualitative Health Research, 20(3), 409–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langheinrich, M., Coroamă, V., Bohn, J., & Friedemann, M. (2004). Living in a smart environment—implications for the coming ubiquitous information society. Telecommunications Review, 15(1), 132–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langheinrich, M., Coroama, V., Bohn, J., & Rohs, M. (2002). As we may live—realworld implications of ubiquitous computing. ETHZurich. Retrieved Feb 8, 2014 from http://www.vs.inf.ethz.ch/publ/papers/langhein_aswemaylive_2002.pdf.

  • Lim, B., Dey, A., & Avrahami, D. (2009). Why and why not explanations improve the intelligibility of context-aware intelligent systems. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2119–2128). New York: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnusson, L., & Hanson, E. J. (2003). Ethical issues arising from a research, technology and development project to support frail older people and their family carers at home. Health and Social Care in the Community, 11(5), 431–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mittelstadt, B., Fairweather, N. B., McBride, N., & Shaw, M. (2013). Privacy, risk and personal health monitoring. Proceedings of ETHICOMP 2013: The possibilities of ethical ICT (pp. 340–351). Odense: University of Southern Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nixon, P., Wagealla, W., English, C., & Terzis, S. (2004). Security, privacy and trust issues in smart environments. In D. Cook & S. Das (Eds.), Smart environments: Technology, protocols and applications (pp. 220–240). London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2006). Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oishi, M. M. K., Mitchell, I., & Machiel Van der Loos, H. F. M. (Eds.). (2010). Design and use of assistive technology: Social, technical, ethical, and economic challenges. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orpwood, R., Gibbs, C., Adlam, T., Faulkner, R., & Meegahawatte, D. (2005). The design of smart homes for people with dementia—user-interface aspects. Universal Access in the Information Society, 4(2), 156–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perry, J., Beyer, S., & Holm, S. (2009). Assistive technology, telecare and people with intellectual disabilities: Ethical considerations. Journal of Medical Ethics, 35, 81–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • POSEIDON. (2014a). PersOnalized Smart Environments to increase Inclusion of people with DOwn’s syndrome. Project information. Retrieved May 21, 2014 from http://www.POSEIDON-project.org/.

  • POSEIDON. (2014b). Deliverable D2.1: Requirements analysis, POSEIDON [FP7 ICT Call 10 STREP]. Unpublished technical report.

  • Price, B. A., Adam, K., & Nuseibeh, B. (2005). Keeping ubiquitous computing to yourself: A practical model for user control of privacy. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 63(1–2), 228–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rashidi, P., & Mihailidis, A. (2013). A survey on ambient assisted living tools for older adults. IEEE Journal of Information Technology In Biomedicine, 17(3), 579–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rouvroy, A. (2008). Privacy, data protection, and the unprecedented challenges of ambient intelligence. Studies in Ethics, Law, Technology, 2(1), 1–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadri, F. (2011). Ambient intelligence: A survey. ACM Computing Surveys. doi:10.1145/1978802.1978815.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schülke, A., Plischke, H., & Kohls, N. (2010). Ambient Assistive Technologies (AAT): Socio-technology as a powerful tool for facing the inevitable sociodemographic challenges? Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine. doi:10.1186/1747-5341-5-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharkey, A., & Sharkey, N. (2012). Granny and the robots: Ethical issues in robot care for the elderly. Ethics and Information Technology, 14(1), 27–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sliwa, J., & Benoist, E. (2011). Pervasive computing—the next technical revolution. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (pp. 621–626). Los Alamitos, USA: IEEE Computer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H., De Florio,V., Gui, N., & Blondia, C. (2009). Promises and challenges of ambient assisted living systems. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (pp. 1201–1207). IEEE. doi: 10.1109/ITNG.2009.169.

  • van Heerde, H. J. W., Anciaux, N. L. G., Feng, L., & Apers, P. M. G. (2006). Balancing smartness and privacy for ambient intelligence. Proceedings of the 1st European conference on Smart Sensing and Context (EuroSSC) Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4272 (pp. 255–258). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Hoof, J., Kort, H. S. M., Markopoulos, P., & Soede, M. (2007). Ambient intelligence, ethics and privacy. Gerontechnology, 6(3), 155–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Hoof, J., Kort, H. S. M., Ruttenb, P. G. S., & Duijnstee, M. S. H. (2011). Ageing-in-place with the use of ambient intelligence technology: Perspectives of older users. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 80, 310–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waterworth, J. A., Ballesteros, S., Peter,C., Bieber,G., Kreiner, A., Wiratanaya,A., Polymenakos, L., Wanche-Politis,S., Capobianco, M., Etxeberria, I., & Lundholm, L. (2009). Ageing in a networked society—social inclusion and mental stimulation. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA 2009). New York, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/1579114.1579160.

  • Weiser, M., & Brown, J. (1996). Designing Calm Technology. In Powergrid Journal 1.01. http://powergrid.com/1.01/calmtech.html. Accessed 12 Dec 2014.

  • Wright, D., Gutwirth, S., Friedewald, M., Vildjiounaite, E., & Punie, Y. (Eds.). (2010). Safeguards in a world of ambient intelligence. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaad, L., & Allouch, S.B. (2008). The influence of control on the acceptance of Ambient Intelligence by elderly people: An explorative study. In Proceedings of AmI European Conference 2008, Nuremberg. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5355, (pp. 58–74). Berlin: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-89617-3_5.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group on Development of Intelligent Environments, Department of Computer Science, Middlesex University, Town Hall, London, NW4 4BT, UK

    Simon Jones, Sukhvinder Hara & Juan Carlos Augusto

Authors
  1. Simon Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sukhvinder Hara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Juan Carlos Augusto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Simon Jones, Sukhvinder Hara or Juan Carlos Augusto.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jones, S., Hara, S. & Augusto, J.C. eFRIEND: an ethical framework for intelligent environments development. Ethics Inf Technol 17, 11–25 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-014-9358-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-014-9358-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation