We are witnessing a historic technological revolution as computing reaches maturity, becoming immersed in our daily life to an extent that would have been considered science fiction some decades ago.

Advances in the engineering of sensing and acting capabilities distributed in wide range of specialized devices is at last providing an opportunity for the fundamental advances achieved by computer science in the past few decades to make an impact on our daily lives.

This technical confluence is matched by an unique historical context where users are better informed (and more aware of the benefits that technology can provide) and production of more complex systems is becoming more affordable. Sensors/actuators deployed in an environment (in this context this could be any physical space like a house, an office, a classroom, a car, a street, etc.) facilitate a link between an automated decision making system connected to that technologically enriched space. This computing empowered environment enables the provision of an intelligent environment, i.e., “a digital environment that proactively, but sensibly, supports people in their daily lives”. This very active area of research is attracting an increasing number of professionals (both in academia and industry) worldwide.

The prestigious 6th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE'10) is focused in the development of advanced Intelligent Environments and stimulates the discussion of several specific topics crucial to the future of this field. As part of the effort to stimulate development in critically important areas, four workshops were supported as part of IE'10. This volume presents the combined proceedings of those four workshops:

The 1st International Workshop on Human-Centric Interfaces for Ambient Intelligence (HCIAmI'10). This workshop serves as a forum for the exchange of recent results in modelling, design, and computing methods for human-centric interfaces in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) applications. The papers presented at the workshop give a perspective on the technologies and methods which offer unobtrusive, intuitive, and adaptive interfaces. These technologies have the potential to make Ambient Intelligence systems easier to use for more people. The goal is to replace the classical paradigm of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in which users have to adapt themselves to computers by learning how to use them, with a new one (where the same acronym refers to Human-Centric Interfaces) in which computers adapt to users and learn how to interact with them in the most natural way. This is consistent with an increasing interest in human-centric computing, which aims to offer rich user experiences in comfort, safety and well-being applications. Topics covered range from ubiquitous interfaces and multimodal dialog systems for different applications to the implications of connecting users with impairments in social networks.

The Workshop on Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Ambient Intelligence (AITAmI'10) aims to stimulate the development of human-like effectiveness within the artificial systems that provides support to humans. The event is not focused on a specific application area, although it welcomes reports on applications given the value to inform the community with regards to solutions for specific cases and to extrapolate strategies across areas. The overall emphasis is providing a forum in which to analyze the potential of Artificial Intelligence to make smart environments smarter. Learning, reasoning, adaptation, user preferences and needs discovery, sensible interaction with users, and many other topics form the regular agenda of this event. The content of this section includes the abstract of one keynote speaker, and papers accepted for oral and poster presentations. All these contributions are from recognized professionals in the area who are reporting on their latest reflections and achievements in the improvement of the decision making capabilities of intelligent environments. This edition includes papers from a special session with an emphasis on healthcare applications from the 2nd International Workshop on Intelligent Environments Supporting Healthcare and Wellbeing (WISHWell'10) event.

The Creative Science 2010 Workshop (CS'10) is the first in a series of workshops exploring the use of science fiction to motivate and direct research into new technologies and consumer products. In particular, CS'10 applies a methodology we call Science-Fiction Prototyping (SF Prototyping) which uses stories as prototypes to explore a wide variety of futures. In these proceedings we present two invited contributions from Brian David Johnson who coined the term SF Prototyping and defined the methodology. The first contribution, SF Prototyping, describes the history of SF Prototyping and introduces the methodology. The second contribution is a SF Prototype called ‘Brain Machines’, that illustrates the principles involved. The workshop proceedings then present a number of SF Prototypes drawn from the “Intelligent Environments” research community. Interestingly, in this first workshop many of the stories fall into what might be called explorations of mixed reality technology. In “Tales from a Pod” virtual reality is applied to the provision of intelligent personalised teaching environments, whereas the second, “Mdi”, is a story of an extraordinary portable gadget that produces holograms and can recognise gestures. In the third story “We All Wear Dark Glasses Now” a rather darker application of augmented reality is presented, in which high-tech glasses mislead the wearer into thinking that his world is much nicer that it really is. The fourth story, “Voices From The Interface“, is a voyage into an imaginative world where brain computer interfaces become almost indistinguishable from paranormal phenomena. Paranormal phenomena sometimes feature in folklore, and the fifth story, “Were-Tigers of Belum”, elegantly mixes a mystical tale with the latest high-tech sensory networks to create an engaging story that bridges the gulf between past and present. The sixth paper, “Knowing Yourself”, explores more spiritual aspects by taking an “out of the box” journey into the metaphysical, in which physical objects, events, words, sounds or thoughts can be seen as bundles of energy, a view which could have significant implications for medical technology. Finally, the seventh paper takes us full circle and back to the reality of ourselves and examines some of our most basic understanding of being human, consciousness and free-will, by means of a discussion on the design of future reception robots. We hope you will agree, that this first Creative Science workshop has produced some stimulating ideas with the potential to challenge and push the boundaries of science. If you have enjoyed reading this first set of science fiction prototypes, why not write one yourself and join us at our next Creative Science event? (See creative-science.org for details.)

This volume offers a glance at the latest developments in key areas of the development of Intelligent Environments. It compiles the latest research by active researchers in the field, working to extend the boundaries of science and focused on achieving the deployment of intelligent environments in the real world. The efforts of these professionals will influence the way we live in tomorrow's world. We hope that, as a reader, you will enjoy the content of this volume as much as those who attended these workshops enjoyed the live presentation of the papers and the thought provoking discussions which emanated from them.

The co-editors of this volume would like to thank all those who facilitated the realization of each one of these events: the remaining co-chairs of the workshops, the members of their Program Committees, who facilitated the review of papers, the external reviewers who also contributed to that task, and the conference organizers who provided a supportive environment for the realization of these events.

July 2010

Ramón López-Cózar and Hamid Aghajan HCIAmI'10

Juan Carlos Augusto, Diane Cook and John O'Donoghue AITAmI'10/WishWELL'10

Victor Callaghan, Simon Egerton and Brian David Johnson CS'10