Creativity is the key to meaningful innovation

Ambient Intelligence vs. Smart Buildings

Just turning on your heating with your phone, a doorbell with a camera that can be controlled remotely, or blinds that automatically come on, you know the drill. All examples of a Smart Home (or office). But actually there is nothing 'smart' about it, argues Geert-Jan van Ouwendorp, lecturer in ICT & Creative Technology at Fontys ICT. After all, we are still talking about direct, mediated human-machine interactions. But what if our environment really responds to us and our behaviour, without the mediation of an interface? That is the question Van Ouwendorp is addressing. Imagine your windows opening when you get hot, or music muting when your conversations get louder and so on. That is the difference between what we now call 'smart' and ambient intelligence.

Creative Technology

But that in turn brings up many questions; after all, having technology directly interfere with our daily lives is the plot of several terrifying sci-fi films. But even more obvious, it can be very irritating (how many times have you had the blinds hit at the wrong time?). So how do we move towards a future, where our environment interacts naturally and pleasantly with us as users? That is where creative technology comes in, according to Van Ouwendorp. And then it is not about skills that an ICT worker acquires, but about a mindset and way of thinking. Coming up with creative solutions, but also evaluating them from various angles and working from one's own vision. And that is needed to make meaningful impact in a digitalising society.

Opportunities

So this is precisely where opportunities for smarter buildings lie, in creative solutions and applications, including of generative AI. Because the very thing AI lacks is often creativity, and that is where opportunities lie. Watch the whole conversation here in the fifth episode of Updates Available Online.

Updates Available Online is part of the knowledge sessions from the Fontys ICT InnovationLab at Strijp-T, entitled Updates Available Online.