AmI-Blocks'08 : 2nd European Workshop on Smart Products: Building Blocks of Ambient Intelligence

These proceedings contain the papers presented at the second European Workshop on Smart Products: Building Blocks of Ambient Intelligence in November of 2008. The vision of Ambient Intelligence is based on the increasing technological advances in embedding computational power, information and sensing capabilities into everyday objects and environments. Future ambient intelligent infrastructures must be able to configure themselves and grow from the available, purposeful objects (be it software services or consumer appliances) in order to become effective in the real world. This workshop refers to Smart Products as real-world objects, devices and software services bundled with knowledge about themselves and the ability to gather knowledge from their environment and other products. This vision enables new ways of narrowing the differences between virtual and physical worlds by defining a paradigm where both virtual and physical entities can seamlessly integrate their capabilities with people. The research areas involved are many, including Ambient Intelligence, Product Engineering, Distributed Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Economics, Artificial Intelligence, and many more. This workshop brings together different areas of expertise to help us shape a vision of creating living and working environments out of Smart Products.