Special track on Ubiquitous Computing: Ubiquitous and Pervasive eCommerce and eBusiness: editorial message

Ubiquitous computing has emerged as one of the principal information and communication technologies that could lead to the achievement of the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) vision. Ambient Intelligence places human beings at the centre of the future knowledge-based society and implies a seamless environment of computing, advanced networking technology and unobtrusive interfaces: interaction should be relaxing and enjoyable for people. In an AmI environment, humans will be surrounded by intelligent interfaces supported by computing and networking technology that is embedded in everyday objects such as furniture, clothes, vehicles, roads and smart materials - even particles of decorative substances like paint. The AmI world then, is a world largely defined by ubiquitous computing applications, which are designed and developed to operate at the background, to disappear in the different layers of the physical world, in order to serve the needs of people unobtrusively.