Biometric technologies for ambient intelligence in the Internet of Things

Summary form only given. Adaptability and advanced services for ambient intelligence in the internet of things require an intelligent technological support for knowing the needs and the desires of users in the interactions with the environment for their daily use. To this purpose in some cases we can discover these characteristics by observing the human behavior, while in others we can retrieve stored information associated to the person. In both cases, the use of biometrics can be extremely useful both to understand the human behavior and to identify the person or the class of persons with similar characteristics so as to derive their needs and desires. Biometric technologies allow in fact for analyzing human traits (e.g., face, fingerprint, palm) for identity management without requiring individuals to carry tokens or remembering information. These technologies allow also for classifying the persons by observing some soft-biometric traits (e.g., gait, height, weight, emotions), thus associating the needs typical of the detected class. Besides, some other soft-biometric traits (e.g., gestures, gait) allow for specifying actions desired by the person. This talk will analyze the opportunities offered by biometric technologies and applications to support the realization of adaptable operations and intelligent services in the internet of things for ambient intelligence, based on a user-centric philosophy. Attention will be also given to a comprehensive system design methodology to take into account all application requirements, including the need for privacy protection.