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by Zhiwen Yu (Editor), Ramiro Liscano (Editor), Guanlilng Chen (Editor)
Ubiquitous sensors, devices, networks and information are paving the way toward a smart world in which computational intelligence is distributed throughout the physical environment to provide reliable and relevant services to people. This ubiquitous intelligence will change the computing landscape because it will enable new breeds of applications and systems to be developed, and the realm of computing possibilities will be significantly extended. By enhancing everyday objects with intelligence, many tasks and processes could be simplified, the physical spaces where people interact, like workplaces and homes, could become more efficient, safer and more enjoyable. Ubiquitous computing, or pervasive computing, uses these many "smart things" or "u-things" to create smart environments, services and applications. A smart thing can be endowed with different levels of intelligence, and may be c- text-aware, active, interactive, reactive, proactive, assistive, adaptive, automated, sentient, perceptual, cognitive, autonomic and/or thinking. Research on ubiquitous intelligence is an emerging research field covering many disciplines. A series of grand challenges exists to move from the current level of computing services to the smart world of adaptive and intelligent services. Started in 2005, the series of UIC conferences has been held in Taipei, Nagasaki, Three Gorges (China), Hong Kong, Oslo and Brisbane. The proceedings contain the papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC 2010), held in Xi'an, China, October 26-29, 2010. The conference was accompanied by six vibrant workshops on a variety of research challenges within the area of ubiquitous intelligence and computing.
