Overview

The field of "intelligent interfaces and systems" has seen a fast growth last decade. An impressive number of papers, conference tutorials, and volumes were devoted to the topic. Ten years ago, intelligent systems constituted a rather exotic topic and many were skeptic that such systems amount to more than a nice name. Nowadays, intelligent systems represent a powerful tool in many applications, in all industrial fields. Their development evolved on both the horizontal dimension, with a constantly increasing number of applications, and on the vertical dimension, by including more capabilities going from sensoric to neurofuzzy systems, intelligent agents, speech and image understanding, and decision making in complex environments. The domain constituted by the intelligent systems is now too large to be covered in a single volume. Consequently, the Editors considered a balance between several selected sub-fields, to insure the unity of the volume, yet allowing a large enough horizon and a consistent understanding of the entire field, including real-life applications. The volume represents a comprehensive coverage of the field, including fundamental aspects, software-, sensors-, and hardware-related issues. Moreover, the contributors to this volume offer, beyond a systematic overview of intelligent interfaces and systems, deep, practical knowledge in building and using intelligent systems in various applications. A special emphasis is on specific aspects and requirements in applications. In addition, the second Editor proposes two chapters addressing the management of projects dealing with intelligent systems.