Preface

1.This thematic issue

This issue of JAISE is focused on the theme of Natural Interaction in Intelligent Environments.

Despite the many advances which have been made in this young area, there is still undoubtedly much to be done. One of those areas where our area can improve is certainly in the way it engages with users. It is fundamental systems deployed in the market are effective in making the user feel the system has understood their needs and have managed to deliver to them meaningful services. The Thematic Issue we offer this month addresses interaction between Intelligent Environments and Users in that diverse way of addressing the deep understanding the system has of the relationship with the users who is supposed to serve, and the work selected addresses this system understanding from various angles, not only at an interface level directly but in some cases at deeper levels which allow the system to deliver a more user-centric service.

We thank our colleagues: Liping Shen (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), Tongzhen Zhang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), and, Andrés Muñoz (University Católica San Antonio, Murcia, Spain), for organizing the content of this issue.

This year also brings an innovation in the way we manage the journal. We have decided to give a bigger role to the Editorial Board of the journal and create the offices of Associate Board Members so that periodically a group of colleagues who have been very supportive of the journal have the opportunity to manage certain executive aspects of our publication. For this first period we have invited Andrea Prati (Univ. IUAV of Venice, Italy) and Carles Gómez (Technical University of Catalunya, Spain). We are pleased to report they have accepted, and we are very grateful these colleagues who have shown so far great professionalism and enthusiasm to serve the JAISE community will continue their great service at the new position. This position will be renewed periodically, most possibly in two years time giving the opportunity to other colleagues from our Editorial Board to contribute to JAISE from this position.

As usual for an area active like AmI there are interesting events around the world. The last pages of this issue consist of a report on a successful viva by a PhD student working in the area and also the CFP for one of the most established international events in this field.