Group preference modeling for intelligent shared environments: Social welfare beyond the sum

Ubiquitous computing technology can be effectively utilized in shared environments where groups of people are in close proximity. Shared environments are pervasive in the real world and hence the way of managing such environments will impact on not only quality of life but also business competitiveness. However, making decisions in an intelligent shared environment is never straightforward. The intelligence needs to be capable of choosing its parameters to satisfy all of its inhabitants, who have different preferences and are heterogeneous in their influences on decision. Till today, there has been no thorough research to scientifically investigate this type of decision making problems, though many systems have been already deployed. This research proposes a methodology for making decisions in such circumstances. The current and future works addressed in this paper are also conductive to any human-centric networks such as service systems, since the issues addressed here are also essential constitutes of such human-centric networks.