Preface to the special issue on new achievements in pervasive and interactive multimedia systems and applications [Editorial]

Recent technological advancements have transformed almost any computer, electronic device and appliance into concrete multimedia systems. From a simple laptop to the hype iPod, from wearable computers to wireless sensors, from RFID tags to cell phones, those systems have pervasively got into our homes, offices and places where we have fun, deeply revolutionizing our lifestyle and common habits. What’s really new here is that, surprisingly, not only we can use these devices in a passive way, to listen to music or watch TV for example, but we can use them to customize and adapt all the information we want to receive: We are about to spend our days in an environment saturated with computing and communication devices able to produce and/or adapt a lot of multimedia contents, based on a set of sophisticated interactions these systems carry out with us, as well as with the environment surrounding us.