ubiquitous computing i: concepts

Ubiquitous Computing I:Concepts & Technologies

Ubiquitous Computing I:Concepts & Technologies

POSMIS Lab. POSTECHPOSMIS Lab. POSTECH

POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.


ContentsContents Basic Concepts on Ubi-Comp

Technologies in Ubi-Comp

Research Projects on Ubi-Comp

Basic Concepts on Ubiquitous ComputingBasic Concepts on Ubiquitous Computing



Beginning of Ubiquitous Computing

Beginning of Ubiquitous Computing

Marc Weiser (Computer Science Lab. at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center)• The Father of ubiquitous computing• In his article(1988) first describing basic concepts of ub

iquitous computing

Inspired by the social scientists, philosophers, and anthropologists at PARC, we have been trying to take a radical look at what computing and networking ought to be like. We believe that people live through their practices and tacit knowledge so that the most powerful things are those that are effectively invisible in use. This is a challenge that affects all of computer science. Our preliminary approach: Activate the world. Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office, of all scales (from 1" displays to wall sized). This has required new work in operating systems, user interfaces, networks, wireless, displays, and many other areas. We call our work "ubiquitous computing". This is different from PDA's, dynabooks, or information at your fingertips. It is invisible, everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any sort, but is in the woodwork everywhere.

For thirty years most interface design, and most computer design, has been headed down the path of the "dramatic" machine. Its highest ideal is to make a computer so exciting, so wonderful, so interesting, that we never want to be without it. A less-traveled path I call the "invisible"; its highest ideal is to make a computer so imbedded, so fitting, so natural, that we use it without even thinking about it. (I have also called this notion "Ubiquitous Computing", and have placed its origins in post-modernism.) I believe that in the next twenty years the second path will come to dominate. But this will not be easy; very little of our current systems infrastructure will survive. We have been building versions of the infrastructure-to-come at PARC for the past four years, in the form of inch-, foot-, and yard-sized computers we call Tabs, Pads, and Boards. Our prototypes have sometimes succeeded, but more often failed to be invisible. From what we have learned, we are now exploiting some new directions for ubi-comp, including the famous "dangling string" display.



Time

Sales3rd Wave: Ubi-Comp3rd Wave: Ubi-Comp

Waves in Computing Paradigm

Waves in Computing Paradigm

1st Wave: Mainframe1st Wave: Mainframe

Each shared by lots of people

2nd Wave: PC2nd Wave: PC

Now we are in, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop

The age of calm tech., when technology recedes into the background of our lives

NOW



Ubi-Comp: Off the Beaten TrackUbi-Comp: Off the Beaten Track

workstation

PC

laptop

dynabook

PDA Knowledge Navigator

mainframe

UbiquitousUbiquitousComputingComputing



Virtual Reality vs. Ubi-CompVirtual Reality vs. Ubi-Comp

Virtual Reality Ubi-Comp

Virtual Reality• Puts people inside a computer-

generated world • Primarily a horse power

problem

Ubiquitous Computing • Forces the computer to live

out here in the world with people.

• A very difficult integration of human factors, computer science, engineering, and social sciences



Capabilities of Ubi-CompCapabilities of Ubi-Comp Calm Technology

• Technologies should be organized so users as not to sense the fact that they are being served by computers

Invisibility• To be as unobtrusive as possible, users’ workload to operate any computer systems must be lightened

Embeddedness• Small intelligent devices are embedded in the physical world and connected to the fixed and/or wireles

s network

Mobility• Client devices must be operated under the mobile and flexible network infrastructure

Nomadicity• The system provides a rich set of computing and communication capabilities and services to nomadic

users

Portability• The system provides services with hands-free or at least one-handed light devices

Proactiveness• The system needs to be self-triggered to capture a priori what its users want to increase the service qu

ality



Generic Features of Ubi-CompGeneric Features of Ubi-Comp

Transparent Interfaces

Awareness ofContext(s)

Capture Experience



Generic Features (1/3)Generic Features (1/3) TRANSPARENT INTERFACES

• Hide their presence from user• Provide interaction between user and application• Examples:

− Gesture recognition− Speech recognition− Free form pen interaction− Computational perception etc.

• Need:− Flexible interfaces− Varied interfaces that can provide similar functionality



Generic Features (2/3)Generic Features (2/3) CONTEXT AWARENESS

• Context: Information about the environment with which the application is associated

− ‘Location’, ‘temperature’, ‘time’, and ‘activity’ are simple examples of context

• Context aware application:− Is one which can capture the context− Assigns meaning to it− Changes behavior accordingly

• Need:− Applications that are context aware and allow rapid personalization of

their services



Generic Features (3/3)Generic Features (3/3) AUTOMATED CAPTURE

• To capture our day-to-day experience• To make it available for future use.• Constraints:

− Multiple streams of information− Their time synchronization− Their correlation and integration

• Need:− Automated tools that support capture− integration and future access of information

Technologies inUbiquitous ComputingTechnologies inUbiquitous Computing



Essential Technologies for Ubiquitous Computing

Essential Technologies for Ubiquitous Computing

Hardware technologies• Processors, memories, …• (Wireless) networking• Sensors, actuators• Power• Packing and integration• Potentially: entirely new technologies (optoelectronics, biomaterials)

Software technologies• Operating environments• Networking• Middleware• Platform technologies• User interfaces



Moore’s Law & Its Best Friends

Moore’s Law & Its Best Friends

Moore's law: Capacity of microchips doubles in 18 months capacity grows an order of magnitude (10x) in 5 years

But also:• Fixed network transfer capacity grows an order of magnitude in 3

years (but delay will not be significantly improved)• Wireless network transfer capacity grows much slower, perhaps an

order of magnitude in 5-10 years• Mass storage capacity grows an order of magnitude in 3 years –

presently, one euro buys more than one gigabyte of mass storage (but seeking a piece of data is not improving nearly as rapidly)

• Significant progress in power is unlikely

These variable speeds may lead to qualitative changes:• Mass storage is cheap and plentiful• Wireless access remains a relative bottleneck, and it only gets worse• Power remains an issue



Various Rates of Improvement

Various Rates of Improvement



VTT SoapboxVTT Soapbox Basic board:

• Bidirectional, single channel 868 MHz short range radio

• Microcontroller • Real-time clock • Calendar circuit

Sensor board: • 3-axis acceleration sensors• electronic compass• lighting sensor • optic IR-based proximity detector

Developed at VTT Electronics, Oulu• Telecommunication Systems • Embedded Software



HP/KTH Smart BadgeHP/KTH Smart Badge Mark T. Smith and Gerald Q. Maguire Jr.

• SmartBadge / BadgePad version 4, HP Labs and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) (http://www.it.kth.se/~maguire/badge4.html)

Intel SA1110 processor and SA1111 coprocessor

Audio CODEC IR module Accelometer Temperature Humidity Light



Berkeley Smart Dust: Cots Dust

Berkeley Smart Dust: Cots Dust

http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/archive/users/hollar-seth/macro_motes/macromotes.html

Now: Dust, Inc., selling dust at $50 each

weC codesigned by James McClurkin

RF 916.5 MHz OOK 10kbps 20 meter range Sensors: light, temperature

Mini Mote codesigned by Christina Adela

RF 916.5MHz OOK 10kbps 20 meter range Sensors: temperature



Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID)

Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID)

A remotely readable tag that replies an incoming RF signal with some data

RFID has been around for some 10 years, but high tag prices have limited its use

New manufacturing methods are now reducing the price to low cent region

This may lead to massive deployment



Wireless Sensing Environment

Wireless Sensing Environment

Cellular networkCellular

network

Services(e.g,community,content)

IPnetworkIPnetwork

Battery-powered sensor (BPS) 2 m

Wireless remote-powered sensor (WRPS,selected)

Mobileterminal

Shortrangeradio

UserInterface

to AI

Applications

CellularEngine

Em

bedded sensors

10 m

Smart accessory(Processors )

Ultralow

power

low costSR

radio

Inputdevices(sensors )

Memory(Datalogger)

Smart accessory

(Processors)

Input devices(sensors ) Memory

(Datalogger)

Ultralow

power

low costSR

radio RFIDtag(selected)

selectedBPS

Optical PointMe selection of objects

WRPS

Cellular networkCellular

network

Services(e.g,community,content)

IPnetworkIPnetwork

Battery-powered sensor (BPS) 2 m

Wireless remote-powered sensor (WRPS,

selected)

Mobileterminal

Shortrangeradio

UserInterface

to AmI

Applications

CellularEngine

Em

bedded sensors

10 m


Ultralow

power

low costS

R radio


Memory(Datalogger)

Smart accessory

(Processors)


(Datalogger)

Ultralow

power

low costSR

radio


Ultralow

power

low costS

R radio


Memory(Datalogger)

Smart accessory

(Processors)


(Datalogger)

Ultralow

power

low costSR

radio RFIDtag(selected)

selectedBPS

Optical PointMe selection of objects

WRPS

Jouko Strand 27.8.2004



New Technologies: Light Emitting Polymers

New Technologies: Light Emitting Polymers

Plastic displays (~ 1 mm thick)

Applications are emerging (e.g., curved or flexible displays)



Standalone Smart SensorsStandalone Smart Sensors

No external power supply• Energy from the actuation process• Piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials transform changes in

pressure or temperature into energy• RF signal is transmitted via an antenna (20 m distance)



Operating EnvironmentsOperating Environments These will progress only slowly, most likely in 2008

we still use the same basic environments as today:• MS OS, Linux, Symbian OS (?)• Java, C++, scripting languages (Python), …• Perhaps some higher-level tools derived from XML/Web Services

technologies

Programming will become a bottleneck, even more than today:• Dealing with complexity: zero config• Reliability, fault tolerance: present programming models lead to

spaghetti code



NetworkingNetworking We are likely to need a variety of networking technologies

also in the future• Wide area: large coverage, modest capacity• Proximity: small coverage, larger (but still modest) capacity• Personal/body area• Possibly also one-way broadcasting via digital TV

So multiaccess networking is needed, with all its inherent complexities• Roaming from one technology to another• Multihoming? Congestion control? Multicast, etc.?• Mobility & identity management• Trust establishment and management

Standards are nice, but how interoperable are they? How much complexity can be managed?

Personally, I dislike the term “Mobile Internet”. We don’t need that, we need an Internet that works well for all kinds of networks, mobile or fixed, wireless or wired.



MiddlewareMiddleware

Host Identity ProtocolHost Identity Protocol

IPIPDistributed ServersMobile Clients

BEEPBEEPHTTP 1.1HTTP 1.1

Wireless SOAPWireless SOAP

Event BusEvent Bus

Presence ClientPresence Client

Mobile ApplicationsMobile Applications

Sync.File systemSync.File system

Filter Service

J ettyJ etty


J ettyJ ettyWirelessSOAP/SOAPWirelessSOAP/SOAP

Apache AxisApache Axis

Event ServiceEvent Service

Presence ServicePresence Service

Mobile ServicesMobile Services

Filter Service

Sync. File systemSync. File system

Ubiquitousand Pervasive software

TCPTCP

Host Identity ProtocolHost Identity Protocol

IPIPDistributed ServersMobile Clients



Event BusEvent Bus




Filter Service

J ettyJ etty



Event BusEvent Bus




Filter Service

J ettyJ etty







Filter Service








Filter Service


Ubiquitousand Pervasive softwareUbiquitousand Pervasive software

TCPTCP



Identities, ConfigurationIdentities, Configuration How to name things and events?

How to change the names? create aliases?

How to share names, to revoke them?

Where are system boundaries, i.e., what should I care to name?

Who will set up applications and systems for hundreds of millions of users?• Only users themselves …



Security, Privacy, TrustSecurity, Privacy, Trust What data do I wish to expose? To whom?

Who can presently access my data?

How can I retract data exposed?

Who am I communicating with?

How do can the privacy of my communication and communication patterns?

Who do I trust as a source of information?

How do I convince others that I am trustworthy?

How to make systems simultaneously secure and usable?



Yesterday's Computers Filled Rooms …

Yesterday's Computers Filled Rooms …



… So Will Tomorrow’s… So Will Tomorrow’s

ubiquitous computing i: concepts

Technology

smart accessory

input devices

ubiquitous

computer science

generic features

powered sensor

mass storage

highest ideal