Ubiquitous computing
Encyclopedia
Ubiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even be aware that they are doing so. This model is usually considered an advancement from the desktop paradigm
. More formally Ubiquitous computing is defined as "machines that fit the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter theirs."
This paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence
., where each term emphasizes slightly different aspects. When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also physical computing, the Internet of Things
, haptic computing, and things that think.
Rather than propose a single definition for ubiquitous computing and for these related terms, a taxonomy of properties for ubiquitous computing has been proposed, from which different kinds or flavors of ubiquitous systems and applications can be described.
Ubiquitous computing presents challenges across computer science: in systems design and engineering, in systems modelling, and in user interface design. Contemporary human-computer interaction models, whether command-line, menu-driven, or GUI
-based, are inappropriate and inadequate to the ubiquitous case. This suggests that the "natural" interaction paradigm appropriate to a fully robust ubiquitous computing has yet to emerge - although there is also recognition in the field that in many ways we are already living in an ubicomp world. Contemporary devices that lend some support to this latter idea include mobile phone
s, digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags, GPS, and interactive whiteboard
s.
Mark Weiser
proposed three basic forms for ubiquitous system devices, see also Smart device
: tabs, pads and boards.
These three forms proposed by Weiser are characterized by being macro-sized, having a planar form and on incorporating visual output displays. If we relax each of these three characteristics we can expand this range into a much more diverse and potentially more useful range of Ubiquitous Computing devices. Hence, three additional forms for ubiquitous systems have been proposed:
In his book The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel Castells
suggests that there is an ongoing shift from already-decentralised, stand-alone microcomputers and mainframes towards entirely pervasive computing. In his model of a pervasive computing system, Castells uses the example of the Internet as the start of a pervasive computing system. The logical progression from that paradigm is a system where that networking logic becomes applicable in every realm of daily activity, in every location and every context. Castells envisages a system where billions of miniature, ubiquitous inter-communication devices will be spread worldwide, "like pigment in the wall paint".
coined the phrase "ubiquitous computing" around 1988, during his tenure as Chief Technologist of the Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
. Both alone and with PARC Director and Chief Scientist John Seely Brown
, Weiser wrote some of the earliest papers on the subject, largely defining it and sketching out its major concerns.
Recognizing that the extension of processing power into everyday scenarios would necessitate understandings of social, cultural and psychological phenomena beyond its proper ambit, Weiser was influenced by many fields outside computer science, including "philosophy
, phenomenology, anthropology
, psychology
, post-Modernism, sociology of science and feminist criticism
." He was explicit about "the humanistic origins of the ‘invisible ideal in post-modernist thought'", referencing as well the ironically dystopia
n Philip K. Dick
novel Ubik
.
Dr. Ken Sakamura
of University of Tokyo
, Japan
leads the Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory (UNL), Tokyo
as well as the T-Engine Forum
. The joint goal of Sakamura's Ubiquitous Networking specification and the T-Engine forum, is to enable any everyday device to broadcast and receive information.
MIT has also contributed significant research in this field, notably Things That Think consortium (directed by Hiroshi Ishii
, Joseph A. Paradiso
and Rosalind Picard
) at the Media Lab
and the CSAIL effort known as Project Oxygen
. Other major contributors include Georgia Tech
's College of Computing
, NYU
's Interactive Telecommunications Program, UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, Microsoft Research
, Intel Research and Equator, Ajou University UCRi & CUS.
, mobile computing
, sensor networks, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence
.
List of Ubicomp Researchers
's book Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing (ISBN 0-321-38401-6). Greenfield describes the interaction paradigm of ubiquitous computing as "information processing dissolving in behavior".
Notable conferences in the field include:
Academic journals and magazines devoted primarily to pervasive computing:
Ubiquitous Computing and Communication Journal (ISSN 1992-8424), is an international scientific journal dedicated to advancing the information and communication technology. With a world-wide membership, UBICC is a leading resource for computing professionals and students working in the disciplines of information technology and the impact on society. In particular UBICC journal provides global perspective on new developments in ubiquitous and pervasive computing technologies. The journal is committed to provide platform to present discuss and exchange experimental or theoretical results, trend-setting ideas in the emerging field of ubiquitous computing and related disciplines. UBICC publishes peer-reviewed, interesting, timely and accessible contributions from researchers from all over the globe. The Journal is an essential resource for researchers and educators who wish to understand the implications of ubiquitous computing. In addition to regular publication UBICC also participate in international conferences on related subject and publishes the selected papers with the special issue.
Mark Weiser
's original material dating from his tenure at Xerox PARC:
Other links:
Desktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
. More formally Ubiquitous computing is defined as "machines that fit the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter theirs."
This paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence
Ambient intelligence
In computing, ambient intelligence refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time...
., where each term emphasizes slightly different aspects. When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also physical computing, the Internet of Things
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. The term Internet of Things was first used by Kevin Ashton in 1999. The concept of the Internet of Things first became popular through the Auto-ID Center and related...
, haptic computing, and things that think.
Rather than propose a single definition for ubiquitous computing and for these related terms, a taxonomy of properties for ubiquitous computing has been proposed, from which different kinds or flavors of ubiquitous systems and applications can be described.
Core concept
At their core, all models of ubiquitous computing share a vision of small, inexpensive, robust networked processing devices, distributed at all scales throughout everyday life and generally turned to distinctly common-place ends. For example, a domestic ubiquitous computing environment might interconnect lighting and environmental controls with personal biometric monitors woven into clothing so that illumination and heating conditions in a room might be modulated, continuously and imperceptibly. Another common scenario posits refrigerators "aware" of their suitably tagged contents, able to both plan a variety of menus from the food actually on hand, and warn users of stale or spoiled food.Ubiquitous computing presents challenges across computer science: in systems design and engineering, in systems modelling, and in user interface design. Contemporary human-computer interaction models, whether command-line, menu-driven, or GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
-based, are inappropriate and inadequate to the ubiquitous case. This suggests that the "natural" interaction paradigm appropriate to a fully robust ubiquitous computing has yet to emerge - although there is also recognition in the field that in many ways we are already living in an ubicomp world. Contemporary devices that lend some support to this latter idea include mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags, GPS, and interactive whiteboard
Interactive whiteboard
An interactive whiteboard , is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device...
s.
Mark Weiser
Mark Weiser
Mark D. Weiser was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.-Biography:...
proposed three basic forms for ubiquitous system devices, see also Smart device
Smart device
A smart device is an electronic device that is cordless , mobile , always connected and is capable of voice and video communication, internet browsing, "geo-location" and that can operate to some extent autonomously...
: tabs, pads and boards.
- Tabs: wearable centimetre sized devices
- Pads: hand-held decimetre-sized devices
- Boards: metre sized interactive display devices.
These three forms proposed by Weiser are characterized by being macro-sized, having a planar form and on incorporating visual output displays. If we relax each of these three characteristics we can expand this range into a much more diverse and potentially more useful range of Ubiquitous Computing devices. Hence, three additional forms for ubiquitous systems have been proposed:
- Dust: miniaturized devices can be without visual output displays, e.g., Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMSMicroelectromechanical systemsMicroelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...
), ranging from nanometres through micrometers to millimetres. See also Smart dust. - Skin: fabrics based upon light emitting and conductive polymers, organic computer devices, can be formed into more flexible non-planar display surfaces and products such as clothes and curtains, see OLED display. MEMS device can also be painted onto various surfaces so that a variety of physical world structures can act as networked surfaces of MEMS.
- Clay: ensembles of MEMS can be formed into arbitrary three dimensional shapes as artefacts resembling many different kinds of physical object (see also Tangible interface).
In his book The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel Castells
Manuel Castells
Manuel Castells is a sociologist especially associated with information society and communication research....
suggests that there is an ongoing shift from already-decentralised, stand-alone microcomputers and mainframes towards entirely pervasive computing. In his model of a pervasive computing system, Castells uses the example of the Internet as the start of a pervasive computing system. The logical progression from that paradigm is a system where that networking logic becomes applicable in every realm of daily activity, in every location and every context. Castells envisages a system where billions of miniature, ubiquitous inter-communication devices will be spread worldwide, "like pigment in the wall paint".
History
Mark WeiserMark Weiser
Mark D. Weiser was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.-Biography:...
coined the phrase "ubiquitous computing" around 1988, during his tenure as Chief Technologist of the Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
. Both alone and with PARC Director and Chief Scientist John Seely Brown
John Seely Brown
John Seely Brown is a researcher who specializes in organizational studies with a particular bent towards the organizational implications of computer-supported activities....
, Weiser wrote some of the earliest papers on the subject, largely defining it and sketching out its major concerns.
Recognizing that the extension of processing power into everyday scenarios would necessitate understandings of social, cultural and psychological phenomena beyond its proper ambit, Weiser was influenced by many fields outside computer science, including "philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, phenomenology, anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, post-Modernism, sociology of science and feminist criticism
Feminist criticism
Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism, which was developed in the late 1960s, focusing on the role of women in literature. Two important representatives are Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir who claim that women are a subject and no object....
." He was explicit about "the humanistic origins of the ‘invisible ideal in post-modernist thought'", referencing as well the ironically dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
novel Ubik
Ubik
Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Critic Lev Grossman described it as "a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you'll never be sure you've woken up from."-Plot synopsis:...
.
Dr. Ken Sakamura
Ken Sakamura
is a Japanese professor in Information science at the University of Tokyo. He is the creator of the real-time operating system architecture TRON.In 2001, he shared the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Well-Being with Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds....
of University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
leads the Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory (UNL), Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
as well as the T-Engine Forum
T-Engine Forum
T-Engine Forum is a non-profit organization which develops an open standard for real time embedded system development and to develop ubiquitous computing environment. They develop open specifications for ITRON, T-Kernel and ubiquitous ID architecture. The chair of T-Engine Forum is Dr. Ken...
. The joint goal of Sakamura's Ubiquitous Networking specification and the T-Engine forum, is to enable any everyday device to broadcast and receive information.
MIT has also contributed significant research in this field, notably Things That Think consortium (directed by Hiroshi Ishii
Hiroshi Ishii
is a Japanese computer scientist. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ishii pioneered the Tangible User Interface in the field of Human-computer interaction.-Biography:Ishii was born in Tokyo and raised in Sapporo....
, Joseph A. Paradiso
Joseph A. Paradiso
Joseph Paradiso is an associate professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences. He directs the MIT Media Lab's Responsive Environments Group, which explores how sensor networks augment and mediate human experience, interaction and perception. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering and...
and Rosalind Picard
Rosalind Picard
Rosalind W. Picard is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-director of the Things That Think Consortium...
) at the Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
and the CSAIL effort known as Project Oxygen
Project Oxygen
Project Oxygen is a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop pervasive, human-centered computing. The Oxygen architecture is to consist of handheld terminals, computers embedded in the environment, and dynamically configured networks which connect these...
. Other major contributors include Georgia Tech
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
's College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing
The College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology has roots stretching back to an Information Science degree established in 1964. In 1988, Georgia Tech president John Patrick Crecine elevated the School of Information and Computer Science to become the College of Computing, making...
, NYU
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Interactive Telecommunications Program, UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
, Intel Research and Equator, Ajou University UCRi & CUS.
Current research
Ubiquitous computing touches on a wide range of research topics, including distributed computingDistributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
, mobile computing
Mobile computing
Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
, sensor networks, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
See also
- Augmented realityAugmented realityAugmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is...
- Ambient intelligenceAmbient intelligenceIn computing, ambient intelligence refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time...
- Context-aware pervasive systemsContext-aware pervasive systemsContext-aware computing refers to a general class of mobile systems that can sense their physical environment, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Such systems are a component of a ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing environment. Three important aspects of context are: where you are; ...
- Human-centered computing
- Human-computer interaction
List of Ubicomp Researchers
- Sentient computingSentient computingSentient computing is a form of ubiquitous computing which uses sensors to perceive its environment and react accordingly. A common use of the sensors is to construct a world model which allows location-aware or context-aware applications to be constructed....
- Smart deviceSmart deviceA smart device is an electronic device that is cordless , mobile , always connected and is capable of voice and video communication, internet browsing, "geo-location" and that can operate to some extent autonomously...
- Ubiquitous learningUbiquitous learningFor some, ubiquitous learning is equivalent to some form of simple mobile learning, e.g. that learning environments can be accessed in various contexts and situations. The ubiquitous learning environment may detect more context data than elearning...
- Virtual realityVirtual realityVirtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
- Wearable computerWearable computerWearable computers are miniature electronic devices that are worn by the bearer under, with or on top of clothing. This class of wearable technology has been developed for general or special purpose information technologies and media development...
- Task computingTask computingTask computing is a computation to fill the gap between tasks , and services . Task computing seeks to redefine how users interact with and use computing environments...
Resources and other external links
An introduction to the field appropriate for general audiences is Adam GreenfieldAdam Greenfield
Adam Greenfield is an American writer and designer, and is the founder and managing director of urban-systems design practice Urbanscale, based in New York. From 2008 to 2010 he was Nokia's head of design direction for user interface and services...
's book Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing (ISBN 0-321-38401-6). Greenfield describes the interaction paradigm of ubiquitous computing as "information processing dissolving in behavior".
Notable conferences in the field include:
- International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive)
- ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp)
- IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (Percom)
- IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Services (ICPS)
- IEEE GlobeCom Workshop on Service Discovery and Composition in Ubiquitous and Pervasive Environments (SUPE)
- The Second International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies (UBICOMM 2008)
Academic journals and magazines devoted primarily to pervasive computing:
- Pervasive Computing (IEEE)
- Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (Springer)
- Pervasive and Mobile Computing journal, PMC (Elsevier)
- Ubiquitous Computing and Communication Journal - UbiCC Journal
Ubiquitous Computing and Communication Journal (ISSN 1992-8424), is an international scientific journal dedicated to advancing the information and communication technology. With a world-wide membership, UBICC is a leading resource for computing professionals and students working in the disciplines of information technology and the impact on society. In particular UBICC journal provides global perspective on new developments in ubiquitous and pervasive computing technologies. The journal is committed to provide platform to present discuss and exchange experimental or theoretical results, trend-setting ideas in the emerging field of ubiquitous computing and related disciplines. UBICC publishes peer-reviewed, interesting, timely and accessible contributions from researchers from all over the globe. The Journal is an essential resource for researchers and educators who wish to understand the implications of ubiquitous computing. In addition to regular publication UBICC also participate in international conferences on related subject and publishes the selected papers with the special issue.
Mark Weiser
Mark Weiser
Mark D. Weiser was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.-Biography:...
's original material dating from his tenure at Xerox PARC:
Other links:
- Context and Adaptivity in Pervasive Computing Environments: Links with Software Engineering and Ontological Engineering, article in Journal of Software, Vol 4, No 9 (2009), 992-1013, Nov 2009 by Ahmet Soylu, Patrick De Causmaecker and Piet Desmet
- Yesterday’s tomorrows: notes on ubiquitous computing’s dominant vision, by Genevieve BellGenevieve BellGenevieve Bell is an Australian born anthropologist and researcher. Born in Sydney, she is the director of Intel Corporation's Interaction and Experience Research and was the 15th Thinker in Residence in South Australia...
& Paul Dourish. - Towards pervasive computing in health care – A literature review, article in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (Open Access journal) by Carsten Orwat, Andreas Graefe and Timm Faulwasser.
- Pervasive Technology Lab (CIC) Pervasive Technology to Help People with Mental Health Problems.