Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) stems from
the advancements in human-computer interaction
(HCI). Users are not always aware that they are
using devices and systems where information
processing is integrated into everyday objects and
activities. Pervasive computing, ambient intelli-
gence, physical or haptic computing, all represent
the new way of thinking about computing; small
and powerful computing devices that are worn,
carried, or embedded in our environment, enable
us to place the work, not the tool (in the form of a
desktop or portable computer) in the focus of our
attention. Developers of ambient intelligence aim
at supplying physical environment with a network
of devices: sensors, actuators, and computational
resources, in order to help the users in completing
their tasks (Chong & Mastrogiovanni, 2011). With
ambient intelligence, processing of information is
interactively embedded in our ordinary activities
and objects, often without our awareness. This
model, which relates to pervasive computing and
ubiquitous computing, is considered a future para-
digm, and an advanced stage in comparison with
the desktop paradigm, because of its capability
to record and oversee our surroundings and sup-
port our interactions with other people or objects.
Calm computing, developed in the late 1990s, in
which the computer did not require full attention
to operate, empowered peripheral (sensory) pro-
cessing in our brains by switching between the
center and the periphery of our locus of attention,
bringing more details and the location awareness
into periphery.
Mark Weiser (1991) of the Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center (Xerox PARC) coined the
phrase “ubiquitous computing” around 1988
and described this post-desktop model in 1991,
calling it the third wave in computing. Research
on ubiquitous computing has been advanced in
the USA and in several other countries. MIT
started in Massachusetts the Things That Think
consortium (http://ttt.media.mit.edu/). Georgia
Tech, New York University UC Irvine, Microsoft
Research, and Intel Research and other places of
research contribute to the progress. Claytronics
Project from the late 2000s (http://www.cs.cmu.
edu/~claytronics/ “combines modular robotics,
systems nanotechnology, and computer science
to create the dynamic, 3-Dimensional display
of electronic information known as claytronics”
(Goldstein et al., 2009). Ubiquitous Songdo City
was built in 2000 in South Korea not far from Seoul.
The city and a theme park Robotland provide the
users with remote control of appliances, video
connections between residents, schools, offices,
stores, and the security network. The European
Union launched the Disappearing Computer ini-
tiative in a way of the Ubicomp infrastructure.
In Japan, the Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory
(UNL) in Tokyo has been led by Ken Sakamura.
Several conferences such as Pervasive, ACM
Ubicomp, IEEE Percom, IEEE ICPS, and IEEE
SUPE, and a number of academic journals are
dedicated to pervasive computing.
The core feature of the ubiquitous computing
is the availability of computer-based services
everywhere, with devices interacting with hu-
mans in a hidden, non-intrusive way. Pervasive
devices are often small (and are becoming even
smaller), embedded, interconnected, hidden in an
unobtrusive way, supporting intuitive solutions,
and aware of environmental conditions such as
location, time, and user activity, in order to be
able to optimize their interaction with human and
physical environment. They are usually networked,
distributed for the coordinated use for tasks or
storage, and transparently accessible. A user can
model their key properties; one person may apply
many computers at a time for several purposes
such as: interacting with others; processing and
managing personal visual and written materials;
computing and storing professional data; contact-
ing food, services, transport, and communication
related facilities; benefiting from the ability to
sense and control smart devices and interconnected
environments, make the most of the devices'
healing possibilities, among many other options.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search