Introduction - Ubiquitous Positioning - page 13

globally and approximately 3 billion mobile phones. In the decades to come, the
number of networked devices will rise to trillions if the predictions for ubiquitous
computing are realized.
This movement in computer science is known by several names, including
ubiquitous computing, pervasive computing, ambient intelligence and (in perhaps
a less academic vein) as “The Internet of Things.” Weiser [6], in a key paper in
1991, outlined a vision which, as devices have grown smaller and cheaper, is
gradually beginning to happen. The first really large deployment of small
ubiquitous computing devices is the take up of RFID technology by supply chain
managers and ticketing agencies.
Most of the devices will have a computing capability and be internetworked
using wireless communications, and many will have the ability to sense the
environment. New human interfaces and software interfaces will emerge and a
more decentralized and distributed approach to computing is also likely.
Computing per se becomes a more abstract concept as the actual information
processing is decoupled from any particular device. It could be considered to be a
utility, available on demand from which every networked device may be available
with capability and capacity. Ubiquitous computing has a “24/7/360°” quality
where 24/7 implies that services are always available at any time and 360 degrees
implies it is available all around, in any place [7]. Philips Research uses the term
ambient intelligence and has presented its thinking in the topic, The New
Everyday View of Ambient Intelligence [8].
Some devices will be sophisticated and have much the same capability as a
PC but be embedded within an electrically powered appliance that then becomes
an Internet-appliance. Others will be extremely simple and be powered by
scavenging power from the environment and only be on-line infrequently. In
between these extremes will be devices of varying complexity. For example, at the
low end of the market are a new generation of wireless security systems and
domestic animal tags and at the high end, devices that stream wireless audio and
video entertainment around buildings.
There is much more to ubiquitous computing than merely the increase in
device numbers; however, it is the density of networked computing devices that is
of interest to Whereness. The prospect is that in the medium term, virtually
anywhere where people congregate there will be devices that can be used to
provide accurate positional information. This is a fundamentally new possibility in
positioning technology.
1.4.7 Context Aware Computing
User context is derived from the activities and situations of people and objects and
is an important consideration in modern computing. Sensors and interfaces
provide vital clues about the identity, attributes, and activities of the users who
may be people or intelligent machines. Within a rich, fixed, and mobile computing
environment, it is possible for the (distributed) machine intelligence to be aware