Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1: Today's computers: attention is devoted to a restricted number of
devices.
The development of ubiquitous systems will induce a progressive
disappearance of hardware as we know it today, distributing it on objects and
environment so that we will then think of a computer as an accessory of
everyday life objects, an ingredient of a complex recipe rather than the recipe
itself.
Weiser's vision of ubiquitous systems and computing has been embraced
by the research community, and the first attempts maybe conducted in the
studies at the Xerox Research Centre in Palo Alto (Xerox PARC) in the early
1990s, with their best-known projects as ParcTab, Mtab and LiveBoard.
ActiveBadge by Olivetti Research and InfoPad by UC-Berkeley also
embraced the same line of research, as other research centres did, such as
Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Rutgers
University, Washington University and IBM.
Technology was less than ready at the time, so these devices could not
fulfil designers' expectations. No wireless connectivity was available, screen
capabilities were rather limited (Figure 2(a)), embedded processor were
running at a few MHz while their PC counterparts were already speeding
beyond 50 MHz, memory was limited to a few hundreds kilobyte versus the
tens of megabyte available in PC-mounted hard drive and more.
In less than a decade a number of tablet-shaped products were developed
(such as the first IBM ThinkPad, the Apple Newton, the Casio Zoomer
and the General Magic Pad), in an attempt to emulate the pen-and-paper
approach. Again, hardware was the predominant factor determining the (non-)
acceptance of the device, and the final cost-performance ratio did not make
