Ubiquitous computing is a concept in software engineering and computer science where computing
is made to appear everywhere and anywhere.
In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any
location, and in any format.
A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms, including
laptop computers, tablets and terminals in everyday objects such as a fridge or a pair
of glasses.
The underlying technologies to support ubiquitous computing include Internet, advanced middleware,
operating system, mobile code, sensors, microprocessors, new I/O and user interfaces, networks, mobile
protocols, location and positioning and new materials.
This new paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, or 'everyware'.
Each term emphasizes slightly different aspects.
When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also known as 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 touches on a wide range of research topics, including distributed
computing, mobile computing, location computing, mobile networking, context-aware computing,
sensor networks, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.
Core concepts 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-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 a ubicomp world.
Contemporary devices that lend some support to this latter idea include mobile phones,
digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags, GPS, and interactive whiteboards.
Mark Weiser proposed three basic forms for ubiquitous system devices, see also Smart
device: 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, 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.
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".
Ubiquitous computing may be seen to consist of many layers, each with their own roles,
which together form a single system: Layer 1: task management layer
Monitors user task, context and index Map user's task to need for the services in
the environment To manage complex dependencies
Layer 2: environment management layer To monitor a resource and its capabilities
To map service need, user level states of specific capabilities
layer 3: environment layer To monitor a relevant resource
To manage reliability of the resources History
Mark Weiser coined the phrase "ubiquitous computing" around 1988, during his tenure
as Chief Technologist of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
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 dystopian Philip K. Dick novel Ubik.
Andy Hopper from Cambridge University UK proposed and demonstrated the concept of "Teleporting"
- where applications follow the user wherever he/she moves.
Roy Want, while a researcher and student working under Andy Hopper at Cambridge University,
worked on the "Active Badge System", which is an advanced location computing system where
personal mobility that is merged with computing.
Bill Schilit also did some earlier work in this topic, and participated in the early
Mobile Computing workshop held in Santa Cruz in 1996.
Dr. Ken Sakamura of the University of Tokyo, Japan leads the Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory,
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
at the Media Lab and the CSAIL effort known as Project Oxygen.
Other major contributors include University of Washington's Ubicomp Lab, Georgia Tech's
College of Computing, Cornell University's People Aware Computing Lab, NYU's Interactive
Telecommunications Program, UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, Microsoft Research, Intel
Research and Equator, Ajou University UCRi & CUS.
Examples One of the earliest ubiquitous systems was
artist Natalie Jeremijenko's "Live Wire", also known as "Dangling String", installed
at Xerox PARC during Mark Weiser's time there.
This was a piece of string attached to a stepper motor and controlled by a LAN connection;
network activity caused the string to twitch, yielding a peripherally noticeable indication
of traffic.
Weiser called this an example of calm technology.
Ambient Devices has produced an "orb", a "dashboard", and a "weather beacon": these decorative devices
receive data from a wireless network and report current events, such as stock prices and the
weather, like the Nabaztag produced by Violet Snowden.
The Australian futurist Mark Pesce has produced a highly configurable 52-LED LAMP enabled
lamp which uses Wi-Fi named MooresCloud after Moore's Law.
The Unified Computer Intelligence Corporation has launched a device called Ubi - The Ubiquitous
Computer that is designed to allow voice interaction with the home and provide constant access
to information.
See also List of ubiquitous computing research centers
Augmented reality Ambient intelligence
Context-aware pervasive systems Human-centered computing
Human-computer interaction Natural user interface
Pervasive game Pervasive informatics
Physical computing Virtual Reality
Sensor grid Sentient computing
Smart device Task computing
Transreality gaming Ubiquitous commerce
Ubiquitous learning Virtual reality
Wearable computer References
Resources and other external links An introduction to the field appropriate for
general audiences is Adam Greenfield's book Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.
Greenfield describes the interaction paradigm of ubiquitous computing as "information processing
dissolving in behavior".
Conferences in the field include: International Conference on Pervasive Computing
ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing
IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications
IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Services
IEEE GlobeCom Workshop on Service Discovery and Composition in Ubiquitous and Pervasive
Environments The Second International Conference on Mobile
Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies
Academic journals and magazines devoted primarily to pervasive computing:
Pervasive Computing Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Pervasive and Mobile Computing journal, PMC Ubiquitous Computing and Communication Journal
- UbiCC Journal Mark Weiser's original material dating from
his tenure at Xerox PARC: Ubiquitous Computing
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, 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 Bell & Paul Dourish.
Towards pervasive computing in health care – A literature review, article in BMC Medical
Informatics and Decision Making by Carsten Orwat, Andreas Graefe and Timm Faulwasser.
Pervasive Technology Lab Pervasive Technology to Help People with Mental Health Problems.