Assignment on Ubiquitous Computing

8/2/2019 Assignment on Ubiquitous Computing

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Assignment onUbiquitous Computing

Submitted By:

Apoorv Sharma

Roll No. 1

IT & Telecom


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Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) 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 aredoing 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.

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 woveninto 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 modeling, 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 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_playerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_playerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone


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Tabs: wearable centimeter sized devices Pads: hand-held decimeter-sized devices Boards: meter 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 (MEMS), ranging from nanometers

through micrometers to millimeters. See also Smart dust.

Skin: fabrics based upon light emitting and conductive polymers, organiccomputer devices, can be formed into more flexible non-planar displaysurfaces 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 threedimensional shapes as artifacts resembling many different kinds of

physical object (see also Tangible interface).

In his book The Rise of the Network Society, Manuel Castells suggests that

there is an ongoing shift from already-decentralized, stand-alonemicrocomputers 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".

Why Is Ubiquitous Computing Important?Ubiquitous computing is changing our daily activities in a variety of ways.

When it comes to using today's digital tools users tend to

communicate in different ways

be more active

conceive and use geographical and temporal spaces differently

have more control


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In addition, ubiquitous computing is

global and local

social and personal

public and private

invisible and visible

an aspect of both knowledge creation and information dissemination

Challenges

Small-form-factor nodes, densely distributed to achieve physical locality to sensed phenomena Design constraints energy bandwidth node size and cost robustness, node and link reliability Devices must adapt automatically to the environment too many devices for manual configuration environmental conditions are unpredictable

Massive ParallelismLarge numbers of unattended device

individual devices are not important

Tolerate device failures and irregularity

exploiting redundancy

graceful system degradationSelf-organization

ad-hoc

healing

clustering, configuration

team formation

routing

Information aggregation, in-network processing

OS, middleware, infrastructure, services

Economic Impact of Ubicomp?


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Products that are fully integrated

in information systems

e.g., supply chain optimization

New digitally enhanced products

e.g., cooperating toys,...New services (e-utilities)

e.g., management of smart devices at home,

management of personal privacy

Privacy Challenges

Unlimited coverage (sensors everywhere)

Loss of awareness (invisible computing)

New types of data (location, health, habits, )More knowledge through context

Anonymity hard to achieve

Explicit notice, consent by user difficult

Conclusion

The promise of ubiquitous computing is of a life in which our endeavours are

powerfully, though subtly, assisted by computers. The idealistic visions painted

by the ubiquitous computing movement stand in stark contrast to what we see

when we boot up our computers each day. There is an immediate barrierbecause you have to know how to use a computer to use a computer. If you sat

down in front of a computer without knowing how to use a mouse, would you

be able to get anything done? Its unlikely. The computer wont help you,

either, since you have to know how to use the computer to ask it for help on

how to use it! When computers do offer assistance, it still tends to fall short of

the mark. Much application software tries to cater to new users and power users

alike by offering simple, task-focused wizards and detailed help systems.

Unfortunately, the wizards are often too limited to offer sufficient power for

day-to-day use, and the help systems often dont cope well with the many waysin which a user can express a need for a given piece of information. The next

step, of course, is to go down to the local bookstore and buy a book that is four

inches thick and weighs five pounds and that promises to give straightforward

instruction on how to use the program in question. Most of us get by just fine on

the tasks we are well-used to performing. However, there should be an easier

route. We are still a long way away from seeing the promise of ubiquitous

computing fulfilled. Yet, physical barriers to ubiquitous computing are falling,

thanks to technological advances such as nanotechnology and wireless

computing. Further, as we have argued, software is getting easier to use all the


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time. As the themes of context-awareness and natural interaction are adopted by

hardware and software makers, we will begin to see successive approximations

of ubiquitous computing. There are many issues to resolve and a steep learning

curve to face as we consider this close integration of computers into our lives.

As I-O psychologists, we will benefit ourselves and our field by carefullyexamining the promises and implications that ubiquitous computing holds for

us, and then adapting our products, services, and policies appropriately.

Documents

Assignment on Ubiquitous Computing