Ubiquitous Computing I: Concepts & Technologies

1. Ubiquitous Computing I:Concepts & Technologies POSMIS Lab. POSTECH

2. Contents • Basic Concepts on Ubi-Comp • Technologies in Ubi-Comp • Research Projects on Ubi-Comp POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

3. Basic Concepts on Ubiquitous Computing

4. Inspired by the social scientists, philosophers, and anthropologists at PARC, we have been trying to take a radical look at what computing and networking ought to be like. We believe that people live through their practices and tacit knowledge so that the most powerful things are those that are effectively invisible in use. This is a challenge that affects all of computer science. Our preliminary approach: Activate the world. Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office, of all scales (from 1" displays to wall sized). This has required new work in operating systems, user interfaces, networks, wireless, displays, and many other areas. We call our work "ubiquitous computing". This is different from PDA's, dynabooks, or information at your fingertips. It is invisible, everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any sort, but is in the woodwork everywhere. For thirty years most interface design, and most computer design, has been headed down the path of the "dramatic" machine. Its highest ideal is to make a computer so exciting, so wonderful, so interesting, that we never want to be without it. A less-traveled path I call the "invisible"; its highest ideal is to make a computer so imbedded, so fitting, so natural, that we use it without even thinking about it. (I have also called this notion "Ubiquitous Computing", and have placed its origins in post-modernism.) I believe that in the next twenty years the second path will come to dominate. But this will not be easy; very little of our current systems infrastructure will survive. We have been building versions of the infrastructure-to-come at PARC for the past four years, in the form of inch-, foot-, and yard-sized computers we call Tabs, Pads, and Boards. Our prototypes have sometimes succeeded, but more often failed to be invisible. From what we have learned, we are now exploiting some new directions for ubi-comp, including the famous "dangling string" display. Beginning of Ubiquitous Computing • Marc Weiser (Computer Science Lab. at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) • The Father of ubiquitous computing • In his article(1988) first describing basic concepts of ubiquitous computing POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

5. Sales Time Waves in Computing Paradigm 3rd Wave: Ubi-Comp The age of calm tech., when technology recedes into the background of our lives 2nd Wave: PC Now we are in, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop 1st Wave: Mainframe NOW Each shared by lots of people POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

6. Ubi-Comp: Off the Beaten Track mainframe workstation PC laptop dynabook PDA Knowledge Navigator Ubiquitous Computing POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

7. Virtual Reality vs. Ubi-Comp • Virtual Reality • Puts people inside a computer-generated world • Primarily a horse power problem • Ubiquitous Computing • Forces the computer to live out here in the world with people. • A very difficult integration of human factors, computer science, engineering, and social sciences Virtual Reality Ubi-Comp POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

8. Capabilities of Ubi-Comp • Calm Technology • Technologies should be organized so users as not to sense the fact that they are being served by computers • Invisibility • To be as unobtrusive as possible, users’ workload to operate any computer systems must be lightened • Embeddedness • Small intelligent devices are embedded in the physical world and connected to the fixed and/or wireless network • Mobility • Client devices must be operated under the mobile and flexible network infrastructure • Nomadicity • The system provides a rich set of computing and communication capabilities and services to nomadic users • Portability • The system provides services with hands-free or at least one-handed light devices • Proactiveness • The system needs to be self-triggered to capture a priori what its users want to increase the service quality POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

9. Generic Features of Ubi-Comp Transparent Interfaces Awareness of Context(s) Capture Experience POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

10. Generic Features (1/3) • TRANSPARENT INTERFACES • Hide their presence from user • Provide interaction between user and application • Examples: • Gesture recognition • Speech recognition • Free form pen interaction • Computational perception etc. • Need: • Flexible interfaces • Varied interfaces that can provide similar functionality POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

11. Generic Features (2/3) • CONTEXT AWARENESS • Context: Information about the environment with which the application is associated • ‘Location’, ‘temperature’, ‘time’, and ‘activity’ are simple examples of context • Context aware application: • Is one which can capture the context • Assigns meaning to it • Changes behavior accordingly • Need: • Applications that are context aware and allow rapid personalization of their services POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

12. Generic Features (3/3) • AUTOMATED CAPTURE • To capture our day-to-day experience • To make it available for future use. • Constraints: • Multiple streams of information • Their time synchronization • Their correlation and integration • Need: • Automated tools that support capture • integration and future access of information POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

13. Technologies inUbiquitous Computing

14. Essential Technologies for Ubiquitous Computing • Hardware technologies • Processors, memories, … • (Wireless) networking • Sensors, actuators • Power • Packing and integration • Potentially: entirely new technologies (optoelectronics, biomaterials) • Software technologies • Operating environments • Networking • Middleware • Platform technologies • User interfaces POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

15. Moore’s Law & Its Best Friends • Moore's law: Capacity of microchips doubles in 18 months  capacity grows an order of magnitude (10x) in 5 years • But also: • Fixed network transfer capacity grows an order of magnitude in 3 years (but delay will not be significantly improved) • Wireless network transfer capacity grows much slower, perhaps an order of magnitude in 5-10 years • Mass storage capacity grows an order of magnitude in 3 years – presently, one euro buys more than one gigabyte of mass storage (but seeking a piece of data is not improving nearly as rapidly) • Significant progress in power is unlikely • These variable speeds may lead to qualitative changes: • Mass storage is cheap and plentiful • Wireless access remains a relative bottleneck, and it only gets worse • Power remains an issue POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

16. Various Rates of Improvement POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

17. VTT Soapbox • Basic board: • Bidirectional, single channel 868 MHz short range radio • Microcontroller • Real-time clock • Calendar circuit • Sensor board: • 3-axis acceleration sensors • electronic compass • lighting sensor • optic IR-based proximity detector • Developed at VTT Electronics, Oulu • Telecommunication Systems • Embedded Software POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

18. HP/KTH Smart Badge • Mark T. Smith and Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. • SmartBadge / BadgePad version 4, HP Labs and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) (http://www.it.kth.se/~maguire/badge4.html) • Intel SA1110 processor and SA1111 coprocessor • Audio CODEC • IR module • Accelometer • Temperature • Humidity • Light POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

19. Berkeley Smart Dust: Cots Dust • http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/archive/users/hollar-seth/macro_motes/macromotes.html • Now: Dust, Inc., selling dust at $50 each POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

20. Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) • A remotely readable tag that replies an incoming RF signal with some data • RFID has been around for some 10 years, but high tag prices have limited its use • New manufacturing methods are now reducing the price to low cent region • This may lead to massive deployment POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

21. WRPS WRPS Smart Smart Smart Optical PointMe Optical PointMe Smart Smart Smart Ultra Ultra Ultra ( ( ( Ultra Ultra Ultra accessory accessory accessory Input Input Input ( ( ( low cost low cost low cost low cost low cost low cost Input Input Input accessory accessory accessory selection selection of of objects objects ( ( ( Processors Processors Processors ) ) ) ( ( ( Processors Processors Processors ) ) ) sensors sensors sensors sensors sensors sensors Services Services devices devices devices low power low power low power ) ) ) devices devices devices ) ) ) low power low power low power SR radio SR radio SR radio (e.g, (e.g, community community , , Memory Memory Memory Memory Memory Memory SR radio SR radio SR radio (Data (Data (Data logger logger logger ) ) ) content ) ) content (Data (Data (Data logger logger logger ) ) ) Mobile Mobile tag RFID RFID tag terminal terminal ( selected ) ( selected ) IP IP IP IP network network network network Applications Applications sensors sensors Embedded Embedded - - Battery Battery powered powered 2 m 2 m sensor (BPS) sensor (BPS) User User Cellular Cellular Cellular Cellular network network Interface Interface network network to AI to AmI Short Short radio radio Cellular Cellular range range Engine Engine 10 m 10 m Wireless remote - Wireless remote - powered sensor powered sensor selected BPS selected BPS (WRPS, (WRPS, selected ) ) selected Wireless Sensing Environment Jouko Strand 27.8.2004 POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

22. New Technologies: Light Emitting Polymers • Plastic displays (~ 1 mm thick) • Applications are emerging (e.g., curved or flexible displays) POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

23. Standalone Smart Sensors • No external power supply • Energy from the actuation process • Piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials transform changes in pressure or temperature into energy • RF signal is transmitted via an antenna (20 m distance) POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

24. Operating Environments • These will progress only slowly, most likely in 2008 we still use the same basic environments as today: • MS OS, Linux, Symbian OS (?) • Java, C++, scripting languages (Python), … • Perhaps some higher-level tools derived from XML/Web Services technologies • Programming will become a bottleneck, even more than today: • Dealing with complexity: zero config • Reliability, fault tolerance: present programming models lead to spaghetti code POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

25. Networking • We are likely to need a variety of networking technologies also in the future • Wide area: large coverage, modest capacity • Proximity: small coverage, larger (but still modest) capacity • Personal/body area • Possibly also one-way broadcasting via digital TV • So multiaccess networking is needed, with all its inherent complexities • Roaming from one technology to another • Multihoming? Congestion control? Multicast, etc.? • Mobility & identity management • Trust establishment and management • Standards are nice, but how interoperable are they? How much complexity can be managed? • Personally, I dislike the term “Mobile Internet”. We don’t need that, we need an Internet that works well for all kinds of networks, mobile or fixed, wireless or wired. POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

26. Middleware POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

27. Identities, Configuration • How to name things and events? • How to change the names? create aliases? • How to share names, to revoke them? • Where are system boundaries, i.e., what should I care to name? • Who will set up applications and systems for hundreds of millions of users? • Only users themselves … POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

28. Security, Privacy, Trust • What data do I wish to expose? To whom? • Who can presently access my data? • How can I retract data exposed? • Who am I communicating with? • How do can the privacy of my communication and communication patterns? • Who do I trust as a source of information? • How do I convince others that I am trustworthy? • How to make systems simultaneously secure and usable? POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

29. Yesterday's Computers Filled Rooms … POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.

30. … So Will Tomorrow’s POSTECH Strategic Management of Information Systems Lab.