Mobile and Pervasive Computing - 6 Past, Present and Future Researches of Ubiquitous Computing

1. Mobile and Pervasive Computing - 6Past, Present and Future Researches of Ubiquitous Computing Presented by: Dr. Adeel Akram University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan http://web.uettaxila.edu.pk/CMS/AUT2015/teMPCms

2. Computing with natural interfaces • Ubicomp inspires “off-the-desktop” applications • Needs “off-the-desktop” means of interaction • Speech, gestures, writing • More accessible • Easier to use???

3. Computing with natural interfaces • Error prone interaction • Permit new and numerous mistakes • People do not have perfect recognition • As low as 54%; cursive handwriting 88%; printed handwriting 96.8% • Recognition accuracy == user satisfaction?? • Not really: complexity of error recovery dialogues and value-added benefit of any given efforts • Entering a command vs. writing journal entries • Several research areas • Error reduction (about 5-10%) • Error detection • Reusable toolkit for error handling

4. Context aware computing • Current Systems • Generally using position and identification of objects • Still do not provide a complete context • Definition of context is limited • Research areas • Context toolkits • Toolkit for sensing environment • Explicit use of sensed information is up to program • What is context? • How is context represented?

5. What is context? • Who • Currently generally tailored to one user • How important are others in determining our behavior • How could this be captured? • What • Attempt to figure out what is currently happening • Sense environment, use calendar software etc. • Where • Location based information, e.g., GPS • Most explored context information • When • Easily obtained information -- Computer is good at remembering time • Although determining when one event stops and another begins is not easy • Why • Even harder than the “what” question, biometric sensors might help (e.g., body temperature, heart rate, etc)

6. Toward context aware computing • Context representation • Requires universal context schemes or toolkits with standard context representations • Context sensing and fusion • How to make context-aware computing “ubiquitous”? • In practice, there are few truly ubiquitous, single-source context services • E.g., GPS does not work indoors; different indoor localization schemes have different characteristics (e.g., cost, range) • Like sensor fusion, context fusion handles seamless handling of sensing responsibility between boundaries of different context services • Combining multiple context sources can increase the accuracy of context information

7. Automated capture and access • Recording information and data as it occurs • Computers are inherently good at recording, people are not • People freed up to summarize and understand • Most work in academic/ classroom settings • Time stamping lectures, digital whiteboards • Challenges in “capture and access” • Sometime we don’t know we want to capture something until after its already happened • How could the computer know that? • If it captures everything then we need a system of sorting and filtering (access) • Access is a problem because capturing of raw data can be burdensome for sifting through; systems need to recognize important events facilitate access

8. Everyday computing • Continuous interactions (i.e., no clear beginning or end) • Both fundamental activities like communication and long-term endeavors do not have predefined starts and ends; information from past can be recycled • Very different traditional HCI design which assumes “closure” with clear goals like spell checking, dialogue, etc. • Interruption is expected: • People are constantly interrupted • Computer systems must recognize interruption and change state • Also computers must appropriately inform users • Multiple activities operate concurrently: • People multitask and rapidly switch task based on external unpredictable environment • Systems need to adapt to this opportunistic behavior and change accordingly

9. Toward everyday computing • Develop continuously present interface • No current model of continuously present interfaces, even people are not continuously present • Create an interface that doesn’t get annoying (e.g., wearable devices) • Determine what information should require my attention and what should be display peripherally • Connect events in the physical and virtual worlds (e.g., face to face vs. email, document, webs) • Modify/fuse existing HCI schemes to efficiently support everyday computing (but evaluation is challenging and laborious)

10. System evaluation challenges • Hard to evaluate Ubicomp Systems • Little publish on ubicomp evaluation • Systems often required to be fully connected leading to systems that are hard to build • Lack of development toolkits make system creation difficult • Systems often need to be integrated into peoples lives which using big clunky prototypes does not lead itself well too • Task/Goal centric approaches don’t work in ubicomp

11. Example Projects • Pervasive computing projects have emerged at major universities and in industry: • Project Aura (Carnegie Mellon University) • Oxygen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) • Portalano (University of Washington) • Endeavour (University of California at Berkeley) • Place Lab (Intel Research Laboratory at Seattle) • For illustration let us look at Project Aura

12. Example Projects : Project Aura (1) • Aura (Carnegie Mellon University) • Distraction-free (Invisible) Ubiquitous Computing.

13. Example Projects : Project Aura (2) • Moore’s Law Reigns Supreme • Processor density • Processor speed • Memory capacity • Disk capacity • Memory cost • ... • Glaring Exception • Human Attention Human Attention Adam & Eve 2000 AD

14. Example Projects : Project Aura (3) • Aura Thesis: • The most precious resource in computing is human attention. • Aura Goals: • Reduce user distraction. • Trade-off plentiful resources of Moore’s law for human attention. • Achieve this scalably for mobile users in a failure-prone, variable-resource environment.

15. Example Projects : Project Aura (4) • The Airport Scenario • Jane wants to send e-mail from theairport before her flight leaves. • She has several large enclosures • She is using a wireless interface • She has many options. • Simply send the e-mail • Is there enough bandwidth? • Compress the data first • Will that help enough? • Pay extra to get reserved bandwidth • Are reservations available? • Send the “diff” relative to older file • Are the old versions around? • Walk to a gate with more bandwidth • Where is there enough bandwidth? • How do we choose automatically?

16. Example Projects : Project Aura (5) • The Mobile Task Scenario • Aura saves Scott’s task. • Scott enters office and gets strongauthentication and secure access. • Aura restores Scott’s task ondesktop machine and uses a largedisplay. • Scott controls application byvoice. • Bradley enters room. • Bradley gets weak authentication,Scott’s access changes toinsecure. • Aura denies voice access tosensitive email application. • Scott has multi-modal control ofPowerPoint application. • Aura logs Scott out when heleaves the room.

17. Other Scenarios of Ubiquitous Computing • Buy drinks by Friday (1) • Take out the last can of soda • Swipe the can’s UPC label, which adds soda to your shopping list • Make a note that you need soda for the guests you are having over this weekend

18. Other Scenarios • Buy drinks by Friday (2) • Approach a local supermarket • AutoPC informs you that you are near a supermarket • Opportunistic reminder: “If it is convenient, stop by to buy drinks.”

19. Other Scenarios • Buy drinks by Friday (3) • Friday rolls around and you have not bought drinks • Deadline-based reminder sent to your pager

20. Other Scenarios • Screen Fridge • Provides: • Email • Video messages • Web surfing • Food management • TV • Radio • Virtual keyboard • Digital cook book • Surveillance camera

21. Other Scenarios • The Active Badge • This harbinger of inch-scale computers contains a small microprocessor and an infrared transmitter. • The badge broadcasts the identity of its wearer and so can trigger automatic doors, automatic telephone forwarding and computer displays customized to each person reading them. • The active badge and other networked tiny computers are called tabs.

22. Other Scenarios • The Active Badge

23. Other Scenarios • Edible computers: The pill-cam • Miniature camera • Diagnostic device • It is swallowed • Try this with an ENIAC computer!

24. Other Scenarios • Artificial Retina • Direct interface with nervous system • Whole new computational paradigm (who’s the computer?)

25. Other Scenarios • Smart Dust • Nano computers that couple: • Sensors • Computing • Communication • Grids of motes (“nano computers”)

26. Questions???

27. Assignment#3 • Write a detailed note on Project Aura highlighting each area of the project as described on the following page: • http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aura/research-thrusts.html