Disappearing hardware [ubiquitous computing]

In M. Weiser's (ibid., pp. 19-25) vision of ubiquitous computing, computers will disappear from conscious thought. From a hardware perspective, the authors examine how far we've succeeded in implementing this vision and how far we have to go.     

The human experience [of ubiquitous computing]

To address M. Weiser's (ibid., p. 19-25) human-centered vision of ubiquitous computing, the authors focus on physical interaction, general application features and theories of design and evaluation for this new mode of human-computer interaction.     

Recipes for digital living [ubiquitous computing in consumer electronics]

As networked devices become increasingly ubiquitous, the potential benefits to users increase exponentially. However, this potential can't be fully realized if it is entirely up to developers and manufacturers to expose the combined functionality buried in the expanding network. Recipes for digital living - created and modified by users themselves - offer an easy-to-understand, logically consistent way to capture and share the various ensembles possible in the expanding world of networked components.     

Wearable and ubiquitous computing

Describes a course on wearable and ubiquitous computing. It has been taught twice at Virginia Tech. The article describes the course's scope, assignments and grading, and design projects.     

System software for ubiquitous computing

The authors identify two key characteristics of ubiquitous computing systems: physical integration and spontaneous interoperation. They examine how these properties affect the design of ubiquitous computing software and discuss future directions.     

Discovery systems in ubiquitous computing

Ubiquitous computing introduces unique requirements for discovery technologies, which let services and devices become aware of each other without explicit human administration. Discovery lets services and devices spontaneously become aware of the availability and capability of peers on the network without explicit administration. In practice, this means that a client can discover and potentially use a device without prior knowledge of it. Although discovery is a necessary component of ubiquitous computing, the wide range of discovery systems in use today reflects the varied needs of the communities from which they originated. Some of these features are appropriate for ubiquitous computing, but others require further research and development.     

Design patterns for ubiquitous computing

Design patterns offer a solution to the difficult problem of reusing prior design knowledge. We propose that such patterns also offer an effective way to communicate solutions to ubiquitous computing design problems. Some of the ubicomp design patterns include context-sensitive I/O, physical-virtual associations, global data, proxies for devices, follow-me display, appropriate levels of attention, and anticipation. Design patterns range in scale from a city to a room and, together, form a pattern language that designers can adapt to a project's particular level of complexity or detail.     

Acoustic modems for ubiquitous computing

Considers how sound offers features not available with other short-range, low bandwidth communication technologies, such as radio and infrared, enabling communication among small computing devices and humans in a ubiquitous computing environment.     

Location systems for ubiquitous computing

This survey and taxonomy of location systems for mobile-computing applications describes a spectrum of current products and explores the latest in the field. To make sense of this domain, we have developed a taxonomy to help developers of location-aware applications better evaluate their options when choosing a location-sensing system. The taxonomy may also aid researchers in identifying opportunities for new location-sensing techniques     

Decision making [human-centered computing]

Computers, including intelligent systems, assist human decision making in many ways. Expert systems can be considered decision aids, as can systems that use statistical methods to assist in diagnostic procedures. Decision aids can provide information involved in deciding or information pertinent to evaluating states of the world. To support these situation assessment and monitoring activities, computers can integrate and display information and assist in replanning. We sharpen the focus for new and potentially useful applications of intelligent systems technologies.     

Context-aware trails [mobile computing]

The emergence of converged mobile devices with a wide range of computing, communications, entertainment, and sensing capabilities represents a major step in the evolution of wireless computing. Such devices increasingly shift the decision-making power from the user to the machine, which has the capacity to be better informed about the current environment and can respond more quickly. A trail is a collection of locations, together with associated information about these locations and a recommended order for visiting them. Mobile, context-aware trails-based applications range from single-user systems that focus on individual daily activities to multimedia groupware that supports a wide collection of user requirements. The trails metaphor makes it possible to explore adaptive characteristics common to all mobile, context-aware applications. Adaptation in this context involves altering the set of interest points on a trail and their visiting order with timeliness, accuracy, and relevance while remaining in tune with user expectations.     

Anecdotes [history of computing]

The University of Houston had an IBM 1401 computer (introduced in 1959). It had 4 Kbytes of memory and could be expanded by an additional 4 Kbytes. The base programming language for this IBM 1401 computer was Autocoder, a simple computer language. If we wanted to compile a Cobol program, however, the university had to send your Cobol card deck out of town to Texas A&M to have it compiled there because the University of Houston did not have a Cobol compiler. A small program, say one page in length (50 or so IBM punch cards, that is Hollerith cards), would take approximately an hour to compile. An SDS 9300 (Scientific Data Systems later became XDS, Xerox Data Systems) system only had tape reels for I/O, a card reader to start up and give directions to the computer, and a large line printer that was so fast it could make two and three pages of tractor-fed computer paper come out standing straight up in the air when it was printing one whole line at a time, hit after hit. That SDS 9300 had no keyboard and no video screen, only a large 3- by 4-foot flat metal face panel.     

普适计算的安全检测模型

普适计算自20世纪90年代提出以来,已经成为极具活力和影响力的研究领域之一,它的安全性问题更是受到了研究人员极大的关注.首先概括介绍了普适计算安全检测领域常用的几种方法和模型,以及它们存在的问题和不足之处;然后提出了一种新的综合检测模型,并详细阐述了它的实现方法和特点.     

Access control management for ubiquitous computing

The purpose of ubiquitous computing is anywhere and anytime access to information within computing infrastructures that is blended into a background and no longer be reminded. This ubiquitous computing poses new security challenges while the information can be accessed at anywhere and anytime because it may be applied by criminal users. Additionally, the information may contain private information that cannot be shared by all user communities. Several approaches are developed to protect information for pervasive environments against malicious users. However, ad hoc mechanisms or protocols are typically added in the approaches by compromising disorganized policies or additional components to protect from unauthorized access.In this paper, we present a usage control model to protect services and devices in ubiquitous computing environments, which allows the access restrictions directly on services and object documents. The model not only supports complex constraints for pervasive computing, such as services, devices and data types but also provides a mechanism to build rich reuse relationships between models and objects. Finally, comparisons with related works are analysed.     

Context-awareness in wearable and ubiquitous computing

A common focus shared by researchers in mobile, ubiquitous and wearable computing is the attempt to break away from the traditional desktop computing paradigm. Computational services need to become as mobile as their users. Whether that service mobility is achieved by equipping the user with computational power or by instrumenting the environment, all services need to be extended to take advantage of the constantly changing context in which they are accessed. This paper will report on work carried out by the Future Computing Environments Group at Georgia Tech to provide infrastructure for context-aware computing. We will describe some of the fundamental issues involved in contextaware computing, solutions we have generated to provide a flexible infrastructure and several applications that take advantage of context awareness to allow freedom from traditional desktop computing.     

Location-based services in ubiquitous computing environments

This paper presents a framework for providing dynamically deployable services in ubiquitous computing settings. The goal of the framework is to provide people, places, and objects with computational functionalities to support and annotate them. Using RFID-based tracking systems, the framework detects the locations of physical entities, such as people or things, and deploys services bound to the entities at proper computing devices near where they are located. It enables location-based and personalized information services to be implemented as mobile agents and operated at stationary or mobile computing devices, which are at appropriate locations, even if the services do not have any location-information. This paper presents the rationale, design, implementation, and applications of our prototype infrastructure.     

On location models for ubiquitous computing

Common queries regarding information processing in ubiquitous computing are based on the location of physical objects. No matter whether it is the next printer, next restaurant, or a friend is searched for, a notion of distances between objects is required. A search for all objects in a certain geographic area requires the possibility to define spatial ranges and spatial inclusion of locations. In this paper, we discuss general properties of symbolic and geometric coordinates. Based on that, we present an overview of existing location models allowing for position, range, and nearest neighbor queries. The location models are classified according to their suitability with respect to the query processing and the involved modeling effort along with other requirements. Besides an overview of existing location models and approaches, the classification of location models with respect to application requirements can assist developers in their design decisions.     

Let play monopoly [computing industry]

Many people in the computing industry worry about nuances in antitrust policy, though no one will ever admit it. More precisely, no one recognizes that antitrust issues in computing go by another name. This is the topic of a fascinating study now posted on the Federal Trade Commission Web pages. Last year, a team of FTC staff wrote a report titled “Anticipating the 21st Century: Competition Policy in the New High-Tech Global Marketplace.” This report says much about the thinking of the brain trust inside the FTC. It is especially intriguing for what it signals about future federal policy for the Microsoft problem