Ubiquitous Computing

Introduction & Definition

Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.

Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world, ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people. Virtual reality is primarily a horse power problem; ubiquitous computing is a very difficult integration of human factors, computer science, engineering, and social sciences. 

In Ubiquitous computing 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 are doing so.

History of research

            Mark Weiser introduced the phrase ‘ubiquitous computing’ in 1988 during his tenure as chief technologist of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He wrote some early papers on the subject to define and give more information on the subject with the inportant concerns regarding the subject.

            Some more contribution to the field was also given by MIT at media labs in form of consortium by Hiroshi Ishii. Also Georgia Tech's College of Computing, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, Microsoft Research, Intel Research and Equator, Ajou University UCRi & CUS were some of the contributions.

Concept of ubiquitous computing

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 for the ubiquitous case, natural interaction paradigm will be needed for interaction.

Three forms of ubiquitous system devices are

1.      Dust

2.      Skin

3.      Clay

1. Dust – Dust are tiny devices without visual display. They are autonomous sensing and communication devices in cubic millimetre.

E.g.- Sensors for temperature, humidity, light, motion, in product monitoring, car monitoring, etc.

2. Skin – Skin are the fabrics made of light emitting and conductive polymers. They can be grouped to form flexible display surfaces like on cloths.

E.g.- OLED displays.

3. Clay – Ensembles of “Dust” systems formed into arbitrary 3D shapes resembling many physical objects. 

Advantages

• Facilitating human-computer interaction
• Advancement from the desktop paradigm
• Small, inexpensive, robust networked processing devices
• Integrated into everyday objects and activities
• Context awareness.

Applications

1. Natalie Jeremijenko's "Live Wire" - For indication of traffic.
2. Ambient Devices' orb - For receiving data from a wireless network and report current events, such as stock prices and the weather 

Location based services

Location based services definition

Today in the age of telecommunication the mobile network operators innovate ways to create differentiation. One such innovation is delivering services which are highly personalized. The services are mostly location based. These are also called as Location based services.

So the Location based services are the services which are of entertainment and information nature which can be accessible with the mobile devices through the mobile network using the geographical position of mobile device.

Location is a strategic asset of wireless carriers. Leveraging this information enables the user to experience value-added services and the mobile network operator to offer differentiation and incremental profitability

Technology used

Location based services use the following technologies

•           Global positioning systems. (GPS) – this is used for positioning the user globally with the help of satellites.

•          Network based positioning systems – for triangulation of the signal from cell sites serving a mobile phone.

•          Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – It  provide the tools to provision and administer base map data such as manmade structures (streets, buildings) and terrain (mountains, rivers). GIS is also used to manage point-of-interest data such as location of gas stations, restaurants etc. Finally, GIS information also includes information about the radio frequency characteristics of the mobile network. This allows the system to determine the serving cell site of the user.

•          Location Management Function - The location management function acts as a gateway and mediator between positioning equipment and LBS infrastructure. location management function processes positioning and GIS data on behalf of LBS applications.

Mobile locating methods

There are following locating methods

•          Control plane locating – here the control plane service provider gets location based on radio signal delay of the closest cell phone tower. But this method is time consuming as it uses voice controlled channel.

•          GSM localization – here the mobile is located in relation with the cell site. This method rely on various means of multilateration of the signal from cell sites serving the mobile phone.

Location based services applications

·     Requesting the business service like ATM

·         Navigation of drivers

·         Advertising

·         Receiving alerts

·         Tracking.

Privacy issues – 

With the network so wide spread and the messaging ability combined with the locating power the privacy issues are of high concern. IT acts is enforced in many countries like US and Europe which prohibits the spammers also other people using the network for their own benefit.