203CR Freestyle Blog: Ubiquitous Computing Research

Ubiquitous Computing, Ubi Comp, or pervasive computing is set to be the “third wave” in computing (Weiser, 1996) and is best defined as “invisible, everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any sort but is in the woodwork everywhere” (Weiser 1996). Ubiquitous computing attempts to build technologies that blur the boundaries between users experience with computing and the world by becoming integrated into the environment. There are many branches of ubiquitous computing research, examples are mobile computing and intelligent environments.
Ubiquitous computing is revered because of its apparent ability to evolve and develop business, learning, entertainment and home environments by embedding intelligent technologies that interact with us disguised within the world we live in (Roussos et al, 2003). The vision of vast amounts of ubiquitous smart technology is not farfetched either. With the advent of a time where microprocessors are becoming incredibly small, less expensive, and more easily adaptable into everyday objects and environments, it is obvious that soon pervasive computing will omnipresent be it in our clothes, tools, home appliances, office peripherals, walls, fixtures and floors. Wireless technology has proved to be the biggest enabler for these devices to expand. This huge leap in communication technology has provided pervasive computing with the new ability to communicate with an unlimited amount of intelligent devices, or services over the internet.

With this new technology new user interfaces will be formed, using multi-modal input methods such as speech recognition or gesture recognition interactions, this will further blend the technology into the environment, making them seamlessly accessible to all in well developed countries.

There are many research papers regarding the application and development of pervasive computing in existing environments, for example the “Aware Home” (Kidd, 1999), the “Smart Home” (Park, 2003), the “Intelligent Room” (Coen, 1998), and the “Smart Classroom” (Jiang et al, 2001). Jiang describes a smart classroom that enables students to remotely participate in lectures as well as recording the lecturer’s verbal teachings. The “Smart Home” seeks to device intelligent home appliances that provide “the good life” (Park et al, 2003). Patterson proposed smart technologies in health care to attempt to aid Alzheimer’s patients by reminding them to perform daily tasks and activities and guiding them from location to location. “Intelligent paper” is another device pervasive device that works just like real paper. Cyberguide is a guide book that knows where you are (Abowd, 1997). Park discusses the Smart Pen that stores phrases and finds definitions as well as the “Smart Pillow” that calms you into sleep by reading to you, and can turn off the light!
Constraints for ubiquitous computing are complex, and apply to government, the individual and business when implementing techniques to produce pervasive computing. The perceived threats of information overload, and the political, legal and social ramifications of this increased concern with privacy, has been brought about by this development in technology. Smart processers within objects and environments have got to the stage whereby they are making decisions that affect our lives. (Langheinrich 2003, Boyd 2002). Users will inevitably end up interacting constantly with systems in their playing, working, and sleeping lives (Langheinrich, 2003). At work for example your software may inform you of your highest priority task on the agenda, however currently it is likely that it will not immediately contact your supervisor if you choose to begin another less important task. In a flash these boundaries in which computers have previously been set, will be smashed and the effect could well change our entire lives. Will your fridge be linked up to your local supermarket and automatically order you new milk and eggs should you get low? Would you appreciate this “life enhancement”? Or do you think one day it will render our own minds inept? Langheinrich (2003) discusses the issue that is brought about by the invisibility of the technology that blurs the border between interaction and surveillance. There are many implications of living in a world where every action can be stored away and later retrieved and viewed as evidence. Langheinrich proposes the following principles to guide the introduction of increased amounts of ubiquitous computing: providing notice about data and its use, providing choice and obtaining consent from users, allowing anonymity or pseudonymity and only saving data where the user gives explicit consent and is witness.
Keeping security paramount in ubiquitous computing is fundamentally flawed due to the nature of the communications technology and the heavy power consumption of wireless devices. Langheinrich says that data and information sent via “airwaves” is inherently at risk so robust and complex security measures would have to be introduced to protect sensitive data.
Bohn et al (2003) identify problems with predicting the implications on our lives of extensive embedded technologies in objects and environments, and brings up the issue of failed deliverables when proposed concepts of ubiquitous computing acts in the opposite way against us, and doesn’t simplify our lives, instead it makes them more complex, increasing time that has to be allocated towards what used to be a simple and intuitive process. The perceived loss of control and mediation over the environments in which we live in is an important factor in the user’s proliferation of embedded technologies (Bohn et al, 2003). There is also a risk of inventing a new divide in today’s society, between people who have the ability to access the new information highways and people who do not (Bohn et al, 2003).
With increased further development of pervasive computing technologies newly conceived affordances, devices and services will evolve out of the existing mobile devices we currently use and into a whole new level of ubiquitous design. Environments will be altered with the ability to become adaptable to incorporating new senses of stimulus measurement upon the environments inhabitants. Environments will transform harnessing the ability to sense, learn and adapt to the changing stimulus from the user (Park, 2003).

Smart devices that have advanced due to increases in processing power, network connectivity technology, and memory resources, will be able to adapt to the environment and provide new services as well as services they were already designed for. One example of this could be a fridge that adjusts its temperatures accordingly to different food storage, aswell as storing your food, or a fridge that can tell you when asked who took a certain item from the fridge last (Lundberg et al, 2002).
The proliferation of ubiquitous computing technologies in electronic commerce and business expects to expand as the strategic pro’s of implementation become more attainable and tangible to smaller business users. As the world becomes more educated about pervasive ubiquitous computing, the level of expertise required to design and implement it will reduce as it will become general knowledge. This will lower development costs of introducing ubiquitous computing into e-business, making it more accessible to a wider degree of business owners.


The main factor limiting the advancement of mobile and portable devices still appears to be the lack of research and need for further applied testing into adequate communication systems and software infrastructure to facilitate the ubiquitous computing wave we have all come to expect.