Ubiquitous/Pervasive Computing

The Internet of Things probably already influences your life. And if it doesn’t, it soon will, say computer scientists; 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. Alan Kay of Apple calls this "Third Paradigm" computing.

        Ubiquitous computing is essentially the term for human interaction with computers in virtually everything.

        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.

        The 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. The initial incarnation of ubiquitous computing was in the form of "tabs", "pads", and "boards" built at Xerox PARC, 1988-1994. Several papers describe this work, and there are web pages for the Tabs and for the Boards (which are a commercial product now):

        Ubiquitous computing will drastically reduce the cost of digital devices and tasks for the average consumer. With labor-intensive components such as processors and hard drives stored in the remote data centers powering the cloud , and with pooled resources giving individual consumers the benefits of economies of scale, monthly fees similar to a cable bill for services that feed into a consumer’s phone

Definitions

        Ubiquitous computing is the method of enhancing computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user

– Mark Weiser

        Ubiquitous computing, or calm technology, is a paradigm shift where technology becomes virtually invisible in our lives.

-- Marcia Riley

        Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities.

        This paradigm is also described as pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, or, more recently, everywhere,] where each term emphasizes slightly different aspects. When primarily concerning the objects involved, it is also physical computing, the Internet of Things, hap tic computing, and things that think. Rather than propose a single definition for ubiquitous computing and for these related terms, taxonomy of properties for ubiquitous computing has been proposed, from which different kinds or flavors of ubiquitous systems and applications can be described.

Index Terms- Calm technology: embedded, invisible, seamlessly, unobtrusive, intelligent., Human-computer interaction; Internet of Things

                                                                                                                                                  I.     Three Waves of Computing

Mainframe computing (60’s-70)

– Massive computers to execute big data processing applications

– Very few computers in the world

● Desktop computing (80’s-90)

– One computer at every desk to help in business related activities

– Computers connected in intranets to a massive global network

(Internet), all wired

● Ubiquitous computing (00’s?)

– Tens/hundreds of computing devices in every room/person, becoming

   “Invisible” and part of the environment

• Tangible interface).

Core concepts

        At their core, all models of ubiquitous computing share a vision of small, inexpensive, robust networked processing devices, distributed at all scales throughout everyday life and generally turned to distinctly common-place ends. For example, a domestic ubiquitous computing environment might interconnect lighting and environmental controls with personal biometric monitors woven into clothing so that illumination and heating conditions in a room might be modulated, continuously and imperceptibly. Another common scenario posits refrigerators "aware" of their suitably tagged contents, able to both plan a variety of menus from the food actually on hand, and warn users of stale or spoiled food.

        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 and inadequate to the ubiquitous case. This suggests that the "natural" interaction paradigm appropriate to a fully robust ubiquitous computing has yet to emerge - although there is also recognition in the field that in many ways we are already living in an ubicomp world. Contemporary devices that lend some support to this latter idea include mobile phones, digital audio players, radio-frequency identification tags, GPS, and interactive whiteboards.

        Mark Weiser proposed three basic forms for ubiquitous system devices, see also Smart device: tabs, pads and boards.

• Tabs: wearable centimeter sized devices
• Pads: hand-held decimeter-sized devices

Boards: meter sized interactive display devices.

        These three forms proposed by Weiser are characterized by being macro-sized, having a planar form and on incorporating visual output displays. If we relax each of these three characteristics we can expand this range into a much more diverse and potentially more useful range of Ubiquitous Computing devices. Hence, three additional forms for ubiquitous systems have been proposed:

• Dust: miniaturized devices can be without visual output displays, e.g., Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), ranging from nanometers through micrometers to millimeters. See also Smart dust.
• Skin: fabrics based upon light emitting and conductive polymers, organic computer devices, can be formed into more flexible non-planar display surfaces and products such as clothes and curtains, see OLED display. MEMS device can also be painted onto various surfaces so that a variety of physical world structures can act as networked surfaces of MEMS.
• Clay: ensembles of MEMS can be formed into arbitrary three dimensional shapes as artifacts resembling many different kinds of physical object (see also Tangible interface).

What Ubiquitous Computing Isn't

?      A Mobile Computer – even if you have access to “everything” you do it through only one access point.

?      Multimedia Computing – while it may employ sound and video it should fade into the background rather than demand the focus of your attention.

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.

       related fields

?      Sensor networks

?      Human-computer interaction

?      Artificial intelligence

?      Sensor Networks

?      A sensor network consist of a large number of tiny autonomous computing devices, each equipped with sensors, a wireless radio, a processor, and a power source.

?      Sensor networks are envisioned to be deployed unobtrusively in the physical environment to monitor a wide range of environmental phenomena

?      e.g., environmental pollutions, seismic activity, wildlife

?      Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

?      HCI is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers.

?      Goal of HCI: to improve the interaction between users and computers by making computers more user-friendly and receptive to the user's needs.

?      Long term goal of HCI: to design systems that minimize the barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's task.

?      Artificial Intelligence

?      AI can be defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial (non-natural, manufactured) entity.

?      AI is studied in overlapping fields of computer science, psychology and engineering, dealing with intelligent behavior, learning and adaptation in machines, generally assumed to be computers.

?      Research in AI is concerned with producing machines to automate tasks requiring intelligent behavior.

        In the Ubiquitous learning campus atmosphere Individualized Learning Environment can also be supported using RFID enabled learning where in RFID tagged Labs, Library etc enable the learner with awareness as well as elaborate learning in that specific area. RFID enabled monuments in any location help in acquiring detailed knowledge pertaining to them. Similarly for a science student with a specialization in botanical sciences

Ubiquitous Computing: The Basics

        Ubiquitous computing (often abbreviated to “ubicomp”) refers to a new Genre of computing in which the computer completely permeates the life of The user. In ubiquitous computing, computers become a helpful but invisible Force, assisting the user in meeting his or her needs without getting in the way.

Nanotechnology and Wireless Technology

        If computers are to be everywhere, unobtrusive, and truly helpful, they Must be as small as possible and capable of communicating between them. Technological movements supporting these goals are already well underway under the rubrics nanotechnology and wireless computing.

Nanotechnology

        The trend toward miniaturization of computer components down to an Atomic scale is known as nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves building highly miniaturized computers from individual atoms or molecules acting as transistors, which is the heart of the computer chip. The number of Transistors in a chip is indicative of its power. Therefore, nanotechnologies Extreme miniaturization of transistors allows for impressive levels of computing Power to be put into tiny packages, which can then be unobtrusively tucked away.

Wireless Computing

        Wireless computing refers to the use of wireless technology to connect Computers to a network. Wireless computing is so attractive because it Allows workers to escape the tether of a network cable and access network And communication services from anywhere within reach of a wireless network. Wireless computing has attracted enormous market interest, as witnessed

By consumer demand for wireless home networks, which can be purchased For several hundred dollars. The second author has a three-computer  Wireless network in his home.

Context-Awareness and Natural Interaction

        Small computers that communicate wirelessly provide a necessary infrastructure For ubiquitous computing. However, infrastructure is only half of The battle. As noted above, the ubiquitous computing movement aims to Make computers more helpful and easier to use. Indeed, computers should Be able to accurately anticipate the user’s needs and accommodate his or her Natural communication modes and styles. These themes are captured with- In the ubiquitous computing movement’s focus on context-aware computing And natural interaction.

Context-Awareness

        The promise of context-awareness is that computers will be able to Understand enough of a user’s current situation to offer services, resources, Or information relevant to the particular context. The attributes of context to A particular situation vary widely, and may include the user’s location, current Role (mother, daughter, office manager, soccer coach, etc.), past activity, And affective state. Beyond the user, context may include the current date Of context may include any combination of these elements. For example, a Context-aware map might use the information that the user is away from Home, has no appointments, and that the time is 6:00 in the evening to determine And time, and other objects and people in the environment. The application That the user could soon be interested in dinner. It would then prepare To offer the user guidance to nearby restaurants should he or she make such A request.

Natural Interaction

        Currently, using the computer is part of the task we are attempting to Accomplish—something else to focus on, learn, or do in order to accomplish A goal. The idea behind natural interaction is for the computer to supply Services, resources, or information to a user without the user having to think About the rules of how to use the computer to get them. In this way, the user Is not preoccupied with the dual tasks of using the computer and getting the Services, resources, or information. Donald Norman, a well-known Researcher in human–computer interaction, once said that he doesn’t want a Word processor; he wants a letter writer—something that will allow him to Get the job done of writing a letter, without the instrument getting in the way.

The Promise of Ubiquitous Computing in the Workplace

        The elements of ubiquitous computing—nanotechnology, wireless computing, Context-awareness, and natural interaction—offer a powerful set of Tools to achieve the promise of ubiquitous computing. To provide a better Sense of what this future holds, let’s take a look at how ubiquitous computing Might play out in the workplace.

Concerns

        The power ubiquitous computing promises carry with it significant Risks. One such risk is associated with the amount of privacy that must be Sacrificed to see the benefits of truly helpful computers. Another is that Early, “bleeding edge” applications of ubiquitous computing will turn out to Be more ambitious than effective, leading some to prematurely conclude that The idea is a failure. We address each of these concerns below.

Privacy Issues

Simply put, the more software tracks users, the more opportunities exist To trample on their right to privacy. To some degree, these issues are already Being argued in the contexts of corporate e-mail snooping and the use of IT Software that can track user activity down to the level of individual keystrokes. However, factoring in the idea of software that can track and act

Upon a user’s physical presence and form of activity leads to privacy concerns Of a magnitude beyond those currently debated. The privacy implications Of ubiquitous computing implementations must always be accorded the Most careful consideration. Without powerful standards surrounding user Privacy, the future world of ubiquitous computing may very well shift from One of ease and convenience to one where each of us has an inescapable Sense of being watched, at best, and no control over our personal information, At worst. Such prospects are clearly far from desirable.

Growing Pains

        Systems that can act as subtly as those described will not come without A substantial developer learning curve. As system developers learn from Their mistakes, there will undoubtedly be at least one premature declaration That truly ubiquitous

computing is an impractical ideal and that the interim Efforts are too riddled with problems to be usable. We cannot guarantee that

Ubiquitous computing will fulfill its promise. However, we would argue that It ought to do so, based on the strong trend we have observed toward more Powerful, more usable software. The first author recalls a word processor From about 1984 that required the manual entry of printer codes for boldface And italic fonts. Advanced ideas like templates and styles—and, come to

Think of it, tables—were far from consideration as features. Modern word Processors are very powerful, flexible, and easy to use compared to anything That has come before. Usability is definitely a recognized goal in software Design, and much has been learned to make new software—even unique, New applications—very easy to use. It should only get better.

The transition to ubiquitous computing

        Obviously, in a world where one still encounters the occasional landline phone, fax machine and pager, simply having the technology to enable ubiquitous computing does not automatically result in its universal adoption. Over the next year or so, a number of other advances will serve as benchmarks for the spread of the ubiquitous computing revolution.

        "A thing to look for is when your healthcare data goes into the cloud. That will be kind of a watershed moment. And in another year or two, when cars start communicating with each other," Patterson said.

        Similarly, just as the Kindle constantly communicates with the Amazon cloud to preserve what page readers last read across all the Kindle platforms, so too will all mobile devices start communicating with the cloud, without the user realizing it, to sync up data across different media, said Brown.

        Bit by bit, over the coming months, twenty years worth of laboratory research and industry development will filter out of the hands of scientists and into the pockets of general consumers, filling out the final gaps in the transformation of computing. Soon, a digital device tied to one spot, designed for multiple uses, with a limiting interface, will seem as archaic as a computer without internet connectivity does today.

        Your computer is disappearing. And when it goes, you won’t even notice it's gone. "It's the opposite of less is more? Ubiquitous computing is more is less," Buxton said.

        "Computing in the right place, in the right form, means less technology in between the user and the task they want to accomplish."

Final Thoughts

        The promise of ubiquitous computing is of a life in which our endeavors are powerfully, though subtly, assisted by computers. The idealistic visions painted by the ubiquitous computing movement stand in stark contrast to what we see when we boot up our computers each day. There is an immediate barrier because you have to know how to use a computer to use a com-50 April 2002 Volume 39 Number 4

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist 51 Putter. If you sat down in front of a computer without knowing how to use a mouse, would you be able to get anything done? It’s unlikely. The computer won’t help you, either, since you have to know how to use the computer to ask it for help on how to use it! When computers do offer assistance, it still tends to fall short of the mark. Much application software tries to cater to new users and power users alike by offering simple, task-focused “wizards” and detailed help systems. Unfortunately, the wizards are often too limited to offer sufficient power for day-to-day use, and the help systems often don’t cope well with the many ways in which a user can express a need for a given piece of information. The next step, of course, is to go down to the local bookstore and buy a book that is four inches thick and weighs five pounds and that promises to give straightforward instruction on how to use the program in question. Most of us get by just fine on the tasks we are well-used to performing. However, there should be an easier route.

        We are still a long way away from seeing the promise of ubiquitous computing fulfilled.  Yet, physical barriers to ubiquitous computing are falling, thanks to technological advances such as nanotechnology and wireless computing. Further, as we have argued, software is getting easier to use all the time. As the themes of context-awareness and natural interaction are adopted by hardware and software makers, we will begin to see successive approximations of ubiquitous computing. There are many issues to resolve and a steep learning curve to face as we consider this close integration of computers into our lives. As I-O psychologists, we will benefit ourselves and our field by carefully examining the promises and implications that ubiquitous computing holds for us, and then adapting our products, services, and policies appropriately.

Conclusion

        "[Ubiquitous computing] is a world where computers are all around us, but we don’t realize they're there. It's a conceptual jump," said Donald Patterson, director of the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction at the University of California, Irvine. "You'll know you’ll have your phone with you, and you’ll know you'll be in your car, but you won't think about all the different computers that make those things work. To you, it just feels like you're using your phone or driving your car. If ubiquitous computing is successful, you won’t even realize its happening."

        With digital devices unobtrusively distributed all around us — and empowered with as much computing muscle as possible — ubiquitous computing also allows for data collection on an unprecedented scale.

        Additionally, ubiquitous computing will drastically reduce the cost of digital devices and tasks for the average consumer. With labor-intensive components such as processors and hard drives stored in the remote data centers powering the cloud , and with pooled resources giving individual consumers the benefits of economies of scale, monthly fees similar to a cable bill for services that feed into a consumer’s phone, television and car will replace expensive electronics purchases. Basically, all the consumer needs to purchase upfront is screens of the size they want, be it travel–sized like a tablet, or movie-screen sized like a TV, Patterson told TechNewsDaily.

Ref:-

https://independent.academia.edu/mousaassem/Analytics/activity/overview

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Assem_Mousa/stats

https://www.slideshare.net/assemam