Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing

(CoSc 6304)
 Introduction
Computing: Trend
Size

Number
One Computer for Many One Computer for Many Computer for One
People One Person Person
(Mainframe Computing) (PC Computing) (Pervasive Computing)
 Computing: Evolution


Mobile

Centralized Pervasive
Computing
Distributed
Computing
 Computing Computing

Remote Communication Mobile Networks Context Awareness

Fault Tolerance & availability Mobile Information Access Ad-hoc Networks
Remote Information Access Adaptive Applications Smart Sensors & Devices

Research Problems   

There are different flavors of Computing.

Evolution depending on, who is looking at it and
the viewing angle.
 Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing
One of the recent trends in the field of IT.
Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing –
Omni Present/Universally present/Constantly
encountered/Constantly widespread/Constantly
everywhere.
Computing is Embedded Everywhere in the Environment.
i.e. Computing and Processing is embedded in every devices,
that are invisible, have computing and communication
facility with sensing capability to environment.
Actually, we are going to make, all the objects, that you
see, as Computing Device.
 Pervasive Computing: Components
There are mainly 3 components of pervasive/ubiquitous computing:

i.) Micro-processor
ii) Embedded System, and
iii) Wireless Communication
1. Micro-processor is a heart of computer, that process information,
that are fetched as input and have less memory space.
2. Embedded System- can be defined as concept, by which
computing devices are hidden from human vision, and
3. Microprocessor in embedded system accessed the information
using wireless devices i.e. Wireless Communication.
So, the term Pervasive Computing can be defined as
“ the process of embedding the microprocessor, upon all the objects ,
that can be accessed using wireless communication, so that, we are
able to achieve an omni-present computing environment.
 Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing
: Dictionary Meaning
Pervasive Ubiquitous
EXISTING-IN EXISTING
Existing-in or SPREADING Being EVERY-WHERE at the
through every part of Something same time or Constantly
(SOME-WHERE) encountered (EVERY-WHERE)
To DIFFUSE throughout To EVERY-WHERE

But, you can add qualifying prepositional clause, then the difference go away, like

“This technology is pervasive AMOUNG young generation”, and

“This technology is ubiquitous IN young generation”
Both are same

When Something is pervasive, it is like – Invading/Saturating

When Something is ubiquitous, it is like – Everywhere
 Pervasive Computing: Vision
Mark Weiser (1952–1999), XEROX PARC,
Computers in the 21 century, Scientific American, 1991.

“In the 21st century the technology revolution will move

into the everyday, the small and the invisible…
“We have to create an environment, that is saturated with
computing and communication capabilities, and yet
gracefully integrated with human user”

…The most profound technologies are those that

disappear. They weave themselves into the
fabrics of everyday life until they are
indistinguishable from it.”
Pervasive Computing: What is it about
According to Mark Weiser

Pervasive computing is about, the invisible and

everywhere (every time) computing
 Invisible: tiny, embedded, attachable…
 Everywhere: wireless, dynamically configurable, remote
access, adapting, …

It is about making computers so embedded, so

fitting, so natural, so that we use them even without
noticing their presence and without thinking about
them.
Principles of Pervasive Computing
During one of his talks, Weiser outlined a set of principles
describing pervasive computing (also called ubiquitous
computing):
 The purpose of a computer is to help you do, something
else.
 The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant.
 The more you can do by intuition, the smarter you are;
the computer should extend your unconscious.
 Technology should create calm.
Calm technology
 “A technology which informs but doesn't demand our
focus or attention”. (Designing Calm Technology, Weiser and
John Seeley Brown)
 Pervasive Computing: Definitions
I. Pervasive computing refers to the use of computers in everyday life,
including PDAs, smart phones and other mobile devices. It also refers
to computers, contained in common-place objects, such as cars and
appliances and implies that people are unaware of their presence.

II. Pervasive computing is a paradigm shift, where technology becomes

virtually invisible in our lives. Instead of having a desk-top or lap-top
machine, the technology we use, will be embedded in our
environment.

III. Pervasive computing is the trend, towards increasingly connected

computing devices in the environment, that is being brought by a
convergence of advanced electronics, wireless technologies and the
Internet.
…….
 Pervasive Computing: Why now?
Computing devices are becoming very tiny, sometimes
invisible, either mobile or embedded and exist in almost
any type of object imaginable.

Computing environment is becoming full of the

increasingly ubiquitous and interconnected computing
devices

Enhanced by a convergence of:

 Advanced electronics (Moore’s low),
 Wireless technologies,
 And the Internet.
Pervasive Computing: Alternative Names

Alternative names:
• Ubiquitous Computing
• Ambient Computing
• Intelligent Computing
• Invisible Computing
• Proactive computing
• Autonomic computing
Pervasive Computing: Environment
 Pervasive Computing: Environment
Hospital Driving Office

Meeting Teaching

Devices ….. Services

Smart Phone, Car kits, Phone Call, Email, Message,
Wearable, PDAs, … News alert, …
The most precious resource in a computer system is no longer its
processor, memory, disk, or network, but rather human attention.
The aim in Pervasive computing is, therefore:
 minimizing distractions on users’ attention, and
 creating environment that adapts to the user’s context and needs.
 Mobile and Pervasive Computing

Overlap of Mobile and Pervasive Computing with other Fields (by M. Satyanarayanan)
 Mobile Computing
Mobile computing resulted from:
 the appearance of laptop computers and wireless LANs in early 1990s
led to a research for building a distributed system with mobile clients.

Mobile computing is characterized by:

 mobile networking (mobile IP, ad hoc protocols, …)
 mobile information access (disconnected operation, bandwidth-
adaptive file access, …)
 adaptive applications
 energy saving (energy-aware adaptation, variable-speed processor
scheduling, energy-sensitive memory management, …).
 location sensitivity (location sensing, location-aware system, …).
 Mobile Computing …
• Portability - The Ability to move a device within a learning environment or to
different environments with ease.
• Social Interactivity - The ability to share data and collaboration between users.
• Context Sensitivity - The ability to gather and respond to real or simulated data
i.e. unique to a current location, environment, or time.
• Connectivity - The ability to be digitally connected for the purpose of
communication of data in any environment.
• Individual - The ability to use the technology to provide scaffolding on difficult
activities and lesson customization for individual learners.
• Small Size - Mobile devices are also known as handhelds, palmtops and smart
phones due to their roughly phone-like dimensions. A typical mobile device will
fit in the average adult's hand or pocket.
• Wireless Communication - Mobile devices are typically capable of
communication with other similar devices, with stationary computers and
systems, with networks and portable phones.
 Mobile Computing …

The basic constraints in mobility are:

unpredictable variation in network quality,

lowered trust and robustness of mobile elements,
limitations on local resources imposed by weight
and size constraints, and
concern for battery power consumption
 Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing environment is saturated with

computing and communication capability, yet so
gracefully integrated with users that make it
‘‘technology that disappears.’’
 Pervasive Computing …

Vision: “The most profound technologies are those

that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric
of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from
it.’’ M. Weiser 1991

By the time, it was a vision too far ahead of its time,

because, the hardware technology needed to achieve
it, did not exist. Therefore, the implementation
attempted by Weiser and his colleagues at Xerox
PARC was not successful.
 Pervasive Computing …

Characterized by
Context Awareness
Invisibility
Ad-hoc Networks
Smart Spaces and Devices
 Pervasive Computing …
Context Awareness
Context-aware computing is an environment in which
applications can discover and take advantage of users’
contextual information.
Users’ context consisting of attributes such as physical
location, physiological state (such as body temperature
and heart rate), emotional state (such as angry, distressed,
or calm), personal history, daily behavioral patterns, and
so on.
Aims to achieve a distraction-free pervasive computing
environment.
 Pervasive Computing …
Invisibility

According to Weiser, it is about a complete

disappearance of pervasive computing technology from
a user’s consciousness. In practice, a reasonable
approximation to this idea is minimal user distraction.

If a pervasive computing environment continuously

meets user expectations and present surprises rarely, it
allows the user to interact almost at a subconscious
level.
 Pervasive Computing …
Ad-hoc Networks

A self-configuring (wireless) network of (mobile) nodes

without the presence of static infrastructure.
MANET (Mobile ad-hoc network) and WSN (Wireless
sensor network) are areas of interest.
Bluetooth, WiFi, Jini, PnP are among the potential
protocols and tools.
 Pervasive Computing …
Smart space
A space may be an enclosed area such as a meeting
room or corridor, or it may be a well-defined open area
such as a university campus, a park, a stadium, etc.

By embedding computing infrastructure into a building

infrastructure, a smart space brings together two worlds
that have been disjoint.
A simple example of this is the automatic adjustment of
heating, cooling and lighting levels in a room based on
occupant’s profile.
 Pervasive Computing …

Example Scenarios

What would it be like to live in a world with

pervasive computing? Let us look at two scenarios
taken from Aura, a pervasive computing system of
the Aura project !
 Pervasive Computing …
Scenario 1: Jane at the airport
Jane is at Gate 23 in the Pittsburgh airport, waiting for her connecting flight. She has
edited many large documents, and would like to use her wireless connection to e-mail
them.
Unfortunately, bandwidth is miserable because many passengers at Gates 22 and 23 are
surfing the web.
Aura observes that at the current bandwidth, Jane won’t be able to finish sending her
documents before her flight departs.
Consulting the airport’s network service and flight schedule service, Aura discovers that
wireless bandwidth is excellent at Gate 15, and that there are no departing or arriving
flights at nearby gates for half an hour.
A dialog box pops up on Jane’s screen, suggesting that, she should go to Gate 15, which is
only three minutes away.
Jane accepts Aura’s advice and walks to Gate 15. She watches CNN on a TV until Aura
informs her that it is close to being done with her messages, and that she can start walking
back.
The last message is transmitted during her walk, and she is back at Gate 23 in time for her
boarding call.
 Pervasive Computing …
Key elements: Scenario 1 – Jane at the airport

User location sensors

Network traffic (at different gates)
Flight schedule
Map for distance (among the gates)
Monitoring (message transfer)

Communication among devices

Prediction/ Inference
Decision Support
 Pervasive Computing …
Scenario 2 - Fred preparing for a meeting
Fred is in his office, preparing for a meeting at which he will give a presentation. The
meeting room is at a ten-minutes walk across the campus. It is time to leave, but Fred is not
quite ready.
He grabs his PDA; a wireless handheld computer; and walks out of the door. Aura
transfers all his work from his desktop to his handheld, and allows him to make his final
edits using voice commands during his walk.
Aura infers where Fred is going from his calendar and the campus location tracking
service. It downloads the presentation to the projection computer, and warms up the
projector.
Fred finishes his edits just before he enters the meeting room. As he walks in, Aura
transfers his final changes to the projection computer.
As the presentation proceeds, Fred is about to display a slide with highly sensitive budget
information. Aura senses that this might be a mistake: the room’s face detection and
recognition capability indicates that there are some unfamiliar faces present.
It therefore warns Fred. Realizing that Aura is right, Fred skips the slide.
He moves on to other topics, leaving the audience impressed by his polished presentation.
 Pervasive Computing …
Key elements: Scenario 2 – Fred preparing for a meeting

User location sensors

User schedule/calendar
Multimodal user interface
Ad-hoc communication
Knowledge about the content (data semantics)
Face detection service (sensors)
Communication among devices
Prediction/Inferencing
Decision Support
 Pervasive Computing …
Examples Towards Realization of
Pervasive Computing
1. Project iSpace (at Stanford)
2. Project Aura (Carnegie Mellon University)
3. Project Cool Town (at HP Labs)
4. Project Oxygen (At MIT)
5. Project Easy Living (at Microsoft Research)
6. Project SPOT (at Microsoft Research)
7. Project Class Room (at Georgia Tech)
8. Project Smart Home (at Georgia Tech)
9. Project HomeLab (at Philips)
10. Project Hospital of the Future (at Aarhus University, Denmark)
 Assignment
1. Form a group of three.
2. Select, randomly, one of the projects from the list provided.
3. Submit a summary (2 to 3 pages) about the selected project or you can
propose any other relevant project you come across if you feel it better fits
the purpose (next week) – Don’t copy paste but write what you
understand in your own wards (submit in softcopy/hardcopy - word
format).
 Drivers and Hurdles in Ubiquitous Computing
• The realization of new products and services are the primary driving forces of
ubiquitous computing.
• The importance of cost savings and increases in energy efficiency or comfort,
can vary significantly.
• In production and logistics, reducing costs via ubiquitous computing is
considered very important. In military applications, however, cost savings
functions as a weak motivation.
• Improving safety is considered important for motor traffic as well as the security,
military and medical sectors. However, improving safety is not a motivation in
other application areas for using and developing ubiquitous computing.
• Enhanced comfort and improved usability are seen as significant driving forces
in the automotive and household industries. Potential cost savings and improved
energy efficiency play only minor roles in these two areas.
• In medical technology, however, there is a broad spectrum of motivations for
using ubiquitous computing, which is seen as a key strategy in solving several
different problems in this sector.
 Hurdles in Ubiquitous Computing
• Analogous to the driving forces behind the development and application of
ubiquitous computing, there are identifiable limiting factors that could either
directly or indirectly influence its evolution.
• These include shortcomings in human-machine interfaces and data
protection as well as technical hurdles to availability and reliability.
• Environmental sustainability, resource consumption and legal regulation are
some of the minor limiting factors for successful deployment of ubiquitous
computing.
• Standardization, however, is of prime importance as the functional interplay
of individual components is a key requirement of ubiquitous computing.
• The relevance of individual data protection and privacy varies depending on
the specific application.
 Impact of Ubiquitous Computing
Ubiquitous computing will pervade everyday life – both private and working – and is
therefore expected to have far-reaching consequences that will be reflected in a variety
of socio-economic contexts. Both positive and negative effects are likely in equal
measure at several levels.
• Impact on privacy: in terms of privacy, slightly positive effects are expected for
the application fields of security, medicine and production; moderately negative
effects are expected in other application contexts.
• Economic impact: among the economic effects associated with ubiquitous
computing, work efficiency in particular is expected to improve. This will become
most apparent in the key economic areas of production, logistics and commerce.
This will not, however, play a role in smart homes. It is worth noting that no
significant efficiency gains from ubiquitous computing are expected for housework,
professionals working at home, and homecare of the elderly and/or ill.
• Social impact: clear positive effects are predicted in the personal activities in
medicine, the home, communications and automobiles, while moderately positive
effects are expected in inner and external security, and in production, logistics and
commerce.
 UBIQUITOUS COMPUTINGAPPLICATION AREAS
Communications: as a cross-application, the communications area affects all
forms of exchange and transmission of data, information, and knowledge.
Logistics: tracking logistical goods along the entire transport chain of raw
materials, semi-finished articles, and finished products. This offers opportunities
for optimizing and automating logistics that are already apparent today.
Motor traffic: automobiles already contain several assistance systems that support
the driver invisibly. Networking vehicles with each other and with surrounding
telematics systems is anticipated for the future.
Military: the military sector requires the provision of information for prevention
and fighting against external threats that is as close-meshed, multi-dimensional,
and inter-related as possible. This comprises the collection and processing of
information. It also includes the development of new weapons systems.
Production: in the smart factory, the flow and processing of components within
manufacturing are controlled by the components and by the processing and
transport stations themselves. Ubiquitous computing will facilitate a decentralized
production system that will independently configure, control and monitor itself.
 UBIQUITOUS COMPUTINGAPPLICATION AREAS

Smart homes: in smart homes, a large number of home technology devices such
as heating, lighting, ventilation and communication equipment become smart
objects that automatically adjust to the needs of the residents.
Inner security: identification systems, such as electronic passport and the already
abundant smart cards, are applications of ubiquitous computing in inner security.
In the future, monitoring systems will become increasingly important – for
instance, in protecting the environment or surveillance of key infrastructure such
as airports and the power grid.
Medical technology: Increasingly autarkic or self-dependent, multifunctional,
miniaturized and networked medical applications in ubiquitous computing offer a
wide range of possibilities for monitoring the health of the ill and the elderly in
their own homes, as well as for intelligent implants.
Thank you