UBICOMP-RG Adrian Friday, Oliver Storz and Nigel Davies Lancaster University & University of Arizona

BOF AGENDA Introduction –Ubiquitous Computing: Ubicomp the vision –Current state of the art –The role of the Grid Discussion of charter and RG formation Positions within the group Discussion of roadmap

WHO? WHERE?

TODAY’S BOF The purpose of today’s meeting is to –Discuss the motivation for a new GGF Research Group (UBICOMP-RG) –Explore how the ‘the Grid’ can be used to create a ‘Ubiquitous Computing’ testbed –Feed challenges from Ubicomp domain to extend Grid middleware –Refine our charter and seek interested parties

UBICOMP: A NEW PARADIGM The vision of the late Mark Weiser in “The Computer for 21 st Century”, Scientific American, 1991:The Computer for 21 st Century –Moving beyond the desktop & personal computers –‘Embodied virtuality’ the inverse of VR, Computers ‘disappearing’ into everyday objects, all around us, ‘ubiquitous’, natural interaction “Sal awakens: she smells coffee. A few minutes ago her alarm clock, alerted by her restless rolling before waking, had quietly asked "coffee?", and she had mumbled "yes." "Yes" and "no" are the only words it knows.” –Supporting everyday activity at work and at home –Predicted would become the dominant form of human computer interaction within 20 years"

UBICOMP DOMAIN Key challenge is promoting ‘natural interaction’ –Narrowing semantic gap between computer and human activity –Computer perception of human centric activity (sensing, context, learning, inferencing) –Human perception and understanding of the system (affordances, understanding, learnability) –Inherently multidisciplinary (in CS terms) and target domain (art, design, entertainment, work…)

UBICOMP WORK Many fragmented testbeds in research labs worldwide –Many interpretations of Weiser’s vision –Stanford iRoom, HP Cooltown, UIUC’s Gaia, CMU’s Aura, GaTech’s Aware Home, EU ‘Disapearing Computer’, AT&T sentient computing, LabScape, MIT’s Oxygen UIUC’s Gaia –Developing key experimental infrastructures and services –Now mature conferences and (some) journals (c.f. Ubicomp 2003)Ubicomp 2003

UBICOMP CARE

UBICOMP INTERACTION

UBICOMP UNDERSTANDING

UBICOMP WILD

UBICOMP CHARACTERISTICS Not just ‘smart environments’ –Heterogeneous technologies –Novel interaction devices, sensor networks –Non-IP, non-standard, bespoke, uncontrolled –Low power embedded and wearable devices

e-Science: UBICOMP or GRID?

ENGINEERING UBICOMP Ubicomp is not ‘Ubiquitous’ –Deployment is hard, requiring bespoke software and hardware –The domain is not fully understood –Core tools and services need to be defined: good software engineering! –Mechanisms to promote interworking It’s not about ‘the global Ubiquitous Computer’ However, standardisation is key to –To permit roaming and interworking between Ubicomp environments and facilitate higher level applications and emergent properties

SYNERGIES & CHALLENGES Clear synergies with Grid in nascent Ubicomp –Need for similar computational services (c.f. meta- operating system) –Overlapping work (e.g. security, privacy, trust, resource access, storage/ management, etc.) –New contributions (in both directions!): Novel interactions, new understandings and ways of collaborating (context, sensing & sensor fusion, AI, devices & HCI, calmness…) Plus much to be learnt from Grid e.g. persistence, evolution, data representation –Additional leverage from working together (intellectually and computationally) –Need testbed to support experimentation

OUR ROLE The charter –Identification of key application domains for Grid technologies within Ubicomp Oct 2003 –Mapping of existing Grid technologies to the requirements of ubiquitous computing and identification of unsupported areas Dec 2003 –Allocation of areas of work identified to research group members for further investigation Jan 2004