Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 1 Programming of Handheld and Mobile Devices Lecture 21 Brave New World Rob Pooley

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 2 Are we easily fooled? O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! Miranda The Tempest

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 3 Ad hoc networks An ad hoc network is created “on the fly” as devices connect and disconnect from it without central control Bluetooth is often seen as a model for ad hoc networks –Pico nets allow up to 8 devices to connect –Scatternets allow any number to do so Maybe WiFi or some other approach? S M S S SS S S M

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 4 Desirable properties Seamless connection Stable behaviour Secure Transparent connection Easy to use Not there yet!

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 5 u·biq·ui·tous (y -b k w -t s) adj. Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent: "plodded through the shadows fruitlessly like an ubiquitous spook" Joseph Heller. Claims for ubiquitous computing have been made for many years Typical applications include –Intelligent washing machines –Intelligent shoes –Smart dust Low cost, connected, unobtrusive Personal area networks Home area networks

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 6 Claims for ubiquity Diagnostic –Health monitoring of people –Servicing requirements for machines Supportive –Reporting of status of house/car/fridge Ubiquitous –Linked by wireless comms –Linked by Web

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 7 Pervasive Pervasive computing relates to services It is built on top of ubiquity It depends on seamless handove It uses agent technology It uses redirection of services It supports virtual devices It supports virtual users

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 8 Scenario You are at home when your boss phones you to collect a parcel on your way to work –Your TV becomes a video terminal –Your PDA downloads the details You go to your car, with your PDA linked by Bluetooth to your home phone for low cost calls Your PDA uploads the details into your car’s SatNav system You drive as directed to the Post Office You get near the Post Office and your car computer downloads details of parcels waiting to be collected

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 9 Scenario continued You spot a second parcel which looks like it belongs to your company You contact your boss requesting authorisation to collect both parcels Electronic authorisation is sent to the Post Office and to your PDA (now Bluetoothed to your car phone) Your car phone signals to the Post Office to have the parcels waiting for you You collect the parcels and al parties (including the sender) are informed

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 10 Utopia? Much of this already happens in a restricted way The GPO and major couriers have Web-based reporting on parcels Postal workers, meter readers etc have PDAs and some have wireless links to their bases Phones, sat nav systems and PDAs are becoming more integrated Sat nav maps etc can be replenished dynamically

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 11 Was Miranda right? O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! So where are the people in our brave new world?

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 12 Some issues in the world of handheld devices This short note is an agenda for you to think about the world of handheld devices and portable, user friendly computing. As we move to wards more power and more memory, the limits on devices are retreating. What does this mean? Would people rather have a portable computer or a PDA or an intelligent mobile phone? What will the differences be in the future? What applications will people want? E- books, e-newspapers, online diaries, wireless conferencing? Will we want point to point, peer to peer models of connection? Will we want to be part of some super- internet? Is local power preferable to a simple device connecting to various pervasive services on networked servers? Do we really trust these devices and their networks? Can we relax in the bath reading our PDA? Who is excluded by the rise of PDAs etc. The disabled? The poor? The old? Who stands to benefit? Microsoft? Big business (smartcards etc?) or the individual? We have been moving from the specific (games consoles, personal diaries etc.) to the general. Is that the future or will we find a world of sensors and dumb networked devices? (Phone your fridge and ask it to speak to the oven?) Intelligent shoes, intelligent car seats? Where do we interface when systems learn our preferences from our behaviour? (Personalisation versus learned responses?)

Programming Handheld and Mobile devices 13 Final thought – prove me wrong I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore was thou Deserv'dly confined into this rock, who hadst Deserv'd more than a prison. Prospero to Caliban The Tempest