1. Intel Research 1 Pervasive: Ubiquitous Applications Workshop Why smart environments fail when building Ubiquitous Computing Systems Roy Want Intel MG/CHG 11 th May 2005

2. Intel Research 2 Ten UC lessons from Dagstuhl ’01 1. People really care about personal and ubiquitous technologies, so be prepare to have many long debates about how these technologies are used. 2. The press ‘love’ stories about ubiquitous computing 3. Beware of the Press!! 4. Only by building something are you able to explore its full design 5. Successful technology adoption is very dependent on the culture of the target users 6. It’s really hard to get people to adopt new technology unless it brings a new level of utility 7. Build applications that are high quality, customizable and have appeal 8. You only really get one chance to impress a user with a technology. A second chance is rare. 9. It’s a lot of work to deploy a Ubiquitous Infrastructure and it is even more work to maintain it 10. Listen to user experiences; but carefully filter their commentary Experience: Active Badge & ParcTab

3. Intel Research 3 We Build Time Machines … really! Many systems are based on the “time traveling” concept Examples: - Xerox Alto PC - ParcTab Allows us to experience the future today This comes at some cost to the system

4. Intel Research 4 Tower vs. Heap Metaphor Ubicomp projects are more like the tower …… inherently unstable Experimental SystemSuccessful Commercial Technology BASE TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT APP

5. Intel Research 5 Unmanageable Complexity ….Is the downfall of many Ubicomp Systems

6. Intel Research 6 Issues (typ.) Small Effort ~5 core people Lots of custom hardware Lots of custom code No code review or QA (just rely on good people) Ubicomp is often built on top of distributed systems –Hard to build well (known difficulties) –Then we add wireless, heterogeneity and low-power They all suffer from “Bit-rot” –Graduate student/intern knowledge People leave with key knowledge –Distributed Systems often have many weak links e.g., Name Services Time Services Experimental Services that may not be supported

7. Intel Research 7 Moving the Ideas Forward Incremental Standards e.g., –IEEE 802.3 to 802.11b/a/g –WWW (layered on internet) Use Industry associations –IEEE –OMA –UPnP forum, –USB forum, –Bluetooth Sig, –Digital Living Network Alliance

8. Intel Research 8 Don’t Feel Bad - Be Happy! Ubicomp/Pervasive development allows us to live the ideas and build excitement It can be the catalyst for corporations to start the standards process Be happy with small technology steps and help build the heap, not the tower It’s really up to us to follow through and not just stop at the demo stage