1. The Foundations of Ubiquitous Computing
Author
Mark Weiser
Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center)
Reporter
Chun-Feng Liao
Mar 25,2005

2. Trilogy of Weiser
Mark Weiser, The Computer for the 21th Century, Scientific American, September 1991.
Mark Weiser, Some computer science issues in ubiquitous computing, Communications of the ACM, 36(7):75-85, July 1993.
Mark Weiser, John S. Brown, The Coming Age of Calm Technology, 1996.
Int’l Conference on UbiComp was first hold on 1999.
UbiComp 2005: Sep 11-14,2005. Tokyo, Japan.

3. Significance of “The Computer for the 21th Century”
This is not a research paper.
The article is the origin of UbiComp.
Heavily cited by papers in this area.
Several revolutionary concepts of HCI come from Xerox PARC. (ex: Windows, Desktop)
PARC = Palo Alto Research Center
UbiComp = Ubiquitous Computing, some researchers also call it Pervasive Computing.

4. What can we learn from this article?
Concepts and Definitions of UbiComp.
Visions of UbiComp.
Scenarios of UbiComp(not reported in this seminar).
Challenges of UbiComp.
NOTE: Keep in mind that this article was wrote on 1991.

5. How Ubicomp is Related to Our Research
Ontology and
Semantic Web
Embedded
System
Distributed
Computing
HCI / VR
Sensing
Technologies
Context-aware
Computing
UbiComp
Mobile
Computing
E Home
Agent
Yellow: Our research area.
Gray: Related research area.
: Contained by..
: Supports..

6. Source: Dr. Chu’s Lecture I in the Ubicomp course 2005
The Evolution Path
Distributed Computing (PC + networks)
Challenges: performance, scalability, server or network failures, open networks, performance,
Mobile computing (Mobile devices + wireless networks)
Challenges: resource-limitation, unpredictable network, power
Ubicomp (Everyday objects + wireless networks)
Challenges: understanding user intention, heterogeneous ubicomp environments, invisible user experience, more ..
Source: Dr. Chu’s Lecture I in the Ubicomp course 2005

7. Agenda Introduction Key issues of UbiComp Requirements of UbiComp
Location and size
Privacy
Requirements of UbiComp
Hardware
Software
Conclusion
Possible Researching Directions

8. The most profound technologies are those that disappear.
Mark Weiser, “The Computer for the 21st Century”.
Profound: 意義深遠的。

9. Computer that Disappeared
Weiser and his colleagues in PARC think that the idea of a “Personal” computer itself is misplaced.
“Disappearance” is a fundamental consequence of human psychology.
Ex: Writing, electrical motors, silicon-based devices...

10. VR versus EV (Embodied Virtuality)
“Perhaps most diametrically opposed to our vision is the notion of ‘virtual reality’ ”, which attempts to make a world inside the computer.
Embodied Virtuality: the process of drawing computers out of their electronic shells.
Virtual World
VR: 將現實世界放到虛擬世界中
Real World
EV: 將電腦中的數位資訊帶入現實生活
Embodied: 具體化

11. Ubicomp v.s Agents
“Ubicomp is exploring quite different ground from personal digital assistants or autonomous agents” [Weiser93]
Invisibility is critical in Ubicomp !!
為什麼都不用花力氣? 黃老 黃老
Object
Object
I want to move that object
Agent
Agent(Invisible)
Yes sir, I will do it for you
因為我在暗中幫你推…
Traditional Agent
Ubicomp Agent

12. Research Methods of Ubicomp
Standard experimental Computer Science:
Construct working prototype
Evaluate working prototype in everyday use
Find out real vs. imaginary issues

13. Key Issues of UbiComp Location and Scale
Location: ubiquitous computers must know where the are in order to provide appropriate services.
Scale: tabs, pads and boards.
Note: The Concept of “Location” was extended to “Context”
by Brown et, al.(in PARC) in 1994,
published in special issue on “Context in Design” in Journal of HCI.

14. Tab Clip-on computers roughly the size of an employee ID card.
Doors open only to the right badge wearer.
Rooms greet people by name.

15. Pad Pads are not portable computers
The pad that must be carried from place to place is a failure.
Pads are intended to be “scrap computers” that can be grabbed and used anywhere.
Pads may even be as small and light as actual paper
Many electronic pads around on the desk, just as you spread out papers.

16. Boards Multipurpose: Interacting with electronic chalk.
In home: video screens and bulletin boards.
In office: bulletin board, white boards or flip charts.
Book case: download texts to a pad or tab.
Interacting with electronic chalk.

17. Requirements of Ubicomp: Invisibility
Cheap, low-power computers
Display
Large display: must be viewable form arm’s length as well as from across a room.
High-speed wireless network
Software systems
Software architecture : Microkernel architectural
Middleware

18. Zero Configurations In Ubicomp environment, local devices come and go
The context in an environment may change frequently.
New software for new devices may be needed at any time.
Microkernel architecture may offer an solution. (CMU Aura Project and Vrige Univ. at Amsterdam)

19. Microkernel Architectural Pattern
Infrastructure
Application

20. Software Architectures of Context-aware Computing
Blackboard architecture for
context-aware computing(Stanford).
Blackboard Architectural Pattern (POSA)
MVC Architectural Pattern (POSA)
Context Widget architecture (Georgia Tech)
Microkernel Architectural Pattern (POSA)
Microkernel (PARC,CMU-Aura)
Service-oriented Architecture
(Singapore Univ.,IEEE Computer 2004)
Ontology, Semantic Web
Agent-orient, Mobile Agent, Multi-agent
Pipeline / Filter (POSA)

21. Core Idea of Blackboard4
Expert A 1 3
Expert B
Moderator
(又稱Control) 2
Expert C
Predefined Heuristic Function
(又稱Knowledge Sources)

22. Context Server/Context Widget Architecture
“每一個Entity會有一個Context Server”
Context Server for Television
Context Server for John
Vision Context Widget
Voice Context Widget
Env Context Widget
Camera
Laser Ranger
Speech Recognizer
Thermometer

23. Conclusion
This article provides the vision and challenges for UbiComp.
Tabs, pads and boards are just the beginning of UbiComp.
The real power comes from the interaction of all of them.
The hundreds of processors have no “user interface” like mouse or windows, just a pleasant and effective “place” to get things done.

24. Possible Researching Topics
A pattern system for context-aware computing.
Comparing each architectural design and identifying their trade-offs.
Distributed computing issues on context-aware computing
Identifying distributed computing issues and solve with enhanced distributed computing algorithms.
Synchronization
Mutual Exclusions
Leader Election

25. Possible Researching Topics
Cross-cutting concerns of UbiComp
Security, Privacy, Transaction, Synchronization, Service Lookup…
Aspect-oriented middleware for UbiComp.
UbiComp and the Semantic Web
Context representation with RDF.
Home robot

26. Backup

27. Privacy Issues How to avoid inappropriate use of personal information.
Morris’s Rule
Build computer system to have the same privacy safeguards as the real world, but no more, so ethical conventions will be automatically applied.

28. Scenario Coffee is ready before the clock alarm.
Privacy configurations, adaptive video data-rate.
Tangible media(newspaper, circle to transmit).
Finding things.
Check traffic in car.
Finding parking lot.
Greeting according to one’s badges.
Virtual office / conference
More…

29. Blackboard Advantages of BB: Disadvantages of BB:
Support for changeability and maintainability.
Reusable knowledge sources.
Support for fault tolerance.
Disadvantages of BB:
Difficulty of testing
Low efficiency
High development effort
No support for parallelism

30. Context Widget
Acquiring a certain type of context information, make this information available in a general manner.
Obtain the context without having to worry about how the context was sensed.

31. Context Server Gather and manage context about a single entity.
Behave as a proxy to the context for applications.
Support 4 primary context types, also need to support the retrieving of secondary context information.