PERVASIVE COMPUTING

Pervasive Computing

Pervasive Computing

Introduction

Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous (another name for the movement is ubiquitous computing), connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly, wireless - technologies and the Internet. Pervasive computing devices are not personal computers as we tend to think of them, but very tiny - even invisible - devices, either mobile or embedded in almost any type of object imaginable, including cars, tools, appliances, clothing and various consumer goods - all communicating through increasingly interconnected networks. In 1991, Mark Weiser introduced the idea of ubiquitous computing: a world in which computers and associated technologies become invisible, and thus indistinguishable from everyday life. This invisible computing is accomplished by means of "embodied virtuality," the process of drawing computers into the physical world. Weiser proposed that computing and communication facilities would follow the evolutionary path of the electric motor.

Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous (another name for the movement is ubiquitous computing), connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly, wireless - technologies and the Internet. Pervasive computing devices are not personal computers as we tend to think of them, but very tiny - even invisible - devices, either mobile or embedded in almost any type of object imaginable, including cars, tools, appliances, clothing and various consumer goods - all communicating through increasingly interconnected networks. According to Dan Russell, director of the User Sciences and Experience Group at IBM's Almaden Research Center, by 2010 computing will have become so naturalized within the environment that people will not even realize that they are using computers. Russell and other researchers expect that in the future smart devices all around us will maintain current information about their locations, the contexts in which they are being used, and relevant data about the users.

The goal of researchers is to create a system that is pervasively and unobtrusively embedded in the environment, completely connected, intuitive, effortlessly portable, and constantly available. The resulting software tool, called STADIUM, is currently in use within industry to characterize system performances in terms of circuit, subsystem and system level variabilities

Discussion

A number of leading technological organizations are exploring pervasive computing. Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), for example, has been working on pervasive computing applications since the 1980s. Although new technologies are emerging, the most crucial objective is not, necessarily, to develop new technologies. IBM's project Planet Blue, for example, is largely focused on finding ways to integrate existing technologies with a wireless infrastructure. Carnegie Mellon University's Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) is working on similar research in their Project Aura, whose stated goal is "to provide each user with an invisible halo of computing and information services that persists regardless of location." The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a project called Oxygen. MIT named their project after that substance because they envision a future of ubiquitous computing devices as freely available and easily accessible as oxygen is today...