Ubiquitous Computing Introduction

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Ubiquitous Computing - Introduction

• The third wave of computing
• - 1st Mainframe, one computer to many
• - 2nd Personal Computing, one computer per
  person
• - 3rd Ubiquitous, many computers embedded in
  environment!
• Ubiquitous computing analogous to pervasive and
  calm computing
• Technology merges in background in a
  non-intrusive way
• Articulated first by late Mark Weiser (PARC
  research)

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Trends in Computing
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Introduction

• According to Weiser (98), UbiComp enhances
  computer usage by embedding numerous computers in
  the environment, making them invisible to the
  user itself
• Related to UbiComp Calm computing, Pervasive
  Computing, Natural Interfaces (Abowd et.al.),
  Context Awareness, Proactive Computing, Ambient
  Intelligence, Intelligent Systems etc

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Introduction

• Ubiquitous computing aims to provide invisible
  and calm computing that does not interrupt the
  user suggestion
• Provide more natural and non-invasive interaction
  modes selection of objects by looking etc
• Context awareness of user and user intentions
  highly important for ubiquitous computing

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Some examples

• Microsoft EasyLiving
• The Aware Home Georgia Tech
• Oxygen, MIT
• Aura, Carnegie Mellon
• others

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Issues in Ubiquitous Computing

• Privacy Do we want our environment to know what
  we are doing? , privacy of our data?
• How can the system handle multiple users working
  together?
• Can intentions be accurately modeled?
• How flexible can the system be? Can it anticipate
  all user intentions and change accordingly?
• Is the system scalable to new situations?
• Compatibility - hardware and software ?

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Microsoft EasyLiving

• A prototype of an architecture and technologies
  for ubiquitous computing

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EasyLiving

• Intelligent room or house environment
• Demonstrates many of the capabilities of ubicomp
  
• mobile, wireless computing with migratory
  programs an intelligent environment with
  context-awareness and location-sensitive
  computing disaggregated computing
• Long research project, almost 10 years
• One of the biggest research projects of ubicomp
  in Microsoft Research

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EasyLiving

• EasyLiving lab is generally one room (2001) which
  is full of microphones, cameras and sensors
• Speech recognition, computer vision and thumb
  scanner applications are used in this room

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Dynamo

• A Communal, Multi-User Surface for Sharing
  Exchanging Digital Media

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Dynamo

• a situated multi-user display system for
  community spaces
• cooperative sharing and exchange of a wide range
  of media

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Device Compatibility

• control with a laptop, tablet PC, or wireless
  mice keyboards provided
• compatible with many kinds of USB devices

• flash drives
• digital cameras
• mp3 players
• smartphones
• PDAs

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Using Dynamo

• asynchronous 'noticeboard' type activities
• synchronous 'show, tell share' activities

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Using Dynamo

• Parcels

• Carving

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Problems?

• may be difficult (particularly initially) to get
  members of the community to voluntarily and
  spontaneously use such displays
• integrating the system with the existing
  practices?
• acting out in a public arena?

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User Study

• Interaction with the Dynamo surface
• images and video most popular
• followed by HTML, audio and text content
• the use of more advanced features changed in both
  amount and form of usage when the users got to
  know the system better
• carving more frequent at the beginning
• parcels used only after the users were more
  familiar with the functionalities

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User Study

• Dynamo in a communal setting
• interaction was also affected by the nature of
  the space
• students that were interacting directly with
  Dynamo tended to sit in the tables closest to the
  screens
• back row occasionally joined the interaction
• public performance space (pre-announced)
• orientation to the screen
• social conventions

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User Study

• Dynamo promoted a social atmosphere
• mostly used for entertainment and having fun
• researchers expected more studying-related use

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Design Implications

• The interactive display should fit in and be able
  to be integrated with the other artefacts used in
  the space
• Provide flexibility both in terms of physical and
  digital arrangements
• Design interactive applications that the
  community can adapt to their own activities
• Provide an initial set of display-based
  interactions that are intuitive and can be easily
  and comfortably followed

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Questions Comments

• Video clip
• http//www.cs.uta.fi/jt68641/easy/