Preface: Systematic Approach to Ubiquitous Computing and its Application to Real-Time Enterprises

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Preface Systematic Approach to Ubiquitous
Computing and its Application to Real-Time
Enterprises

• Max Mühlhäuser

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P-0 Outline - What this chapter covers

• P-1 A first introduction
• Definition What is Ubiquitous Computing?
• Importance (why) is Ubiquitous Computing (UC) so
  important? First glance
• P-2 UC challenges a first approach
• The challenge of humane UC
• The challenge of integrated UC
• P-3 The S.C.A.L.E. classification of Ubiquitous
  Computing
• Intro broad vs. deep what should a treatment of
  UC cover and why
• Explanation of introduction to the S.C.A.L.E
  classification
• Relation to major Computer Science research
  fields
• P-4 Readers Digest
• Relation of S.C.A.L.E. classification to further
  chapters
• Digest for Readers with different background/goals

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P-1.1 Motivation Definition What is UC?

• Ubiquitous Computing describes the 3rd era of
  computing
• Era 1 Mainframe Computing MC - many users use
  one computer
• Era 2 Personal Computing PC - one user uses one
  computer
• Era 3 Ubiquitous Computing UC - one
  user uses many computers
• Note, for Era 3
• some computers are worn (mobile phone, PDA body
  sensors, life recorder)
• other computers are encountered on-the-move, more
  or less consciously(cf. info kiosk / data
  projection versus badge-reader / surveillance
  cam)
• UC means networked computers everywhere
• µCs were embedded in VCRs, washing machines etc.
  since decades already!
• BUT now, with UC, the embedded computers become
• networked, i.e. part of a web of interacting
  computers surrounding us
• programmable changing firmware / SW is easier,
  less noticeable to user(good cf. bug fixes
  bad cf. undesired functionality, e.g. spying)

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P-1.1 Definition What is UC?

• UC connects general special purpose computers
• the distinction is more a spectrum than two
  distinct classes
• the power / resource spectrum (CPU, memory,
  bandwidth, ) becomes huge!
• How to define Ubquitous Computing?
• A simple definition is given above UC is the
  third era of computing according to the
  aforementioned categorization
• Our more detailed and self-sustained definition
• Ubiquitous Computing is the dawning era of
  computing, in which individuals are surrounded by
  many networked, spontaneously yet tightly
  cooperating computers, some of them worn or
  carried, some of them encountered on the move,
  many of them serving dedicated purposes as part
  of physical objects, all of them used in an
  intuitive, hardly noticeable way with limited
  attention.

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P-1.1 Importance Sample Nodes in UC networks
Tiny, rather general purpose computers acting,
e.g., as nodes in sensor networks (cf. UC
Berkeleys motes, Particle Computer GmbHs
particles)
Wearables and mobile computing devices. cf.
handhelds for ware- house picking, washable
computer jackets, or companions like the
lovegetty pictured stores users profile,
beeps when a compatible person with lovegetty
appears
Smart labels such as RFIDs (above) and active
badges(below) identify (option locate,
characterize) objects, humans, animals benefits
and privacy threats widely discussed in press
Networked appliances, e.g., smart vending
machines that transmit fill status, errors etc.
to head offices press rumors about adaptive
pricing caused protests
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P-2.3 Imporance Exploding of nodes

• issue 1 on the networking side, the exponential
  growth ( of nodes connected in the Internet)
  continues way beyond the worlds
  populationconsequence scalability becomes even
  more crucial

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P-2.3 Importance exploding of nodes,
consequence

• issue 2 different doubling rates for networks,
  CPUs (Moores law) etc. impact on system
  architectures, algorithms, etc. (e.g., RPC
  becomes cheaper, mobile computing maybe more
  expensive?)

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P-1.2 Importance Conclusion

• At the 30,000 ft. level, UC is the next key
  technology to change our society for 3 reasons
• UC describes the next era of computing
• therefore, all of computer science / IT is
  potentially impacted
• it will be difficult to be selective in
  designing this course/book(but we will see that
  a course / book on UC still makes a lot of sense)
• UC has potential impact on every facet of our
  lives
• computing is no more what we do when we sit at
  the computer what is encapsulated/hidden deep
  inside VCRs etc.
• see the more / less comparison on next slide
• UC is impossible and inevitable at the same time
• components (gadgets) are developed and
  deployed, cf.slide UC sample nodes above
• more and more UC scenarios become profitable ?
  industry will push
• many issues of the whole i.e. integrated UC
  systems still unresolved

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P-2.1 From Importance to Challenges

• A first glance (not yet structured, non
  exclusive) at challenges
• Anytime/anywhere presence of networked computers
  means
• more sensitivity ? less protection (cf.
  security)
• more dependence ? less perfection (cf.
  reliability)
• more obtrusion ? less attention (cf. HCI)
• more garrulity ? less throughput (cf.
  networking)
• In other words as computers become ubiquitous
• there is a risk that the whole may be way less
  than the sum of the parts i.e. the desired
  integral functionality may lack way behind
• some known problems aggravate considerably
  weve got to care!
• in short, UC is a problem of complex integrated
  systems, not of gadgetscompare to new Airbus,
  Space Shuttle, not better rocket-fuel, headlights

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P-2.1 Humane Integrated UC - Overview
features of UC gadgets are not the problem
but making them humane and integrating them
into a useful whole
Outlook (see below) Scalability Connectivity
Adaptability Liability (Security )
Ease-of-Use
Top Level Challenges A. Systems
Integration(Strength of Europe) B. Humane
Computing(Chance for Europe)
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P-2.2 Challenges Humane UC

• Mainstream UC Research emphasizes two issues
• Context-Aware Computing
• ill defined basically, the quest for adaptive
  software that
• understands the situation in which the user
  currently works
• adapts to that situation by
• reducing complexity (e.g., adjusting UI to
  current needs options)
• automating input (e.g., retrieving data from
  environment, not user)
• optimizing functionality
• Multiple Modalities
• again, ill defined modality is a way of doing
  I/O, often aninput and/or output channel
  (what is that?) like graphics, voice,keyboard/mou
  se, gesture (note examples from different
  categories!)
• UC? applications on appliances (cell phone, PDA
  today, more tomorrow)
• ? Multiple modalities to be supported
• truly multimodal UI flexible combination of
  channels, users choice
• We will put these two issues in a larger context

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P-2.3 Challenges UC Integration
UC World
UC Gadgets
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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E. Overview Breadth vs. Depth

• Problem UC touches almost every area of Computer
  Science, and more!
• readers need background for understanding why
  what will be emphasized later
• a categorization of issues (taxonomy) is needed
  for organizing the topics and for getting
  oriented ? cf. the S.C.A.L.E. taxonomy
• So, is it a research/teaching subject in its own
  right?
• yes, compare to Distributed Systems
• there is distributed simulation, programming,
  algorithms, databases, AI, distributed
  everything!
• yet, there are courses on Distributed Systems
• but how to master breadth vs. depth?
• be broad first, organize problem space ?
  S.C.A.L.E., see below
• then emphasize pertinent problems
• either new aspect in UbiComp
• or much more relevant aspect with UbiComp than
  without
• standard computer scientist should hardly need
  addl background
• but will sometimes want to dig deeper in some
  subtopic which is normal
• But then, is course/book going to be complete?
• no, but more complete than any other book/course
  before
• and more well organized, due to S.C.A.L.E.
  scheme, see below

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E. - Rationale for Taxonomy

• UC is novel subject ? reader needs overview of
  problem space
• Problem Space approached in two ways
• Holistic view of pertinent research fields
• S.C.A.L.E. classification scheme devised for that
  purpose
• explained below, used throughout for structuring
• ? major guide through residual chapters
• Holistic view of the global UC networksystem
• Mundo Reference Architecture devised for that
  purpose
• imagine as rough floorplan for an entire UC
  system
• shows differences to Distributed Systems
  Ref-Archs and Definitions
• Mundo not supposed to be accepted worldwide
• (might, at best, influence a future Ref.Arch.
  standard)
• its purpose is to help readers in understanding
  organizing UC field

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P-3.1 - S.C.A.L.E. Scheme

• Major UC challenges, on a very high level
• S SCALABILITY
• how to support cooperation of zillions of
  components?
• how to support nomadic users around the globe?
• C CONNECTIVITY
• how to easily connect these zillions? Several
  levels of abstraction
• wireless networks a blessing and a curse
  (unreliable!)
• most issues come above wired/wireless net (note
  overlap with scalability)
• how to find/understand your peers? How to enable
  zero configuration
• how to design networks for zillions2 of
  connections, without central-server bottleneck
• A ADAPTABILITY
• usage during daily work, surrounded by 100s of
  components need minimal interaction
• major approach context-aware computing use it
  to automate tasks reduce options
• why adaptability? adapting-to-particular-user
  (user modeling) focussed beyond context-awareness
• L- LIABILITY
• term indicates we must go beyond todays IT
  security solutions (not goals), since
• todays solutions do not scale (centralized
  components?), are not humane (see below),
• dont flexibly consider conflicting (privacy,
  traceability) related goals (dependability
  etc.)
• E EASE-OF-USE

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E - Scalability

• S SCALABILITY
• (is a top priority challenge ? reflected in
  acronym scale)
• Mathematical Scalability (in the mathematical
  sense)
• UC leads to (potential) cooperation of zillions
  of devices
• thus, solutions need to work efficiently with
  zillions of components
• comes to mind complexity of the made ? the born
  (K. Kelly!) ? learn from the born
• most relevant areas (basically, alternatives for
  addressing technical scalability)
• bionics i.e. bio-analog computing
• neural networks, cooperating robots huge fields,
  only marginal importance for UC
• ant colonies often simulated / executed on
  single computer today swarms, autonomous
  computing,
• what else? plants as examples? brain-like
  modeling human memory example given in main
  chapter S
• socionics learning from complex societies is
  still in its infancies wrt. UC
• Future communication/cooperation (pub/sub P2P,
  Grid) see further below (C connectivity)
• Technical-Economical Scalability (in the sense of
  global interoperability)
• human-attached ? encountered components need to
  cooperate globally
• standards come to mind, but global standards are
  not sufficient (often) not realistice.g.,
  interface definition languages (cf. remote
  method/procedure call etc.)
• they define syntax (types/name of
  operations/operands exported _at_ interface
• they usually dont define, e.g. valid call
  sequences, preconditions, cost/quality etc.
  (approaches exist)
• they dont define semantics what does an
  operation actually do? approach?? ontologies
  service discovery

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E Connectivity

• Global interconnection of UC components is
  related to the following(and to scalability
  above)
• Scaleable Communication
• wireless networks (often!) a prerequisite for
  higher layers ? needbasic understanding of
  technology ZigBee WiMax and beyond
• event based communication praised as the UC
  connectivity approach
• means push paradigm, a prerequisite for
  scaleable open cooperation of components
  (supersedes client/server!) note relation to S
• maybe one day superseded by bionic/socionic
  approach today best offer
• remaining problems (advertising, openness,
  integration of other paradigms)
• plus what else is needed in UC middleware
  (services? tools? which ones?)
• Scaleable Cooperation
• Overlay Nets special subnetworks in Internet at
  least 3 classes
• Peer-to-Peer Networks no centralized bottleneck,
  scale well?
• Opportunistic Networks ad hoc net (node
  proximity) parallels global human network
• Grid Networks dynamically available resources
  parallel fluctuating resource demands
• Smart Item Networks AutoID and beyond towards
  scaleable networks of machines
• Service Discovery prerequisite for zero
  configuration
• component ? environment, makes itself known
  learns about environment
• sounds like solution to economic scalability
  above, but isnt many assumptionsabout
  components are made ? rather a connectivity issue

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E Adaptability

• Context Awareness (adaptation to situation of
  use)
• sensed context what sensors can measure (temP-,
  shock, location, )
• modeled context info held in other
  software/DB tasks activities etc.
• inferred context built from (several?) sensed or
  modeled contexts, e.g.,GPS?street co-located
  chemicals ? dangerous!, is always modeled
• note context ages, is probabilistic/maybe
  contradictory (sensor imprecise? calender entry
  gives different location than GPS sensor?)
• most investigated context location
• may be absolute (X is room 253) or relative
  (voltmeter is with Mr. X)
• absolute 2x2 technologies to survive? outdoor
  GPS cell? indoor UWB IR?
• relative technologies for tags (RFID, RF, IR,
  cell, ) will coexist?
• User Awareness (adapt to user(s) - and, mid term,
  provider?)
• technology? usual suspects user models,
  profilespreferences, user agents
• great challenge the huge crowd of new users
• unexperienced, hands/eyes free, little attention
• understand their actions ? support them! TK
• for UC ubiquitous user models? UC components
  contributeuse only fractions

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E Liability

• Liability protection of actors and those
  concerned by actions (peers, third parties,
  society) through right mix of
  protection/prosecution all in presence of
  zillions of peers liability security and
  beyond
• Scaleable security old goals (privacy,
  authentication, ), but new aspects
• machine2machine communication, ad hoc
  encounters PKI not viable
• cannot check certificate chain with (central!)
  roots zillions of times per second!
• even if so a party may change (e.g., due to
  virus) zilliseconds after check
• maybe not always/reliably connected!
• early approaches resurrecting duckling, TCI,
  ? viable overall solution?
• there aint no end2end encryption (cf.
  https-connection vs. frontend password-spyware)
• Anthropomorphic liability UC in everyday life ?
  conforms with human intuition?
• intuitive models human-understandeable models
  of trust, risk, recommendation etc.
• user friendliness security measures accepted ?
  observed by users?
• novel concepts, e.g. minimal trusted, concealed
  entity (ME, see below)?
• Social compliance conflicting goals ?
  conflicting forces (the core of liability!!)
• e.g., privacy often traded off with public
  interest, peers interest (cf. traceability, non
  repudiation)
• required max. flexibility, lever for tradeoff
  (different place/time/parties change mix)
• Collateral goals
• most important dependability / reliability /
  correctness
• above terms overlapping definitions security
  added ? trustworthiness
• classical dependability possible in light of
  zillions of bugs of MS Windows alone?

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P-3.1 S.C.A.L.E Ease-of-Use

• remember UI-adaptability may be considered a
  subset of ease-of-use (UI reducted to what makes
  sense)issue optimal use combination of
  modalities, advancement of specific modalities
• Consider variety of I/O devices in UC world ?
  multimodal interaction
• simple distinction handseyes- vs.
  mouthears-interaction ?
• advanced handseyes interaction GUIs
  predominant, but further developments needed
• examples focuscontext-displays, 3rd dimension
  (VR), 4th dimension (dynamic displays),
  immersion, narration
• mouthears interaction voice underdeveloped
  today, great potential! ? nomadic (hands-/eyes
  free) operation
• but needs speech understanding, is transient ?
  difficult
• integration of HCI and SWE the grand challenge!
• today HCI before after SWE but
  incompatible
• multimodality beyond transcoding (program
  output XML, XSLT produces device-specific XML
  variant)
• quest for abstract interaction layer shields
  modalitity details from core program yet
  leverages off modality advantages
• true multimodality parallel use of modalities,
  lots of freedom ? fusion of inputs? fission
  of outputs?
• integration with other advanced UIs?
  (context-sensitive, adapting/proposing to user
  AI techniques?)
• federated devices optimal use of multiple
  I/O devices currently surrounding user (includes
  liability issues)
• Approach human intuition new post-desktop
  metaphors a cross cutting concern
• post-desktop metaphors cross cutting wrt. all
  aspects above
• example today, eMail folders ? directories ?
  tomorrow all apps adapt MY favorite structure?
• methaphors invented for graphical UIs ?
  approproate ones for voice, etc.?
• and related to scalability humans must
  understand scalable probabilistic behaviour in
  UC as inherent characteristic

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P-3.2 Relation to Computer Science Research
HCI
Distributed Systems
context aware computing
Dependability
Bionics
user modelling
Socionics
IT Security
Computer Networks
AI (/NLP/KM)
Dependability
Quality-of-Service, SLA, Accounting
Software Engineering
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P-4.1 SCALE Taxonomy As Introduced
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P-4.1 SCALE Taxonomy vs. Chapters
1
27
28
26
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P-4.2 Readers Digest
Introductory Chapters 1,2,3,7,14,22 Sufficient
for anOverview of UC experts might want to
leave out their intro chapter
Readers who want to focus on Distributed Systems
read intro chapters 8-13, add 15-17 and 56
according to interests
For Ubiquitous Security, read intro chapters
and chapters 19-21
For HCI aspects, read intro chapters and chapters
23-28, plus 17, 15-16, 4-6 according to interests
Practitioners read chapters SAP pilots
chapters at the end of the book