“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”
Ubiquitous Computing (UC) is an emerging paradigm for interaction between people and computers. Its aim is to break away from the desktop computing to provide computational services to users when and where required. Its real aim is to make computing disappear from focus of attention, so that humans can think beyond computing. This article discusses the general concept of ubiquitous computing, its application and advantages.
The term was coined by late Mark Wiser, who worked at Xerox, USA. He is known as the father of Ubiquitous Computing. UBIQUITOUS means ‘present everywhere simultaneously’. Thus UC is the ability to perform computing in every environment. The basic objective of this new concept is to make humans interact with numerous aspects of computing which may not be visible otherwise. According to Wiser- “Ubiquitous Computing is the method of enhancing computing use by making many devices/services available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user”. The highest ideal is to make a computer so embedded, so fitting and so natural that we use it without even thinking about it. Ubiquitous Computing can also be defined as the computing environment which conceals computing devices, resources and technology from user or application.
History The idea of UC first arose from contemplating the place of today’s computer in actual activities of everyday life. During the early evolution of computing, many people shared a large computer called Main Frames, which had its own environment. The users came to these environments for their computing requirements. Later, we saw the development of desktop computing and personal computers proliferated deep into our lives. Today’s computing is seriously limited. In order to accomplish a simple task, the user has to perform a series of unrelated and unessential rituals in computing.
Development of Tabs, Pads, Boards (all at PARC Xerox, 1988-1994), classrooms, SAMMPad (Simple Architecture Analysis Method Pad) and Virtual Reality became pointers to the technology of the future. Recent times have seen developments in hardware miniaturization, stable wireless and radio communication, secured and transparent WWW and as a result, technology has become more context-aware, automated and accessible.
Requirement of UC Implementation of UC presents a challenging task. An ideal Ubiquitous Computing System should have following characteristics; namely
• Autonomy and Context Awareness • Persistent Service • Natural Interface
Wiser suggested a scenario where computing can be used much like a scrap paper, get hold of one, use it and then discard it. Thus there should be ubiquity in content, devices and resources. Thus ubiquitous system requires resources from hardware to communications, from software to accustomed users.
Hardware: There should be movement forward towards nanotechnology which promises to miniaturize computer component down to atomic level.
Networking: Evolution of newer communication technology like CDMA, GPRS, GSM, WAP and Imode hold promise for UC. Present bandwidth can support multimedia application. There is need to standardize these into well laid protocol which is fault-tolerant, secured and transparent.
User Interface: The system should be able to tolerate heterogeneity of devices and continue to provide constant interface. New devices have to come into existence like digital pen, speech recognition system like ViaVoice (From IBM).
Scalability: In UC environment, where thousands of devices are part of the whole, scalability of the system is a key requirement. All the devices must be able to operate independently; a decentralized management will be most suitable.
Interoperability: This is the most important requirement of UC. Use of technologies like Java, Jini and CORBA may provide desired interoperability, but there is a need to standardize the process.
Resource Discovery: It is the ability of a device to declare their presence over the network and also its ability to realise the presence of other devices in a given environment.
Privacy and Security: These components should be inbuilt into the architecture of ubiquitous system and be able to dispel fear from user of being monitored and prevent misuse of system.
Challenges in Ubiquitous Computing In ubiquitous system, user is the center of attention. Thus, the system should be able to fit into the psychology of humans and should be able to adapt to the environment instead of creating one for itself. One of the major challenges is to make system context-aware. A number of solutions have been proposed like using cheap sensors, adding GPS into devices etc. There also exists conflict between priorities. Increase in content ubiquity limits device portability and network mobility. Similarly increase in device ubiquity limits content and network bandwidth. Increasing network ubiquity limits network bandwidth and thus content capability.
Achievement, Trends and Researches A significant amount of success has been realized towards ubiquitous computing. WebPhones, wireless communication and hardware portability have come into existence. Embedded devices like wearable, transducing/transcoding, heterogeneous network will lead to establishment of UC. Recent researches emphasize on context-sensitiveness and natural user interface. CPU, memories, networking and tiny display will ever be hard pressed to deal with content. Products like M-Link and One World have been designed, Xerox has developed PARC Flatland which uses whiteboard and Audio Aura explores periphery awareness in a typical office environment.
The novel concept of UC promises to free humans from wired computer, reduce addiction and make computing more friendly and trustworthy in the future.