0. ISA5428: 普及計算 Pervasive Computing: An Overview
金仲達教授
清華大學資訊系統與應用研究所
九十三學年度第一學期
(Some slides are taken from the presentation by
Prof. Friedemann Mattern of ETH Zurich)

1. Outline The Vision -- According to Mark Weiser The Enablers
Example Projects
Summary

2. Pervasive Computing According to Mark Weiser

3. Transparencies Are Taken from
Mark Weiser's slides for the keynote speech "Building Invisible Interfaces" given at the User Interface, Systems, and Technologies (UIST) Conference, November, 1994.
Mark Weiser’s slides from the invited talk: "Does Ubiquitous Computing Need Interface Agents? No." given at the MIT Media Lab Symposium on User Interface Agents, October 1992.
M. Weiser’s paper “The Computer for the 21st Century,” Scientific American, Sept

4. Your Personal Experience
Remember the last time you spent several productive hours?
It had some characteristics:
Time passed unnoticed
You were unaware of your surroundings
Consciously you focused on a goal
Unconsciously you drew on tacit skills and knowledge
The situation was very rich with details and nuances that you unconsciously took into account
The things you did not think about – the tacit, the context, the world – made you smart!

5. A Basic Characteristic of Human
People are most effective and authentic when they are fully engaged, mind and body, in the world
Examples:
Flow of the athlete in the groove
Effortless use of pencil, paper and language when writing
Effortless 65 MPH driving of the experienced driver (while talking, reading road signs, …)
Technologies should enhance this ability to engage, to “flow” with life and work

6. Invisible Technologies
The most powerful technologies are invisible: they get out of the way to let human be effective
Electricity
Electric motors hidden everywhere (20-30 per car)
Electric sockets in every wall and portably available through batteries
Integrated, invisible infrastructure
Literary technology
Continuously surrounding us at many scales: books, newspapers, street signs, candy wrappers
Used trivially and profoundly
Literally visible, effectively invisible

7. Good Technology Is Invisible
“Invisible” stays out of the way of task
Like a good pencil stays out of the way of the writing
Like a good car stays out of the way of the driving
Bad technology draws attention to itself, not task
Like a broken, or skipping, or dull pencil
Like a car that needs a tune-up
Computers are mostly not invisible
They dominate interaction with them
Ubiquitous computing is about “invisible computers”

8. How to Do Invisible Computing?
Integrated computer systems approach
Invisible, everywhere, computing named “ubiquitous computing” in April 1989
Invisible: tiny, embedded, attachable, …
Everywhere: wireless, dynamically configurable, remote access, adapting, …

10. Goals of Ubiquitous Computing
Ultimate goal:
Invisible technology
Integration of virtual and physical worlds
Throughout desks, rooms, buildings, and life
Take the data out of information, leaving behind just an enhanced ability to act

11. Ubicomp Phase I
Phase I
Smart, ubiquitous I/O devices: tabs, pads, and boards
Hundreds of computers per person, but casual, low-intensity use
Many, many “displays”: audio, visual, environmental
Wireless networks
Location-based, context-aware services
Interesting scenarios
Using a computer should be as refreshing as a walk in the woods

12. Smart Objects
Real world objects are enriched with information processing capabilities
Embedded processors
in everyday objects
small, cheap, lightweight
Communication capability
wired or wireless
spontaneous networking and interaction
Sensors and actuators

13. Smart Objects (cont.) Can remember pertinent events
They have a memory
Show context-sensitive behavior
They may have sensors
Location/situation/context awareness
Are responsive/proactive
Communicate with environment
Networked with other smart objects

14. Smart Objects (cont.)

15. Various Ubiquitous I/O Devices
Post-it note-sized palmtop computers
One hundred per person per office
Always have one on you, wirelessly connected
Small touch-sensitive display screen
Scatter around the office like post-it notes
Notebook-sized computers
Ten per person per office
Stylus-based input primary
Near megabit wireless communication bandwidth
Can support multimedia when “tethered”

16. Ubiquitous I/O Devices (cont.)
Wall displays
Large ones used as shared display surfaces (replaces whiteboards)
Replace physical bulletin boards, etc.
Lots of bandwidth available because they’re plugged into the wall

17. Ubiquitous Computing Vision
“In the 21st century the technology revolution will move into the everyday, the small and the invisible…”
“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabrics of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”
Mark Weiser (1952 –1999), XEROX PARC
Small, cheap, mobile processors and sensors
in almost all everyday objects
on your body (“wearable computing”)
embedded in environment (“ambient intelligence”)

18. Outline The Vision -- According to Mark Weiser The Enablers
Example Projects
Summary

19. First Enabler: Moore‘s Law
Processing speed and storage capacity double every 18 months
“cheaper, smaller, faster”
Exponential increase
will probably go on for the next 10 years at same rate

20. Generalized Moore’s Law
Most important technology parameters double every 1–3 years:
computation cycles
memory, magnetic disks
bandwidth
Consequence:
scaling down
Problems:
• increasing cost
• energy

21. 2nd Enabler: Communication
Bandwidth of single fibers ~10 Gb/s
2002: ~20 Tb/s with wavelength multiplex (often at no cost for laying new cable!)
Powerline
coffee maker “automatically” connected to the Internet
Wireless
mobile phone: GSM, GPRS, 3G
wireless LAN (> 10 Mb/s)
Bluetooth
Room networks, body area networks
Internet-on-a-chip

22. Ubiquitous Information
PAN: Personal area network

23. Body Area Networks
Very low current (some nA), some kb/s through the human body
Possible applications:
Car recognize driver
Pay when touching the door of a bus
Phone configures itself when it is touched

24. Spontaneous Networking
Objects in an open, distributed, dynamic world find each other and form a transitory community
Devices recognize that they “belong together”

25. 3rd Enabler: New Materials
Important: whole eras named after materials
e.g., “Stone Age”, “1st generation computers”
More recently: semiconductors, fibers
information and communication technologies
Organic semiconductors
change the external appearance of computers
“Plastic” laser
Opto-electronics, flexible displays,…
...

26. Smart Paper, Electronic Ink
micro capsules, white on one side and black on the other
oriented by electrical field
substrate could be an array of plastic transistors
Potentially high contrast, low energy, flexible
Interactive: writable with magnetic pen

27. Interactive Map
Foldable and rollable
You are here!

28. Smart Clothing Conductive textiles and inks
print electrically active patterns directly onto fabrics
Sensors based on fabric
e.g., monitor pulse, blood pressure, body temperature
Invisible collar microphones
Kidswear
game console on the sleeve?
integrated GPS-driven locators?
integrated small cameras (to keep the parents calm)?

29. Smart Glasses
By 2009, computers will disappear. Visual information will be written directly onto our retinas by devices in our eyeglasses and contact lenses -- Raymond Kurzweil

30. Today’s Wearable Computer
ready to ware

31. Wearable Concept (Motorola)

32. 4th Enabler: Sensors/Actuators
Miniaturized cameras, microphones,...
Fingerprint sensor
Radio sensors
RFID
Infrared
Location sensors
e.g., GPS
...

33. Example: Radio Sensors
No external power supply
energy from the actuation process
piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials transform changes in pressure or temperature into energy
RF signal is transmitted via an antenna (20 m distance)
Applications: temperature surveillance, remote control (e.g., wireless light switch),...

34. RFIDs (“Smart Labels”)
Identify objects from distance
small IC with RF-transponder
Wireless energy supply
~1m
magnetic field (induction)
ROM or EEPROM (writeable)
~100 Byte
Cost ~$ $1
consumable and disposable
Flexible tags
laminated with paper

35. Bar Code Reader
PDAs, mobile phones, and wireless Internet appliances become request devices for information
find information
order products
...

36. Lego Making Lego Smart:
Robot command Explorer (Hitachi H8 CPU, 32KB RAM, IR)

37. Lego Mindstorms

38. Putting Them Altogether
Progress in
computing speed
communication bandwidth
material sciences
sensor techniques
computer science concepts
miniaturization
energy and battery
display technologies
...
Enables new applications
“Post-PC era” business opportunities
Challenges for computer scientists, e.g., infrastructure

39. Outline
The Vision
The Enablers
Example Projects
Summary

40. Idea: Making Objects Smart
The Smart Its Project
Vision: make everyday objects as smart, interconnected information artifacts
by attaching “Smart-Its”
Smart labels
Atmel microcontroller: (ETH Zurich) 4 MIPS, 128 kB flash

41. “Smart-Its Friends”
How do we establish that two objects “belong together”?
Hold them together and shake!

42. “Smart-Its Friends”!
After the shared context has been established, the two devices can open a direct communication link to exchange application-specific data

43. Idea: Virtual Counterparts
Virtual World (Internet, cyberspace)
Pure virtual objects
Real World
(e.g., every object has a web server)

44. Ex.: As Artifact Memories
Updates triggered by events
Queries from the real world return memory content
Sensors generate events

45. Magnifying Glass An object as a web link
e.g., by displaying a dynamically generated homepage
Contents may depend on circumstances, e.g., context and privileges
possibly mediated by different name resolvers
HP Cooltown project

46. CueCat & Its Business Models
Bar code scanner
LED based
Attached to computer via keyboard port
Scanners distributed free
$5-$10 per CueCat
Sends the Web browser directly to “right” location when scanning the bar code of an ad in a magazine

47. Other Applications
Physical browsing (physical entity as an icon or URL link to web pages)
Physical objects as content repositories (by associating objects with content)
Copy-and-paste in the real world
Objects as communication points (by communicating content between two persons)
Objects as physical representation of virtual state, mixed reality, smart environment

48. Smart Environment, Dumb Object
A context-sensitive cookbook with RFID
RFID

49. Can be Context-Aware Properties of the ingredients
Check whether there is enough of an ingredient
Prefer ingredients with earlier best-before date
Properties of the kitchen
Check whether required tools and spices are available
Preferences and abilities of the cook
Prefers Asian dishes
Expert in vegetarian dishes

50. AT&T Sentient System Timeline-based context storage Location tracking
Position monitoring

51. MIT Oxygen Project

52. Berkeley’s Wireless Sensor Network
MICA Motes, sensors, and TinyOS:

53. Some Ubi-Examples Activity-based Information Retrieval
Like filing assistant for physical documents
Uses events, time, context, who
Tracks things by badge, and video shape
Just indexing, no “agent”
Physical Retrieval
Book or document beeps with answer
Screens (active, custom, signs) on walls direct you to right shelf or right clothes, …
Newman and Lamming, EuroPARC

54. Other Opportunities New digitally enhanced products
e.g., cooperating toys, air conditioner, ...
New services (“e-utilities”)
e.g., management of smart devices at home, management of personal privacy,...
Detailed and timely knowledge of product location and life cycles, individual and dynamic prices for goods,...
e.g., milk bottle reduces its price with its age
e.g., higher taxes if product transported by plane

55. Outline
The Vision
The Enablers
Example Projects
Summary

56. Ubicomp is Situated Computing
Makes use of simple shared context
Space
Time
Proximity
Participation in the context
is physical
is out here with us
Is in many small and large places, including trivial ones

57. New Science from Exploring Ubicomp
Theoretical computer science: network security, caching over slow networks, …
Operating systems: scalable to wristwatches, user-extensible O.S.’s, reliable without redundancy, low power O.S.
User interfaces, hardware and software gestures, two-handed input, pie-menus, unistroke alphabets
Networking, hardware and software: radio, infrared, mobile protocols, in-building wireless LANs, over varying bandwidth
Computer architecture, hardware and software: post-it-note computers, low power O.S., multimedia pad computers

58. Summary
Ubiquitous computing emphasizes metaphors of life, interaction with other people, invisibility, and is leading to new discoveries in computer science
“Using a computer should be as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods.”