04-07-2013, 04:07 PM
Ubiquitous Computing
Ubiquitous Computing.doc (Size: 53 KB / Downloads: 19)
ABSTRACT
Computers have advanced beyond the desktop into many parts of everyday life.
Ubiquitous Computing is inevitably computing in context: it takes place in situations in the real world. So far most research, especially in mobile computing, has focused on enabling transparent use of computers, independently of the environment. An orthogonal research effort is to exploit context.
The research reported here is investigating: how context can be acquired, distributed, and used and how it changes human computer interaction in Ubiquitous Computing.
Possible sensing technologies, in particular low level physical sensors, and perception techniques are assessed and their value for providing context in Ubiquitous Computing systems is analyzed. Abstractions on sensor level, cue level, and context level are introduced, resulting in flexible context acquisition architecture.
INTRODUCTION
Research in Ubiquitous Computing has arrived at a crossroad: A point of convergence where a technology proliferated environment meets with the ability of people to interact with, and make use of, the possibilities that this technology creates.
Advances in the various fields of technology allow us to create artifacts and environments that provide computing and communication resources.
The understanding of how humans will interact and make use of such systems is however largely unresolved and often not addressed in current research. A key to understanding such systems and their use is the observation that humans implicitly interact in context with their environments including technology.
The task of making this context information available to components in computer systems has become a prerequisite to advancing human-computer interaction processes in Ubiquitous Computing. Context awareness, or more specifically how to create applications that are context aware, is a central issue to Ubiquitous Computing research. Such research raises questions on context acquisition, context
Representation, distribution and abstraction, as well as programming paradigms, development support, and implications on human-computer interaction in general.
The research presented in this thesis concentrates on some of these issues. First the question of how to acquire context in a Ubiquitous Computing environment using simple sensors is addressed. Then a bottom-up approach for modeling context-aware artifacts is introduced. Prototyping various context sensing devices and generalizing to patterns demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of the approach.
Definition
Ubiquitous computing (often abbreviated to “ubicomp”) refers to a new
genre of computing in which the computer completely permeates the life of the user.
The vision is that computers have become a part of the “natural
human environment” and that they “vanish into the background”. Looking at technologies which are often regarded as having these properties, such as cars and mobile phones, it can be observed that these properties are not only achieved by creating technologies but also by changing the way of life. In many cases life moulds itself to technologies.
Contribution of Ubiquitous Computing
In ubiquitous computing, computers become a helpful but invisible force, assisting the user in meeting his or her needs without getting in the way.
Ubiquitous computing it is not just about technology and the deployment of technology in everyday environments; the human perception of technologies and the interaction with technology is the crucial test.
The concept of “Ubiquitous Computing” goes beyond having computers that can be taken everywhere and used independent of where you are. This is rather that you can take them everywhere, but you don’t have to because computers are already seamlessly integrated into the world: everywhere. Ubiquitous computing is a clear contrast to the idea of virtual reality.
Computing in Everyday Environments – Context matters
Computers are used in non-desktop environments and mobile scenarios. Computers become embedded into devices and real world artifacts. The notion of operating a computer disappears: users perform a task using a device not considering it as using a computer. A shift from expert users to non-experts is anticipated User experience becomes central: efficiency is not longer the sole goal.
These issues have been formulated in many other research statements and article in various research communities over the last 10 years. People are approaching the problem from a computing, design, psychology, and sociology perspective. Terms such as “calm computing”
Assessing and analyzing visions and predictions on computing, devices,
infrastructure, and human interaction, it becomes apparent that:
context is available, meaningful, and carries rich information in such
environments, and that users’ expectations and user experience is directly related to context.
Acquiring, representing, providing, and using context becomes a crucial enabling technology for the vision of disappearing computers in everyday environments.
Context-Awareness and Natural Interaction
Small computers that communicate wirelessly provide a necessary infrastructure for ubiquitous computing. However, infrastructure is only half of the battle. As noted above, the ubiquitous computing movement aims to make computers more helpful and easier to use. Indeed, computers should be able to accurately anticipate the user’s needs and accommodate his or her natural communication modes and styles. These themes are captured within the ubiquitous computing movement’s focus on context-aware computing
and natural interaction.
Context-Awareness
The promise of context-awareness is that computers will be able to
understand enough of a user’s current situation to offer services, resources, or information relevant to the particular context. The attributes of context to a particular situation vary widely, and may include the user’s location, current role (mother, daughter, office manager, soccer coach, etc.), past activity, and affective state. Beyond the user, context may include the current date and time, and other objects and people in the environment. The application
of context may include any combination of these elements.
For example, a context-aware map might use the information that the user is away from home, has no appointments, and that the time is 6:00 in the evening to determine that the user could soon be interested in dinner. It would then prepare to offer the user guidance to nearby restaurants should he or she make such a request.
Natural Interaction
Currently, using the computer is part of the task we are attempting to
accomplish—something else to focus on, learn, or do in order to accomplish a goal. The idea behind natural interaction is for the computer to supply services, resources, or information to a user without the user having to think about the rules of how to use the computer to get them. In this way, the user is not preoccupied with the dual tasks of using the computer and getting the services, resources, or information. Donald Norman, a well-known researcher in human–computer interaction, once said that he doesn’t want a word processor; he wants a letter writer—something that will allow him to get the job done of writing a letter, without the instrument getting in the way.
The communication of information from computer systems to a human user and influencing the operation of the computer system by a human user is referred to as human-computer-interaction (HCI).
Interactive Context-Aware Systems
Typical user interfaces (UIs) of interactive programs are text based (e.g. command line), graphical user interfaces, voice interfaces, gesture interfaces or a combination of those, often referred to as multimodal interfaces.
A characteristic feature of interactive systems is the response time, the time between the user interaction that is carried out and the response of the system [Miller,68], [Nielsen,94]. Most applications that are used on desktop systems in the home and office domain, such as text processor, spreadsheet, graphic tools, web browser, and games can be regarded as interactive programs. Also the operating system itself and
many programs that are running in the background often include interactive modules, mainly for configuration purpose.
Human computer interaction is not restricted to conventional desktop systems.
Ubiquitous Computing.doc (Size: 53 KB / Downloads: 19)
ABSTRACT
Computers have advanced beyond the desktop into many parts of everyday life.
Ubiquitous Computing is inevitably computing in context: it takes place in situations in the real world. So far most research, especially in mobile computing, has focused on enabling transparent use of computers, independently of the environment. An orthogonal research effort is to exploit context.
The research reported here is investigating: how context can be acquired, distributed, and used and how it changes human computer interaction in Ubiquitous Computing.
Possible sensing technologies, in particular low level physical sensors, and perception techniques are assessed and their value for providing context in Ubiquitous Computing systems is analyzed. Abstractions on sensor level, cue level, and context level are introduced, resulting in flexible context acquisition architecture.
INTRODUCTION
Research in Ubiquitous Computing has arrived at a crossroad: A point of convergence where a technology proliferated environment meets with the ability of people to interact with, and make use of, the possibilities that this technology creates.
Advances in the various fields of technology allow us to create artifacts and environments that provide computing and communication resources.
The understanding of how humans will interact and make use of such systems is however largely unresolved and often not addressed in current research. A key to understanding such systems and their use is the observation that humans implicitly interact in context with their environments including technology.
The task of making this context information available to components in computer systems has become a prerequisite to advancing human-computer interaction processes in Ubiquitous Computing. Context awareness, or more specifically how to create applications that are context aware, is a central issue to Ubiquitous Computing research. Such research raises questions on context acquisition, context
Representation, distribution and abstraction, as well as programming paradigms, development support, and implications on human-computer interaction in general.
The research presented in this thesis concentrates on some of these issues. First the question of how to acquire context in a Ubiquitous Computing environment using simple sensors is addressed. Then a bottom-up approach for modeling context-aware artifacts is introduced. Prototyping various context sensing devices and generalizing to patterns demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of the approach.
Definition
Ubiquitous computing (often abbreviated to “ubicomp”) refers to a new
genre of computing in which the computer completely permeates the life of the user.
The vision is that computers have become a part of the “natural
human environment” and that they “vanish into the background”. Looking at technologies which are often regarded as having these properties, such as cars and mobile phones, it can be observed that these properties are not only achieved by creating technologies but also by changing the way of life. In many cases life moulds itself to technologies.
Contribution of Ubiquitous Computing
In ubiquitous computing, computers become a helpful but invisible force, assisting the user in meeting his or her needs without getting in the way.
Ubiquitous computing it is not just about technology and the deployment of technology in everyday environments; the human perception of technologies and the interaction with technology is the crucial test.
The concept of “Ubiquitous Computing” goes beyond having computers that can be taken everywhere and used independent of where you are. This is rather that you can take them everywhere, but you don’t have to because computers are already seamlessly integrated into the world: everywhere. Ubiquitous computing is a clear contrast to the idea of virtual reality.
Computing in Everyday Environments – Context matters
Computers are used in non-desktop environments and mobile scenarios. Computers become embedded into devices and real world artifacts. The notion of operating a computer disappears: users perform a task using a device not considering it as using a computer. A shift from expert users to non-experts is anticipated User experience becomes central: efficiency is not longer the sole goal.
These issues have been formulated in many other research statements and article in various research communities over the last 10 years. People are approaching the problem from a computing, design, psychology, and sociology perspective. Terms such as “calm computing”
Assessing and analyzing visions and predictions on computing, devices,
infrastructure, and human interaction, it becomes apparent that:
context is available, meaningful, and carries rich information in such
environments, and that users’ expectations and user experience is directly related to context.
Acquiring, representing, providing, and using context becomes a crucial enabling technology for the vision of disappearing computers in everyday environments.
Context-Awareness and Natural Interaction
Small computers that communicate wirelessly provide a necessary infrastructure for ubiquitous computing. However, infrastructure is only half of the battle. As noted above, the ubiquitous computing movement aims to make computers more helpful and easier to use. Indeed, computers should be able to accurately anticipate the user’s needs and accommodate his or her natural communication modes and styles. These themes are captured within the ubiquitous computing movement’s focus on context-aware computing
and natural interaction.
Context-Awareness
The promise of context-awareness is that computers will be able to
understand enough of a user’s current situation to offer services, resources, or information relevant to the particular context. The attributes of context to a particular situation vary widely, and may include the user’s location, current role (mother, daughter, office manager, soccer coach, etc.), past activity, and affective state. Beyond the user, context may include the current date and time, and other objects and people in the environment. The application
of context may include any combination of these elements.
For example, a context-aware map might use the information that the user is away from home, has no appointments, and that the time is 6:00 in the evening to determine that the user could soon be interested in dinner. It would then prepare to offer the user guidance to nearby restaurants should he or she make such a request.
Natural Interaction
Currently, using the computer is part of the task we are attempting to
accomplish—something else to focus on, learn, or do in order to accomplish a goal. The idea behind natural interaction is for the computer to supply services, resources, or information to a user without the user having to think about the rules of how to use the computer to get them. In this way, the user is not preoccupied with the dual tasks of using the computer and getting the services, resources, or information. Donald Norman, a well-known researcher in human–computer interaction, once said that he doesn’t want a word processor; he wants a letter writer—something that will allow him to get the job done of writing a letter, without the instrument getting in the way.
The communication of information from computer systems to a human user and influencing the operation of the computer system by a human user is referred to as human-computer-interaction (HCI).
Interactive Context-Aware Systems
Typical user interfaces (UIs) of interactive programs are text based (e.g. command line), graphical user interfaces, voice interfaces, gesture interfaces or a combination of those, often referred to as multimodal interfaces.
A characteristic feature of interactive systems is the response time, the time between the user interaction that is carried out and the response of the system [Miller,68], [Nielsen,94]. Most applications that are used on desktop systems in the home and office domain, such as text processor, spreadsheet, graphic tools, web browser, and games can be regarded as interactive programs. Also the operating system itself and
many programs that are running in the background often include interactive modules, mainly for configuration purpose.
Human computer interaction is not restricted to conventional desktop systems.