Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals
Table of Contents
| Foreword | Gregory D. Abowd |
|
| Introduction | John Krumm | |
| 1. Introduction to Ubiquitous Computing | Roy Want | |
| 2. Ubiquitous Computing Systems (slides) (video) | Jakob Bardram and Adrian Friday | |
| 3. Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing | Marc Langheinrich | |
| 4. Ubiquitous Computing Field Studies (slides on user studies) (video on user studies) | A.J. Bernheim Brush | |
| 5. Ethnography in Ubiquitous Computing | Alex S. Taylor | |
| 6. From GUI to UUI: Interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing | Aaron Quigley | |
| 7. Location in Ubiquitous Computing (slides) (video) | Alexander Varshavsky and Shwetak Patel | |
| 8. Context-Aware Computing | Anind K. Dey | |
| 9. Processing Sequential Sensor Data (slides) (video) | John Krumm |
Summary of a university course using our book, taught by Andrew Kun, a professor at the University of New Hampshire
Foreword
It has been nearly two decades since the term "ubiquitous computing" burst into
our research vernacular. One of the strengths, and one of the challenges, of "ubicomp"
is that it is hard to pin down exactly what the intellectual core is. From the
very beginning, ubicomp researchers have investigated both the bleeding edge
technology challenges as well as the human-centered opportunities. There are
other intellectual mergers of interest as well, including the bridge between the
physical and the digital worlds and the (re-)merging of the academic communities
of hardware and software.
But this very diversity of intellectual themes
presents two challenges to our community, both of which motivate the need for a
book like this one. First of all, for established researchers, we have to
educate ourselves on the language and methods of disciplines different from the
ones we have practiced for many years. Why? Because if we are to advance as an
intellectual community, then we all need to embrace the inherent diversity in
our thoughts and skills. While it is not strictly necessary that we become
expert in all of the relevant subdisciplines of ubicomp represented in this
book, it is necessary
that we appreciate all of the perspectives and that we strive to make our own
work more relevant and accessible to those many perspectives.
Second, and more importantly, we have to provide a foundation for future
generations. I deeply believe that any interesting problem to explore in our
everyday lives requires expertise from many disciplines and perspectives.
Consequently, we have to train new researchers so that they will be able to
stand on the results of the past and direct us as a community to go beyond where
we are today. In short, our students must be empowered to be better than we are,
or we face extinction as a relevant intellectual community.
Under the skillful guidance of John Krumm, the authors of these chapters have assembled a collection of well-written, tutorial style chapters on topics that have become core to research advances in ubiquitous computing over the past two decades. The result is a must-read text that provides an historical lens to see how ubicomp has matured into a multidisciplinary endeavor and will be an essential reference to researchers and those who want to learn more about this evolving field.
Professor Gregory D. Abowd, PhD
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Contributors
| Jakob E. Bardram, PhD |
IT University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark |
Shwetak Patel, PhD | Computer Science and Engineering University of Washington Seattle, Washington, USA |
|
| A.J. Bernheim Brush, PhD | Microsoft Research Redmond, Washington, USA |
Aaron Quigley, PhD | HITLab Australia University Tasmania Tasmania, Australia |
|
| Anind K. Dey, PhD | HCI Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
Alex S. Taylor, PhD | Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK |
|
| Adrian Friday, PhD | Computing Department Lancaster University Lancaster, UK |
Alexander Varshavsky, PhD | AT&T Labs Florham Park, New Jersey, USA |
|
| John Krumm, PhD | Microsoft Research Redmond, Washington, USA |
Roy Want, PhD | Intel Corporation Santa Clara, California, USA |
|
| Marc Langheinrich, PhD | Faculty of Informatics University of Lugano (USI) Lugano, Switzerland |
Introduction
This book is an overview of the fascinating field of
ubiquitous computing. Since this field is rapidly progressing, the book is aimed
at people who want to explore it as researchers or track its evolution. Intended
for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals interested in
ubiquitous computing research, the book covers the major fundamentals and
research in the key areas that shape the field. Each chapter is a tutorial that
provides readers with an introduction to an important subset of ubiquitous
computing and also contains many valuable references to relevant research
papers.
The field of ubiquitous computing is simultaneously young and
broad. Research papers in the field commonly reference Mark Weiser, who famously
coined the term “ubiquitous computing” in his Scientific American article in
1991. This is considered the start of the research area, and it has grown to
encompass a broad array of technologies since then. While the field is broad,
there are well-established conferences and researchers devoted to it.
We chose eleven of the most prominent ubiquitous computing
research devotees to contribute chapters to this book in their area of
expertise. Given the field’s breadth, it would be difficult to find one person
who can expertly cover it all. Some of the chapter authors teach ubiquitous
computing at universities. All of them are intimately involved in research in
their specialty. Working in the area means they have the experience to not only
describe the fundamental research issues, but to also explain practical ways to
accomplish research and publish papers in the field.
Ubiquitous computing research can be categorized into three
distinct areas where the research is focused: systems, experience, and sensors.
The chapters of this book are similarly organized and categorized. The three
categories and their supporting chapters are:
Systems
– These chapters focus on how to build the software support for deploying
ubiquitous computing applications.
Ubiquitous Computing Systems
(Chapter 2)
– important issues to consider when building the infrastructure to support
ubiquitous computing applications
Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing
(Chapter 3)– how to maintain privacy in systems that inherently need to connect with
personal devices and information
Experience
– These chapters highlight the critical points where ubiquitous computing
technologies touch people.
Ubiquitous Computing Field Studies
(Chapter 4)– shows how to evaluate ubiquitous computing applications in the field
Ethnography in Ubiquitous Computing
(Chapter 5)– how to observe people and consider how they might use ubiquitous computing
technology
From GUI to UUI: Interfaces for Ubiquitous
Computing (Chapter 6)– moving from graphical to
the ubiquitous computing user interface
Sensors
– These chapters show how systems sense location and
analyze and determine context.
Location in Ubiquitous Computing
(Chapter 7)– how to measure a person’s location, one of the most important inputs for
ubiquitous computing applications
Context-Aware Computing
(Chapter 8)– explains the use of context to allow ubiquitous computing applications to
deliver the right services at the right time
Processing Sequential Sensor Data (Chapter 9)– how to effectively process sensor data for location and context
In addition to these specific research areas, the book begins
with a chapter called “Introduction to Ubiquitous Computing” that
discusses the history of the field in terms of its major research projects.
Although the chapters cover interrelated topics, as a teacher
or reader, they can be covered in any order.
We hope you will find this book to be a useful overview of and
practical tutorial on the young and evolving field of ubiquitous computing.
Microsoft Research
Redmond, Washington, USA
@BOOK{UbicompFundamentals2010,
title =
{Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals},
publisher =
{Chapman and Hall/CRC},
year = {2010},
editor = {John
Krumm},
address={Boca Raton, FL},
isbn={978-1-4200-9360-5}}