Pervasive Computing

UNIT I
PART I
Introduction
Our life in the future should be very carefree with
little to no hassle.
Less searching, more fast and accurate access to
information, when needed.
Time and location boundaries will eventually be
eliminated, resulting in a true information age style
of civilisation.
Future devices will become more and more
intelligent , they will start to talk among themselves
to serve us better.
Introduction
Ubiquitous - Present Everywhere
Bringing mobile, wireless and sensor
networking technologies together towards a
new computing paradigm
Everywhere, anywhere, always on, anytime
Introduction
Pervasive computing is the third wave of computing
technologies to emerge since computers first
appeared:
• First Wave - Mainframe computing era: one computer
shared by many people, via workstations.
• Second Wave - Personal computing era: one
computer used by one person, requiring a conscious
interaction. Users largely bound to desktop.
• Third Wave – Pervasive (initially called ubiquitous)
computing era: one person, many computers.
Millions of computers embedded in the environment,
allowing technology to recede into the background
The Third Wave of Computing
Dramatic calm
Obtrusive inconspicuous
Overpowering empowering
Distracting facilitating
Difficult easy
Extraordinary everyday
Complex simple
Desktop embedded interface
Introduction
The aim of ubiquitous computing is to design
computing infrastructures in such a manner
that they integrate seamlessly with the
environment and become almost invisible.
Ubiquitous computing vision
Introduction
Unobtrusiveness and Spread through
From all the directions
Degree of Penetration
Our physical world is Pervasive, because it
surrounds us all the time.
This is a collection of nature and things.
Principles of Pervasive Computing

“The most profound technologies are

those that dissappear. They weave
themselves into the fabric of everyday
life until they are indistinguishable from
it.”

Creation of environments saturated

with computing and communication
capability, yet gracefully integrated
with human users.

Scientific American,
Mark Weiser Vol. 265 N.9, pp. 66-75, 1991
Principles of Pervasive Computing

During one of his talks, Weiser outlined a set of principles

describing pervasive computing (also called ubiquitous
computing):
The purpose of a computer is to help you do something else.
The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant.
The more you can do by intuition the smarter you are; the
computer should extend your unconscious.
Technology should create calm.
Calm technology
“A technology that which informs but doesn't demand our
focus or attention”.
(Designing Calm Technology, Weiser and John Seeley Brown)
Yesterday's Computers Filled
Rooms …
… So Will Tomorrow’s
Principles of Pervasive
Computing
Pervasive computing integrates computation into the
environment, rather than having computers which are distinct
objects.

Other terms for pervasive computing:

Ubiquitous computing
Calm technology
Things that think
Everyware
Pervasive internet
Ambient intelligence
Proactive computing
Augmented reality

Sentient Computing
Urban Computing
Ubiquitous computing
Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) integrates
computation into the environment, rather than having
computers which are distinct objects. Promoters of this
idea hope that embedding computation into the
environment and everyday objects would enable people
to interact with information-processing devices more
naturally and casually than they currently do, and in
ways that suit whatever location or context they find
themselves in.
Ubiquitous computing encompasses wide range of
research topics, including distributed computing, mobile
computing, sensor networks, human-computer
interaction, and artificial intelligence.
Sentient computing
Sentient computing is a form of ubiquitous computing which uses
sensors to perceive its environment and react accordingly. A
common use of the sensors is to construct a world model which
allows location-aware or context-aware applications to be
constructed.
One famous research prototype of a sentient computing system was the work at
AT&T Laboratories, Cambridge (now defunct). It consisted of an ultrasonic indoor
location system called the “Active Bats” which provided a location accuracy of about 3
cm. The world model was managed via the SPIRIT database, using CORBA to
access information and spatial indexing to deliver high-level events such as “Alice
has entered the kitchen” to listening context-aware applications. The research
continues at the Digital Technology Group at the University of Cambridge.
Some example applications of the system include:
A “follow-me phone” which would cause the telephone nearest the recipient to ring.
Teleporting desktops via VNC just by clicking their Active Bat near the computer.
Spatial buttons which were activated by clicking the Active Bat at a particular spot
(such as a poster).
Measuring and surveying buildings.
Locative games
Context adaptative computing
context adaptive system typically enables the user to maintain a
certain application (in different forms) while roaming between
different wireless access technologies, locations, devices and even
simultaneously executing everyday tasks like meetings, driving a car
etc.
For example a context adaptive and hence ubiquitous navigation
system would offer navigation support in the situations at home,
indoor, outdoor, and in car.
This involves making the navigation functionality available for
different availability of output devices, input devices and location
sensors as well as adapting the user interaction operability to the
current speed, noise or operator handicaps while keeping in mind
the overall applicability depending on the user preferences, his
knowledge, current task etc.
Wearable computers
Wearable computers are computers that are worn on the body. They have
been applied to areas such as behavioral modeling, health monitoring
systems, information technologies and media development. Government
organizations, military, and health professionals have all incorporated
wearable computers into their daily operations. Wearable computers are
especially useful for applications that require computational support while
the user’s hands, voice, eyes or attention are actively engaged with the
physical environment.
One of the main features of a wearable computer is consistency. There is a
constant interaction between the computer and user, ie. There is no need to
turn the device on or off. Another feature is the ability to multi-task. It is not
necessary to stop what you are doing to use the device; it is augmented into
all other actions. These devices can be incorporated by the user to act like a
prosthetic. It can therefore be an extension of the user’s mind and/or body.
Examples for wearable computers: calculator watch ,EyeTap,Head-
mounted display ,
Head-up display,Laptop,Personal digital assistant,Tablet PC,Virtual retinal
display
Context-aware pervasive systems
Context-aware pervasive systems (or aware
systems, for short) refer to systems that can be
aware of their physical (and virtual) environment
or situation, and respond intelligently based on
such awareness.
It is among the most exciting trends in
computing today, fueled by developments in
pervasive computing, including new computers
worn by users, embedded devices, sensors, and
wireless networking technology
Ambient Intelligence
The concept of ambient intelligence or AmI is a vision where humans are
surrounded by computing and networking technology unobtrusively embedded in their
surroundings.
The concept of ambient intelligence (AmI) was developed by the ISTAG advisory
group to the European Commission’s DG Information Society and the Media. AmI
puts the emphasis on user-friendliness, efficient and distributed services support,
user empowerment, and support for human interactions. This vision assumes a shift
away from PCs to a variety of devices which are unobtrusively embedded in our
environment and which are accessed via intelligent interfaces.
In order for AmI to become a reality a number of key technologies are required:
Unobtrusive hardware (miniaturisation, nano-technology, smart devices, sensors etc.)
A seamless mobile/fixed web-based communication infrastructure (interoperability,
wired and wireless networks etc.)
Dynamic and massively distributed device networks
Natural feeling human interfaces (intelligent agents, multi-modal interfaces, models of
context awareness etc.)
Dependability and security (self-testing and self repairing software, privacy ensuring
technology etc)
Urban computing
urban computing: the integration of computing, sensing, and
actuation technologies into our everyday urban settings and
lifestyles. Successful integration requires taking several facets of the
urban environment into account at once.
Urban settings frame social behaviors; they encompass architectural
forms and features that may or may not be harmonious with given
technologies; and they are increasingly but variably permeated by
wireless networks and fixed and mobile devices.
A key challenge is the great diversity and density of people, devices,
and built artifacts found in urban places.
Urban computing ranges from city-wide transportation-sensing
infrastructure, to services embedded in a cafe, to the bluetooth
“aura” of an individual’s mobile phone as he or she walks down a
street.
Principles of Pervasive Computing

Central aim of pervasive computing: invisibility

One does not need to continually rationalize one's use of a
pervasive computing system.

Having learnt about its use sufficiently well, one ceases to be

aware of it.

It is "literally visible, effectively invisible" in the same way

that a skilled carpenter engaged in his work might use a
hammer without consciously planning each swing.

Similarly, when you look at a street sign, you absorb its

information without consciously performing the act of
reading.
Pervasive
The essence of that vision was the creation of environments saturated
with computing and communication capability, yet gracefully integrated
with human users.
  Pervasive – all around us
Should be there where we need them
  Not go and get them
  Human Centered
Computers should adapt to the humans
  Computations enter our world
  Must be unobtrusive and minimize user distraction
Computers as we know it will disappear
  Better ways of Computer-Human interaction
The computers need to be aware of humans – Context
Pervasive Environment
The most important characteristics of pervasive environments are:
Heterogeneity: Computing will be carried out on a wide spectrum of
client devices, each with different configurations and functionalities.
Prevalence of "Small" Devices: Many devices will be small, not only
in size but also in computing power, memory size, etc.
Limited Network Capabilities: Most of the devices would have some
form of connection. However, even with the new networking standards
such as GPRS, Bluetooth, 802.11x, etc., the bandwidth is still relatively
limited compared to wired network technologies. Besides, the
connections are usually unstable.
High Mobility: Users can carry devices from one place to another
without stopping the services.
User-Oriented: Services would be related to the user rather than a
specific device, or specific location.
Highly Dynamic Environment: An environment in which users and
devices keep moving in and out of a volatile network.
Ubiquitous and Pervasive
Computing

 Pervasive – diffused among us - It will make information available everywhere

 Ubiquitous – State of being everywhere – would need information everywhere
The “Pervasive computing” way of
thinking
How do you switch-on a light bulb in a pervasive world!
☺

Flip a switch!

GUI dialog box Click on a GUI map in the mobile

“Turn on the light by the sofa” Make a gesture

“I want to read a book” Walk into the room

“Turn on that light”

Future of Pervasive Computing
The Workspace Changes
“The Computer”
Past Present Future

“The Workspace”
Evolution
Distributed Computing
intersection of personal computers and local area
networks.

Mobile Computing
The appearance of full-function laptop computers
and wireless LANs in the early 1990s led
researchers to confront the problems that arise in
building a distributed system with mobile clients.
The field of mobile computing was thus born.
Distributed Computing
Remote communication, including protocol layering, remote
procedure call, the use of timeouts, and the use of end to- end
arguments in placement of functionality
Fault tolerance, including atomic transactions, distributed and
nested transactions, and two-phase commit
High availability, including optimistic and pessimistic replica
control, mirrored execution, and optimistic recovery
Remote information access, including caching, function shipping,
distributed file systems, and distributed databases
Security, including encryption-based mutual authentication and
privacy
Effective Use of Smart Spaces
The first research thrust is the effective use
of smart spaces. A space may be an
enclosed area such as a meeting room or
corridor, or a well-defined open area such as
a courtyard or quadrangle.
By embedding computing infrastructure in
building infrastructure, a smart space brings
together two worlds that have been disjoint
until now. The fusion of these worlds enables
sensing and control of one world by the other.
Invisibility
The second thrust is invisibility. The ideal
expressed by Weiser is complete
disappearance of pervasive computing
technology from a user’s consciousness. In
practice, a reasonable approximation to this
ideal is minimal user distraction.
If a pervasive computing environment
continuously meets user expectations and
rarely presents him with surprises, it allows
him to interact almost at a subconscious level
Localized Scalability
The third research thrust is localized scalability. As smart spaces
grow in sophistication, the intensity of interactions between a
user’s personal computing space and his/her surroundings
increases. This has severe bandwidth, energy, and distraction
implications for a wireless mobile user.
The presence of multiple users will further complicate this
problem. Scalability, in the broadest sense, is thus a critical
problem in pervasive computing.
Previous work on scalability has typically ignored physical
distance — a Web server or file server should handle as many
clients as possible, regardless of whether they are located next
door or across the country. The situation is very different in
pervasive computing.
Here, the density of interactions has to fall off as one moves
away; otherwise, both the user and his computing system will be
overwhelmed by distant interactions that are of little relevance.
Masking Uneven Conditioning
The fourth thrust is the development of techniques for masking
uneven conditioning of environments. The rate of penetration of
pervasive computing technology into the infrastructure will vary
considerably depending on many nontechnical factors such as
organizational structure, economics, and business models.
Uniform penetration, if it is ever achieved, is many years or
decades away.
In the interim, there will persist huge differences in the
“smartness” of different environments — what is available in a
well-equipped conference room, office, or classroom may be
more sophisticated than in other locations. This large dynamic
range of “smartness” can be jarring to a user, detracting from the
goal of making pervasive computing technology invisible.
Evolution & Related Fields

Other related fields:

Sensor Networks
A sensor network consist of a large
number of tiny autonomous computing
devices, each equipped with sensors, a
wireless radio, a processor, and a power
source.
Sensor networks are envisioned to be
deployed unobtrusively in the physical
environment in order to monitor a wide
range of environmental phenomena (e.g.,
environmental pollutions, seismic activity,
wildlife) with unprecedented quality and
scale.
Evolution & Related Fields

Other related fields:

Human Computer Interaction
HCI is the study of interaction between people (users) and
computers.

A basic goal of HCI is to improve the interaction between users

and computers by making computers more user-friendly and
receptive to the user's needs.

A long term goal of HCI is to design systems that minimize the

barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want
to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's
task.
Evolution & Related Fields

Other related fields:

Artificial Intelligence
AI can be defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial
(non-natural, manufactured) entity.

AI is studied in overlapping fields of computer science,

psychology and engineering, dealing with intelligent behavior,
learning and adaptation in machines, generally assumed to be
computers.

Research in AI is concerned with producing machines to

automate tasks requiring intelligent behavior.
Problem Space
Design and implementation problems in pervasive comp.
User intent
Cyber foraging
Adaptation strategy
High-level energy management
Client thickness
Context awareness
Balancing proactivity and transparency
Impact on layering
Privacy and trust
Problem Space
User intent
For proactivity to be effective, it is crucial that a pervasive
computing system track user intent. Otherwise, it will be almost
impossible to determine which system actions will help rather
than hinder the user.
For example, suppose a user is viewing video over a network
connection whose bandwidth suddenly drops. Should the system:
Reduce the fidelity of the video?
Pause briefly to find another higher-bandwidth connection?
Advise the user that the task can no longer be accomplished?
The correct choice will depend on what the user is trying to
accomplish.
Problem Space
Cyber foraging (also called “living off the land”)
The idea is to dynamically augment the computing resources of
a wireless mobile computer by exploiting wired hardware
infrastructure.
As computing becomes cheaper and more plentiful, it makes
economic sense to “waste” computing resources to improve user
experience.
In the forseeable future, public spaces such as airport lounges
and coffee shops will be equipped with compute servers or data
staging servers for the benefit of customers, much as table
lamps are today. (Today, many shopping centers and cafeterias
offer their customers free wireless internet access.)
Problem Space
Adaptation strategy
Adaptation is necessary when there is a significant mismatch
between the supply and demand of a resource (e.g. wireless
network bandwidth, energy, computing cycles or memory).
There are three alternative strategies for adaptation in
pervasive computing:
A client can guide applications in changing their behavior so that they use
less of a scarce resource. This change usually reduces the user-perceived
quality, or fidelity, of an application.
A client can ask the environment to guarantee a certain level of a resource
(reservation-based QoS systems). From the viewpoint of the client, this
effectively increases the supply of a scarce resource to meet the client’s
demand.
A client can suggest a corrective action to the user. If the user acts on this
suggestion, it is likely (but not certain) that resource supply will become
adequate to meet demand.
Problem Space
High-level energy management
Sophisticated capabilities such as proactivity and self-tuning
increase the energy demand of software on a mobile computer
in one’s personal computing space.
Making such computers lighter and more compact places severe
restrictions on battery capacity, so the higher levels of the
system must be involved in memory management.
One example is energy-aware memory management, where the
operating system dynamically controls the amount of physical
memory that has to be refreshed.
Another example is energy-aware adaptation, where individual
applications switch to modes of operation with lower fidelity
and energy demand under operating system control.
Problem Space
Client thickness (hardware capabilities of the client)
For a given application, the minimum acceptable thickness of a
client is determined by the worst-case environmental conditions
under which the application must run satisfactorily.
A very thin client suffices if one can always count on high-
bandwidth low-latency wireless communication to nearby
computing infrastructure, and batteries can be recharged or
replaced easily.
If there exists even a single location visited by a user where
these assumptions do not hold, the client will have to be thick
enough to compensate at that location.
This is especially true for interactive applications where crisp
response is important.
Problem Space
Context awareness
A pervasive computing system must be cognizant of its user’s
state and surroundings, and must modify its behavior based on
this information.
A user’s context can be quite rich, consisting of attributes such
as physical location, physiological state (e.g., body temperature
and heart rate), emotional state (e.g., angry, distraught, or
calm), personal history, daily behavioral patterns, and so on.
If a human assistant were given such context, he or she would
make decisions in a proactive fashion, anticipating user needs.
In making these decisions, the assistant would typically not
disturb the user at inopportune moments except in an
emergency.
A pervasive computing system should emulate such a human
assistant.
Problem Space
Balancing proactivity and transparency
Unless carefully designed, a proactive system can annoy a user
and thus defeat the goal of invisibility.
A mobile user’s need and tolerance for proactivity are likely to
be closely related to his/her level of expertise on a task and
familiarity with his/her environment.
A system that can infer these factors by observing user
behavior and context is better positioned to strike the right
balance.
For transparency, a user patience model can be implemented to
predict whether the user will respond positively to a fetch
request. So the user interaction is suppressed and the fetch is
handled transparently.
Problem Space
Impact on layering
Proactivity and adaptation based on corrective actions seem to
imply exposure of much more information across layers than is
typical in systems today.
Layering cleanly separates abstraction from implementation and
is thus consistent with sound software engineering.
Layering is also conducive to standardization since it encourages
the creation of modular software components.
Problem Space
Privacy and trust
As a user becomes more dependent on a pervasive computing
system, it becomes more knowledgeable about that user’s
movements, behavior patterns and habits.
Exploiting this information is critical to successful proactivity and self-
tuning (invisibility), but also may cause serious loss of privacy.
User must trust the infrastructure to a considerable extent
and the infrastructure needs to be confident of the user’s
identity and authorization level before responding to his/her
requests.
It is a difficult challenge to establish this mutual trust in a
manner that is minimally intrusive and thus preserves
invisibility.
Example Projects

Pervasive computing projects have emerged at major

universities and in industry:
Project Aura (Carnegie Mellon University)
Oxygen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Portalano (University of Washington)
Endeavour (University of California at Berkeley)
Place Lab (Intel Research Laboratory at Seattle)
Example Projects : Project Aura (4)
The Airport Scenario
Jane wants to send e-mail from the
airport before her flight leaves.
She has several large enclosures
She is using a wireless interface

She has many options.

Simply send the e-mail
Is there enough bandwidth?
Compress the data first
Will that help enough?
Pay extra to get reserved bandwidth
Are reservations available?
Send the “diff” relative to older file
Are the old versions around?
Walk to a gate with more bandwidth
Where is there enough bandwidth?

How do we choose automatically?

Example Projects : Project Aura (5)
The Mobile Task Scenario
Aura saves Scott’s task.
Scott enters office and gets strong
authentication and secure access.
Aura restores Scott’s task on desktop
machine and uses a large display.
Scott controls application by voice.
Bradley enters room.
Bradley gets weak authentication,
Scott’s access changes to insecure.
Aura denies voice access to sensitive
email application.
Scott has multi-modal control of
PowerPoint application.
Aura logs Scott out when he leaves
the room.
Example Projects : Oxygen

Oxygen (MIT)
Pervasive human-centered computing.
Goal of Oxygen is bringing abundant computation and
communication, as pervasive and free as air, naturally into
people's lives.
Example Projects : Oxygen (2)
To support highly dynamic and varied human activities, the Oxygen
system must be
pervasive— it must be everywhere, with every portal reaching into the same
information base;
embedded— it must live in our world, sensing and affecting it;
nomadic— it must allow users and computations to move around freely, according
to their needs;
adaptable— it must provide flexibility and spontaneity, in response to changes in
user requirements and operating conditions;
powerful, yet efficient— it must free itself from constraints imposed by bounded
hardware resources, addressing instead system constraints imposed by user
demands and available power or communication bandwidth;
intentional— it must enable people to name services and software objects by
intent, for example, "the nearest printer," as opposed to by address;
eternal— it must never shut down or reboot; components may come and go in
response to demand, errors, and upgrades, but Oxygen as a whole must be
available all the time.
Related Projects: Portalano

Portolano (University of Washington)

An expedition into invisible computing.

Expedition goals:
Connecting the physical world to the world-wide information fabric
Instrument the environment: sensors, locators, actuators
Universal plug-and-play at all levels: devices to services
Optimize for power: computation partitioning, comm. opt.
Intermittent communication: new networking strategies

Get computers out of the way

Don’t interfere with user’s tasks
Diverse task-specific devices with optimized form-factors
Wide range of input/output modalities

Robust, trustworthy services

High-productivity software development
Self-organizing, active middleware, maintenance, monitoring
Higher-level, meaningful services
Related Projects: Portalano (2)

Scenario
Alice begins the day with a cup of coffee and her
personalized newspaper.
When her carpool arrives, she switches to reading the news
on her handheld display, where she notices an advertisement
for a new 3-D digital camera.
It looks like something that would interest her shutterbug-
friend Bob, so Alice asks her address book to place the call.
Related Projects: Portalano (3)

Scenario (2)
Bob's home entertainment system softens the volume of his
custom music file as his phone rings.
Alice begins telling Bob about the camera, and forwards him a
copy of the advertisement which pops up on his home display.
Bob is sold on the product, and after hanging up with her, he
asks his electronic shopping agent to check his favorite
photography stores for the lowest price and make the
purchase.
Related Projects: Portalano (4)

Scenario (3)
When the camera arrives, Bob snaps some photos of his
neighbor's collection of antique Portuguese navigation
instruments.
After reviewing the photo album generated automatically by a
web-based service, Bob directs a copy of his favorite image
to the art display in his foyer.
He also sends a pointer to the photo album to Alice and
instructs his scheduling agent to set up a lunch date so that
he can thank her for the suggestion.
Other Scenarios

Buy drinks by Friday (1)

Take out the last can of soda

Swipe the can’s UPC label, which

adds soda to your shopping list

Make a note that you need soda

for the guests you are having over
this weekend
Other Scenarios

Buy drinks by Friday (2)

Approach a local supermarket

AutoPC informs you that you are

near a supermarket

Opportunistic reminder: “If it is

convenient, stop by to buy drinks.”
Other Scenarios

Buy drinks by Friday (3)

- Friday rolls around and you have
not bought drinks

- Deadline-based reminder sent to

your pager
Other Scenarios

Screen Fridge
Provides:
Email
Video messages
Web surfing
Food management
TV
Radio
Virtual keyboard
Digital cook book
Surveillance camera
Other Scenarios

The Active Badge

This harbinger of inch-scale computers contains a small
microprocessor and an infrared transmitter.

The badge broadcasts the identity of its wearer and so can

trigger automatic doors, automatic telephone forwarding and
computer displays customized to each person reading them.

The active badge and other networked tiny computers are

called tabs.
Other Scenarios

The Active Badge

Other Scenarios
Edible computers:
The pill-cam
Miniature camera
Diagnostic device
It is swallowed

Try this with an

ENIAC computer!
Other Scenarios

Artificial Retina
Direct interface
with nervous system

Whole new
computational
paradigm (who’s the
computer?)
Other Scenarios

Smart Dust
Nano computers that couple:
Sensors
Computing
Communication

Grids of motes (“nano

computers”)
Door can greet you by name Refrigerator can offer recipes
upon entering. and dietary recommendation.
Wall can sense temperature, Clothes can show the latest
humidity, lighting, and adjust air fashion or monitor your
conditioning, de-humidifier, physical/mental health.
lighting accordingly. Medicine cabinet can remind you
Calendar can tell you meeting when to take medicines.
schedule. Dresser can give you fashion
Pencils can record everything advices.
you write. Washing machines and dryers
Book shelf can tell you the adjust to washing & drying
location of the book/paper you instructions on dirty clothes.
need. Credit card will warn if you are
Newspapers update news spending too much money.
(according to your interests)
every morning.