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Achieving Ubiquity: The New Third Wave
Abstract
In this article, Chris Harrison, Jason Wiese, and Anind K. Dey discuss the predictions of Mark Weiser, the father of ubiquitous computing, who envisioned that we would have smart personal environments, with numerous computational devices embedded within each environment. The authors point out that, rather than this happening, what we have currently are personalized computational devices, for example, smart phones, tied to users rather than embedded in the environment. The interesting development of this observation is the crux of their article. Even though multimedia, per se, is not specifically addressed in the article, what the authors have to say is certainly relevant to our community, as smart computational devices and sensors of various sorts are certainly siblings under the skin.-William I. Grosky
... Authors such as Washington (2001) and Keller and Saff o (1999) argue that in M. Weiser's vision, calm technologies are a response to the coming age of ubiquitous computing, in which the ratio of computers to people will be very high, with many computers "sharing" each of us. Thus, Weiser (1991, Weiser andBrown, 1996a) argued that after the personal computer age, in the last decade of the twentieth century, the ubiquitous computing age, or the age of calm technology will begin, "when technology recedes into the background of our lives" (Harrison, Wiese, and Dey, 2010). It is worth mentioning that the concept of ubiquitous computing was introduced by Weiser during a seminar in 1988 (Abowd and Mynatt , 2000;Caltagirone, 2003;Mühlhäuser and Gurevych, 2008;Weiser, Gold, and Brown, 1999). ...
This article provides an overview of cloud computing as an information and communication technology and of calm technologies. The article also reviews research on the calmness of cloud computing in the humansbusiness- environment triad. We fi nd that cloud computing is a calm technology at a level perceived as good, with a score of 8,31 points in the refi ned Tugui and Tugui model. Specialists" perceptions of cloud computing can be summarized as follows: technological connectivity, reduction in size, and ubiquity. We argue that, for humans, stress is diminished when using cloud computing. Similarly, businesses experience less economic stress. A direct consequence of a reduction in technological stress is less stress on the environment.
... Authors such as Washington (2001) and Keller and Saff o (1999) argue that in M. Weiser's vision, calm technologies are a response to the coming age of ubiquitous computing, in which the ratio of computers to people will be very high, with many computers "sharing" each of us. Thus, Weiser (1991, Weiser andBrown, 1996a) argued that after the personal computer age, in the last decade of the twentieth century, the ubiquitous computing age, or the age of calm technology will begin, "when technology recedes into the background of our lives" (Harrison, Wiese, and Dey, 2010). It is worth mentioning that the concept of ubiquitous computing was introduced by Weiser during a seminar in 1988 (Abowd and Mynatt , 2000;Caltagirone, 2003;Mühlhäuser and Gurevych, 2008;Weiser, Gold, and Brown, 1999). ...
This article provides an overview of cloud computing as an information and communication technology and
of calm technologies. The article also reviews research on the calmness of cloud computing in the
humans-business-environment triad. We fi nd that cloud computing is a calm technology at a level perceived as
good, with a score of 8,31 points in the refined Tugui and Tugui model. Specialists’ perceptions of cloud
computing can be summarized as follows: technological connectivity, reduction in size, and ubiquity.
We argue that, for humans, stress is diminished when using cloud computing. Similarly, businesses experi-
ence less economic stress. A direct consequence of a reduction in technological stress is less stress on the
environment.
... Such integrated interfaces should rather offer affordances in the environment that augment everyday surfaces and objects with new input techniques [13, 20, 44, 46, 56]. It should also be noted that ubiquitous computing principles proposed in the 1980s and 90s found application in the beginning of 21th century [23], as sufficient mass technology become available. At the moment, we also observe a boom in new commercial always-available wearable interfaces, e.g., Google Glass 1 , Pebble 2 , Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. ...
We experience a drastic increase in post-desktop input devices and interaction techniques but still lack in specific and applicable design principles for these systems. This paper presents a set of design principles for hand gesture based microinteractions. The main concepts from related work are fused together in order to build a clear structure that allows heuristic evaluation. Moreover, a visualization of a gesture phrase helps understanding the relationship of crucial concepts such as feedforward/feedback and a gesture's tension. The applicability of the proposed design principles is then exemplarily shown by the development of a truly ubiquitous interactive system for hand gesture based microinteractions.
... Localization has recently emerged as a major research topic in wireless communications, as the quest for ways to develop pervasive networks and enable ubiquitous services [2] [3]. For instance, in home and office environments, location information is used to identify the location of a device (personal computer, mobile phone, ID-card, etc.) and allow services such as smart-access to facilities and optimized file transfers. ...
We consider the source and network localization problems, seeking to strengthen the relationship between the Weighted-Least-Square (WLS) and the Maximum-Likelihood (ML) solutions of these problems. To this end, we design an optimization algorithm for source and network localization under the principle that: a) the WLS and the ML objectives should be the same; and b) the solution of the ML-WLS objective does not depend on any information besides the set of given distance measurements (observations). The proposed Range-Global Distance Continuation (R-GDC) algorithm solves the localization problems via iterative minimizations of smoothed variations of the WLS objective, each obtained by convolution with a Gaussian kernel of progressively smaller variances. Since the last (not smoothed) WLS objective derives directly from the ML formulation of the localization problem, and the R-GDC requires no initial estimate to minimize it, final result is maximum-likelihood approach to source and network localization problems. The performance of the R-GDC method is compared to that of state-of-the-art techniques such as semidefinite programming (SDP), nonlinear Newton least squares (NLS), and the Stress-of-a-MAjorizing-Complex-Objective-Function (SMACOF) algorithms, as well as to the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). The comparison reveals that the solutions obtained with the R-GDC algorithm is insensitive to initial estimates and provides a localization error that closely approaches that of the corresponding fundamental bounds. The R-GDC is also found to achieve a complexity order comparable to that of the SMACOF, which is known for its efficiency.
... Edwards and Grinter [3] name privacy as an important factor in the design of aware homes. Harrison et al. [4] see privacy as an important aspect in ubiquitous computing. ...
While there is a growing body of research on privacy, most of the work puts the focus on information privacy. Physical and psychological privacy issues receive little to no attention. However, the introduction of technology into our lives can cause problems with regard to these aspects of privacy. This is especially true when it comes to our homes, both as nodes of our social life and places for relaxation. This paper presents the results of a study intended to capture a part of the phenomenology of privacy in domestic environments.
Mobile, ubiquitous, and immersive computing appear poised to transform visualization, data science, and data-driven decision making.
Due to the ubiquity of the microprocessors and computers in the present life, some competences and skills have to be obtained by people in order to use in an optimized way the new technologies. Computational thinking can be a great help in this case. It is a new and fundamental way of thinking and problem solving, described as a way for solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behavior by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. Some fundamental concepts of computational thinking are the abstraction, algorithm design, data collection, decomposition and pattern recognition. Computational thinking allows us to take a complex problem, understand what the problem is and develop possible solutions. We can then present these solutions in a way that a computer, a human, or both, can understand.
In the era of pervasive and ubiquituous computing, the scope of computer applications is no longer restricted to traditional data processing. Pervasiveness and ubiquity imply that environment is a significant factor in computation. Context is an abstraction of environmental elements that has influence in defining the behavior of an application. Context-aware computing has been developing rapidly in these days, particularly in the aspects of contexts promotion and applications. This paper describes context-aware computing and its applications at three different layers: conceptual, implementation, and application. Context is modeled as a measurable and representable entity. Context-awareness is built on top of a reactive mechanism, which guides the implementation using development tools that have the capability of working with events and asynchronous execution. A generic perspective for examining application of context-awareness is also presented.
An increasing portion of the contemporary workforce is using mobile devices to create new kinds of work-space flows characterized by emergence, liquidity, and the blurring of all kinds of boundaries. This changes the traditional notion of the term workplace. The study reported on in this paper focused on how people enact and make sense of new work space boundaries enabled by their mobile practices. A unique method of data collection - the use of cultural probes - was adapted to an online format to facilitate participant reflection and documentation of mobile practices. Coupled with in-depth interviews, this methodology enabled the thick description of how individuals enacted spatial, temporal, and psychosocial boundaries of workplace through their mobile practices. Findings show that the growing reality of workplace for many is that it is becoming less a singular place dedicated to work performed in a predictable frame of time and evolving more towards an idiosyncratic space that takes on the spatial and temporal requirements of the individual worker - the overarching claim being the increasing individuation of workplace enabled by mobile devices.
Instant access to computing, when and where we need it, has long been one of the aims of research areas such as ubiquitous computing. In this paper, we describe the WorldKit system, which makes use of a paired depth camera and projector to make ordinary surfaces instantly interactive. Using this system, touch-based interactivity can, without prior calibration, be placed on nearly any unmodified surface literally with a wave of the hand, as can other new forms of sensed interaction. From a user perspective, such interfaces are easy enough to instantiate that they could, if desired, be recreated or modified "each time we sat down" by "painting" them next to us. From the programmer's perspective, our system encapsulates these capabilities in a simple set of abstractions that make the creation of interfaces quick and easy. Further, it is extensible to new, custom interactors in a way that closely mimics conventional 2D graphical user interfaces, hiding much of the complexity of working in this new domain. We detail the hardware and software implementation of our system, and several example applications built using the library.
Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires, radio waves and infrared, will be so ubiquitous that no one will notice their presence.
The author suggests that, due to the trends of unobtrusive
technology and more intrusive information, the next phase of computing
technology will develop nonlinearly. He states that, in the long run,
the personal computer and the workstation will become practically
obsolete because computing access will be everywhere: in the walls, on
your wrist, and in `scrap' computers (i.e., like scrap paper) lying
about to be used as needed. The current research on ubiquitous computing
is reviewed