Almost eleven years after Mark Weiser’s classic paper, we’re beginning to see some real implementations of some of his suggestions.
pervasive
Entries tagged with “pervasive”.
I attended the workshop on Software Engineering Challenges for Ubiquitous Computing (SEUC 2006) in Lancaster, presided over by Gerd Kortuem.
After a somewhat hurried paper submission about using AOP in automotive software, I decided to change tack, so my presentation was about what kind of problems software engineers in the automotive space are facing. Admittedly I wasn’t presenting any answers, but my presentation went well and, being the only presenter discussing automotive systems and autonomics explicitly, I got a number of interesting questions which created a good discussion.
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Software Considerations for Automotive Pervasive Systems Talk given at SEUC2006, June 1–2, Lancaster UK.
Here’s an excerpt from my talk:
The modern car is a highly sensorial, complex pervasive system, with thousands of sensors and actuators and hundreds of microcontrollers controlling almost all aspects of the car’s operation; from the multimedia & entertainment systems (radio, DVD players) and navigation/mapping software, to communication both to the outside world and also on a more limited scale to other cars nearby on the road.
Finally, and most importantly, are the car’s safety systems. Most of the impetus for adding so much software to cars is the supposed benefits to driver safety. And when it works, this is great, but we must also recognise that the stakes are higher. There are dangers involved that most pervasive systems don’t have to be concerned with.
System Personalisation
Much of the talk and discussion involved the implications of personalisation in automotive systems. In the future and to an extent even now, you can choose which features you want your car to come shipped with. This is likely to increase in scale over time, so that a car’s base configuration can be permuted in thousands of ways for each buyer. Modules need to be unobtrusively integrated and interoperable.
Layered on top of this is the possibility of a car being modified, upgraded or damaged over time. Cars will have to be able to adapt to whatever components they have installed, and thus, there is a lot of autonomic computing involved.
Questions & Answers
A few brief (paraphrased) questions and answers that I remembered to write down (not guaranteed to be correct!):
- Will hardware and software become increasingly decoupled in automotive systems?
- This doesn’t seem to be the way it’s going. As far as I can see (and this was backed up at the workshop), the hardware and software systems seem to be getting more tightly coupled if anything.
- What is the development process at the car OEMs?
- I couldn’t answer this, but someone else stepped in and suggested that a lot of OEM’s in-house teams are actually graviating towards being software-only development houses, with hardware being contracted out to other companies.
- Does the drive-by-wire filtering of a user’s input spoil the love of driving?
- Not really a research question, but interesting nonetheless. I do wonder how many drivers could honestly say they’d prefer the primal thrill of risky, unrestricted driving over the increased safety and stability benefits of these modern cars.
A number of the SRG volunteered were conscripted for active service as helping hands for Pervasive 2006 this week, which was chaired by Aaron and Paddy. The conference was really well managed, and I think can confidentally be called a great success, our two fearless leaders being the apotheosis of cool under pressure (Lorcan on Paddy: “I don’t think he knows how to sweat.”).
While being a volunteer was tough going, seeing my first conference from behind the scenes has been a very interesting experience. The SRG gang really gelled together well, and our ranks were further bolstered by a complement of other great volunteers, who we had a terrific time with.
We have the official photo gallery. The man William “Richie” Hazlewood — who can down a carbomb like nobody else I’ve ever met 
— has also uploaded a great set of photos from the conference (and the after-party…).
A very interesting paper, given how long ago it was written. Though informal, this was inspiring. The examples of possible pervasive systems — the vast majority of which have not yet been implemented — seem to have had a large impact on future ‘thinkers’.
“The Computer for the 21st Century,” by Mark Weiser.
@article{213017,
author = {Mark Weiser},
title = {The computer for the 21st century},
book = {Human-computer interaction: toward the year 2000},
year = {1995},
isbn = {1-55860-246-1},
pages = {933--940},
publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc.},
address = {San Francisco, CA, USA},
}
Recent bookmarks tagged with “pervasive”.
- Aaron Quigley's News and Blog: April 2009 - Keynote Talk - IDEs for Pervasive Computing
Integrated Development Environments or IDEs are single software applications that provide a comprehensive range of features to aid in the software development process. Features include the ability to author, edit, compile, test, debug and deploy software onto a range of target platforms. Moderns IDEs support developers creating software applications for desktop platforms, mobile phones, set-top boxes, and PDAs. However, Pervasive Computing or Ubiquitous Computing consists of a myriad of hardware, software, systems and services which act as the computational edifice around which we need to build systems to afford natural or “invisible” interaction styles.
- How to Go Geocaching - wikiHow
Geocaching is an increasingly popular, inclusive, fun and healthy pastime for individuals of all ages. It is also great for groups like families, friends, classes and youth groups working as teams. The sport combines technology with adventure, a combination that some people didn't think was possible. The core of the sport consists of using a hand held GPS receiver unit to guide you to a destination, where a hidden container (or "cache") is stored. Once found, you log your visit in an included logbook, and optionally trade one of the many contained "goodies" for one of your own. This wikiHow will guide you through the basics of the sport.
- Gowalla My Dreams – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report
We used to imagine a dystopian future in which Big Brother knew everything you did. Later it was the machines that knew. We’ve been talking about ubiquitous computing for years, and we’ve pictured it happening somehow without necessarily addressing the how—that is, some of the brightest and most inspiring futurists have concerned themselves more with the ethical and cultural transformative dimensions of ubiquitous computing than with the technical nuts and bolts of how it’s supposed to get done.
- A Daily Dose of Architecture: Towards the Sentient City
Despite the obvious implications for the built environment, architects have been largely absent from the discussions about how these technologies are conceptualized and deployed. To the extent that business interests and government agencies drive these technological developments, we can expect to see new forms of consumption, surveillance and control emerge.
- Orwellian Ubiquitous Computing May Build Ultimate Surveillance Society
An "Everyware" world, as Adam Greenfield calls it, is a world in which computers are embedded and merged seamlessly everywhere in the environment. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags communicate their position and other information constantly in a vast network. Everyday objects become "searchable" as if they were part of the interconnected world wide web. Surveillance in an "Everyware" world is perfected to a degree that is unimaginable. Scientific management of people and the environment we inhabit becomes possible, and marketers' ultimate dreams come true.
- incidental interaction
In many experimental and proposed systems the interaction is far less direct. A person walks into a room and the smart house, sensing their presence, adjusts the air conditioning and lighting to their normal preference. The person doesn't intend to dim the light or turn up the heat it just happens because she entered the room.
- Mobile phones: Sensors and sensitivity | The Economist
But some people find the idea of having their movements tracked in this way unsettling, even when the data are anonymised and aggregated. And knowing someone’s position is not enough on its own to determine whether they carry a disease or would be interested in going to a particular nightclub. So the best approach may be to combine voluntary (but potentially unreliable) contributions that are submitted manually with automated data capture that does not require user intervention, but may not capture the whole picture.
- Comixology and the future of connected commerce | FactoryCity
It dawned on me recently that, not only are we in a period of great change and transformation, but that those of us who have been working on the web to make it a more social and humane place have only barely begun the process of taking the “personality-ization” (not “personalization”) and connectedness that we take for granted on the web into the offline world.
- Aaron Quigley's work in Pervasive Computing and InfoVis: May 2009 "Haptic Jingle" and Pervasive Advertising 2009
A Haptic Jingle is a particular shake or pulse pattern which we physically experience when we touch a particular object and hence associate with a product/company/service. A company could build such haptic feedback into their products or sales spaces e.g. "I'm loving it" translates to a low key vibration with two or three pulses which match with the inflection points in the associated audio or written phrase. This haptic pattern can then be embedded into physical objects we interact with in public space such as door handles.
- Near Future Laboratory » Blog Archive » Workshop on Pervasive Advertising
It’s optimized to leverage the pervasively networked, databased world and this can only lead to an intensely uninspired, technically awesome, intrusive and annoying world. It can’t really go any other way than that shown in the various compelling and fascistic interpretations in “Minority Report” of the pervasive advertising future - retinal scanning, holographic “pop-up” adverts, yammering cereal boxes with laminated displays and gesture recognition (to know when I’m trying to tell it to stop yammering, which is guaranteed to fail any number of times, as adroitly shown in Spielberg’s film), fascistic large urban screens, etc.