ELE580U/COS598U

Pervasive (Ubiquitous) Information Systems (Appliances)

February 4, 2002

Perry R. Cook

Click Here for Schedule, Faculty, etc.

Handouts this time:

  • "The Digital Gaia," Verner Vinge, Wired Magazine, January, 2000.
  • "Networks for Homes," Amitava Dutta-Roy, IEEE Spectrum, December, 1999.
  • "Open House," Mark Weiser, NYU ITP WebZine Review, March, 1996.
  • "Some Computer Science Issues in Ubiquitous Computing," Mark Weiser, Communications of the ACM, July, 1993.

    • Handouts for Next Time:

    Many Wireless Articles for Prof. Poor's Lecture next time

    Assignment for next time:

    1) Read the papers, be ready for discussion.
    2) Go out on the web and begin a page of links to related topics/articles you're personally interested in.

    What is this class?

    Opening thoughts:
  • This class is not exactly about computers.
  • Nobody really wants to wear a computer.
  • Grandma doesn't care if there's a computer in her toaster.
  • Why do I have to "sync" my computers?
  • What's up with battery life?
  • Nerds and early adopters don't drive a market/technology
  • etc. . . .

    • What do people want?

  • People do want information, communication, help, assistance, empowerment, . . . .
  • But, people also want: Privacy, security, reliability, ease of use . . . .

    • What's An Information Appliance?

  • Today, device that helps you tap into a database.
  • Tomorrow, devices that connect to each other, share and track, etc. . . .

    • What are the roadblocks today?

  • Computing power
  • size
  • energy
  • tethers
  • bandwidth
  • realtime?
  • standards
  • I/O
  • marketing (perceived need)
  • competition
  • algorithms
  • user interface
  • persistance (obviousness) of function
  • . . . .

    • What of these are we going to look at in this class?

    We will talk about, but maybe can't do so much about ourselves:
  • size
  • power consumption
  • marketing
  • competition.

    We will talk about:

  • computing power
  • Tethers and wires (wireless RF and Infrared)
  • I/O
  • algorithms
  • system architecture
  • Apps (marketing and ???)

    Basically, if somebody sold the components, we'd (we will) know what to do.

    • Some things to ponder:

  • What is "information"
  • What's an "appliance"
  • Does "Information Appliance" make sense given these?

  • What are the multi of multi-media?
  • Text? (Hypertext?)
  • Sound
  • Video
  • Touch
  • Any More?

  • What will the library of the future look like?
  • What will entertainment of the future look like?
  • What will the house of the future look like?
  • What will the shopping mall of the future look like?
  • What will the office of the future look like?
  • What will the hospital of the future look like?
  • What do we mean by future?

    • What does all this have to do with the web?

  • Internet provides (provided) a loosely coupled information system.
  • Is the Web passe? What's next?
  • Wireless web browsers are here now.
  • Is it worth $50.00 per month to get directions to the nearest Thai restaurant?
  • What is worthwhile, or at least marketable?
  • In 1 year, in 10, in 50?

    • What we hope to do:

  • Take each of the things that we cover, and
  • discuss what does and does not work
  • Look at what hardware/software/tools are available
  • Look at which ones we have available (in the labs).
  • Think up a cool project
  • Do it

    • More future assignments to think about:

  • Go out and find all you can on the state of the art in the devices that interest you.
  • Write a scenario for some of the "What wills" above.