Ubiquitous Computing Environment - Seminar Report

          

ABSTRACT

One is happy when one’s desires are fulfilled.

The highest ideal of ubicomp is to make a computer so imbedded, so fitting, so natural, that we use it without even thinking about it. Pervasive computing is referred as Ubiquitous computing through out the paper. 

One of the goals of ubiquitous computing is to enable devices to sense changes in their environment and to automatically adapt and act based on these changes based on user needs and preferences. The technology required for ubiquitous computing comes in three parts: cheap, low- power computers that include equally convenient displays, a network that ties them all together, and software systems implementing ubiquitous applications. Current trends suggest that the first requirement will easily be met.

Our preliminary approach: Activate the world. Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office, of all scales. This has required network in operating systems, user interfaces, networks, wireless, displays, and many other areas. We call our work “ubiquitous computing”. This is different from PDA’s, dynabooks, or information at your fingertips. It is invisible; everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any sort, but is in the woodwork everywhere.

Single-room networks based on infrared or newer electromagnetic technologies have enough channel capacity for ubiquitous computers, but they can only work indoors.

Cryptographic techniques already exist to secure messages from one ubiquitous computer to another and to safeguard private information stored in networked systems. 

We suggest using cell phone device available in the market for ubicomp also i.e., the handheld device will be used for both ubicomp and also as a cell phone.

How Ubiquitous Networking will work

Ubicomp integrates computation into the environment, rather than having computers,

Which are distinct objects. Another term for this ubicomp is PERVASIVE COMPUTING.

This Ubicomp is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people 

inside a computer-generated world, i.e., it forces the computer to live out here in the world 

with people. Ubiquitous computing encompasses a wide range of research topics, including distributed computing, mobile computing, sensor networks, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

By using a small radio transmitters and a building full of special sensors, your desktop can be anywhere you are. At the press of a button, the computer closest to you in any room becomes your computer for long as you need it.

In the Zone

In order for a computer program to track its user a system should be developed that could locate both people and devices i.e., ultrasonic location system. This location tracking system has three parts:

Bats: - small ultrasonic transmitters wore by users.

Receivers: - ultrasonic signal detectors embedded in ceiling.

Central Controller: - coordinates the bats and receiver chains. 

  

The figure of a Bat.

Users within the system will wear a bat, a small device that transmits a 48-bit code to the receivers in the ceiling. Bats also have an embedded transmitter, which allows it to communicate with the central controller using a bi-directional 433-MHz radio link.

Bats are about the size of a paper. These small devices are powered by a single 3.6-volt lithium thionyl chloride battery, which has a lifetime of six months. The devices also contain two buttons, two light-emitting diodes and a piezoelectric speaker, allowing them to be used as ubiquitous input and output devices, and a voltage monitor to check the battery status.

A bat will transmit an ultrasonic signal, which will be detected by receivers located in the ceiling approximately 4 feet apart in a square grid. If a bat needs to be located, the central controller sends the bats ID over a radio link to the bat. The bat will detect its ID and send out an ultrasonic pulse. The central controller measures the time it looks for that pulse to reach the receiver. Since the speed of sound at which the ultrasonic pulse reached three other sensors.

By finding the position of two or more bats, the system can determine the orientation of a bat. The central controller can also determine which way a person is facing by analyzing the pattern of receivers that detected the ultrasonic signal and the strength of the signal.

                The central controller crates a zone around every person and object within the location system. The computer uses a spatial monitor to detect if a user’s zone overlaps with the zone of a device. Computer desktops can be created that actually follow their owners anywhere with in the system just by approaching any computer display in the building, the bat can enable the virtual network computing desktop to appear on  that display.

Ubi-Finger

Here, in contrast, Ubi-Finger is the gesture-i/p device, which is simple, compact and optimized for mobile use.

Using our systems, a user can detect a target device by pointing with his/her index finger, and then control it flexibly by performing natural gestures of fingers.

Ubi-Finger consists of three sensors to detect gestures of fingers, an infrared transmitter to select a target device in real world and a microcomputer to control these sensors and communicate with a host computer. Each sensor generates the information of motions as follows: (1) a bending degree of the index finger, (2) tilt angles of the wrist, (3) operations of touch sensors by a thumb. We use (1) and (2) for recognition of gestures, and use (3) for the trigger mechanism to start and stop gesture recognition.

Mouse Field

Although various interaction technologies for handling information in the ubiquitous computing environment have been proposed, some technologies are too simple for performing rich interaction, and others require special expensive equipments to be installed everywhere, and cannot soon be available in our everyday environment. Here there is a new simple and versatile i/p device called the Mouse Field, which enables users to control various information applications easily without huge amount of cost.

A mouse field consists of an ID recognizer and motion sensors that can detect an object and its movement after the object is placed on it. The system can interpret the user’s action as a command to control the flow of information.

     

"Placing" (detecting an object) @ "Moving" (detecting its movement)    

Mouse Field is a device which combines an ID reader and motion sensing devices into one package. an implementation of Mouse Field, which consist of two motion sensors and an RFID reader hidden under the surface. The RFID reader and the two optical mouses are connected to a PC through a USB cable, and they can detect the ID and the motion of the object put on the device. When a user puts an object with an RFID on the Mouse Field, it first detects what was kept on the RFID reader. When the use moves or rotates the object, motion sensor detects the direction and rotation of the object.

  

These are used to control various parameters without special parameters.

Information Hoppers and Smart Posters

Once these zones are setup, computers on the network will have some interesting capabilities. The system will help to store and retrieve data in an Information hopper. This is a timeline of information that keeps track of when data is created. The hopper knows who created it, where they were and who they were with.

Another application that will come out of this ultrasonic location system is the smart poster. 

A convention computer interface requires us to click on a button on your computer screen. In this new system, a button can be placed anywhere in your workplace, not just on the computer display. The idea behind smart posters is that a button can be a piece of paper that is printed out and struck on a wall.

Smart posters will be used to control any device that is plugged into the network. The poster will know where to send a file and a user’s preferences. Smart posters could also be used in advertising new services. To press a button on a smart poster, a user will simply place his or her bat in the smart poster button and click the bat. The system automatically knows who is pressing the poster’s button. Posters can be created with several buttons on it.

Ultrasonic location systems will require us to think outside of the box. Traditionally, we have used our files, and we may back up these files on a network server. This ubiquitous network will enable all computers in a building to transfer ownership and store all our files in a central timeline.

Moving toward a future of Ubiquitous Computing  

We suggest a new method to carry all of your personal media with you in a convenient pocket form factor, and have wireless access to it when standing in front of a PC, kiosk, or large display, anywhere in the world that might significantly improve your mobile computing experience.

Intel researchers are developing a new class of mobile device that leverages advances in processing, storage, and communications technologies to provide ubiquitous access to personal information and applications through the existing fixed infrastructure. The device, called a personal server is a small, lightweight computer with high-density data storage capability. It requires no display, so it can be smaller than a typical PDA. A wireless interface enables the user to access content stored in the device through whatever displays are available in the local environment. For example, in the digital home, the personal server could wirelessly stream audio and video stored on the device to a PC or digital home TV.

The technology to enable these scenarios and more is now being explored.

Conclusion:

We are moving toward a future in which computing will be ubiquitous, woven seamlessly into the fabric of everyday life. Researchers are engaged in several projects to explore technologies and usage models for everyday uses of computing. In their research, they are addressing fundamental issues that must be resolved in order to enable “anytime, anywhere” computing.

To make ubiquitous computing a reality will require the collaboration of researchers in a broadband of disciplines, within computer science and beyond.