Home

Charting Past Present and Future Research in Ubiquitous Computing


Author(s) : Elizabeth D. Mynatt Gregory D. Abowd, 
Publisher : N/A
Publication Date : 2000
ISSN : N/A
Abstract : The proliferation of computing into the physical world promises more than the ubiquitous availability of computing infrastructure; it suggests new paradigms of interaction inspired by constant access to information and computational capabilities. For the past decade, application-driven research in ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) has pushed three interaction themes: natural interfaces, context-aware applications, and automated capture and access. To chart a course for future research in ubiquitous computing, we review the accomplishments of these efforts and point to remaining research challenges. Research in ubiquitous computing implicitly requires addressing some notion of scale, whether in the number and type of devices, the physical space of distributed computing, or the number of people using a system. We posit a new area of applications research, everyday computing, focussed on scaling interaction with respect to time. Just as pushing the availability of computing away from the traditional desktop fundamentally changes the relationship between humans and computers, providing continuous interaction moves computing from a localized tool to a constant companion. Designing for continuous interaction requires addressing interruption and resumption of interaction, representing passages of time and providing associative storage models. Inherent,