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Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing

Introduction

Hao Chu (朱浩華 )

2/22/2005

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Outline

• Faculty Intro• Student Intro• What is Pervasive / Ubiquitous Computing?• Course Topics• Course Format• Course Projects• Grading

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Faculty Intro

• Ubicomp Lab, i-space Labs• New associate professor (8/1/2003)• Education:

– PhD (1999), Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

– BS (1994), Computer Science, Cornell University

• Previous Work Experience: – Xerox – Intel– NTT DoCoMo USA Labs

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Students Intro

• Please tell us about:– Grade level– Current (future) research area, interests, and faculty advisor– Background (rating: good, fair, none)

• English (reading, writing, and speaking)• Programming skills (C/C++, Java)• Hardware• Systems (OS or distributed)• Networking• User Interface• Vision

– Why are you interested in this course?

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Terminology

• What is pervasive & ubiquitous computing (ubicomp)?– Ubiquitous = 到處存在的 ;遍在的– Other names: invisible computing, context-aware com

puting, everyday computing, ambient intelligence, embedded interactive computing, etc.

• How to realize ubicomp?– Move beyond desktop computing.– Embed computing into everyday objects.– Integrate (seamlessly connecting) physical objects wit

h virtual environment.– Networking everyday objects.

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Toward Smart Everyday Objects

• Door can greet you by name upon entering.

• Wall can sense temperature, humidity, lighting, and adjust air conditioning, de-humidifier, lighting accordingly.

• Calendar can tell you meeting schedule.

• Pencils can record everything you write.

• Book shelf can tell you the location of the book/paper you need.

• Shoes can tell you where you have walked to.

• Refrigerator can offer recipes and dietary recommendation.

• Clothes can show the latest fashion or monitor your physical/mental health.

• Medicine cabinet can remind you when to take medicines.

• Dresser can give you fashion advices.

• Washing machines and dryers adjust to washing & drying instructions on dirty clothes.

• Credit card will warn if you are spending too much money.

• Smart chair, smart dining table, etc.

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Ubicomp is the Future …

• “The (Computing) World is not a desktop!” ... Mark Weiser

• Ubicomp is how computing will be used in the future:– in everyday activities – invisibly through embedding in the physical objects

(requiring little user attention)– to create smart, everyday objects through

interconnections and cooperation (with other smart objects)

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Related Fields of Ubicomp

• How does Ubicomp come about? (the evolution path)– Distributed Computing (PC + networks)

• Challenges: performance, scalability, server or network failures, open networks, performance,

– Mobile computing (Mobile devices + wireless networks)

• Challenges: resource-limitation, unpredictable network, power

– Ubicomp (Everyday objects + wireless networks)• Challenges: understanding user intention, heterogeneous

ubicomp environments, invisible user experience, more ..

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Course Topics (Tentative)

• Vision & challenges• Software

infrastructure • Sensors • Context-aware

computing• Security and privacy

• Human experience

• Ubiquitous data access

• Coping with uncertainty

• Social computing• Project Aura• Project Oxygen• (Wearable

Computing)

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Course Objective

• To prepare us (students and faculty) for research in ubicomp.

• (Try to) duplicate experience from similar courses taught at MIT, Stanford, CMU, and Georgia Tech.– Learning by reading papers

• Define problems & challenges• Understand state-of-art techniques & solutions• Identify limitations of state-of-art solutions

– Learning by doing projects• The project must have a research component.

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Collaborative Learning

• This is a research seminar course, so everyone (faculty and students) will contribute to the learning process.– Paper discussion– Paper presentation– Project presentation

• Ubicomp is a new, fast changing field, so faculty may not know all materials!

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(Unusual) Course Format

• Each lecture will discuss 4~5 papers on a specific topic.• For each paper,

– All will write a paper review before the class– Presenter will give an overview of the paper for 20 minutes.– Everyone will join the discussion for 10 minutes.

• Students will sign up for papers for presentation.

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How to read a paper?

• For each paper, try to answer the following questions:– What is the problem?– What is the current state-of-the-art?– What is the key make-a-difference (new) method and

technique?– What is good/bad/ugly about this make-a-difference

method? – What has actually been done?– What is the future work?

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Reading in Depth

• “Efficient Reading of Papers in Science and Technology”, Michael Hanson & Dylan McNamee

• Must challenge what you read!• Attack the paper (use your common sense)

– Are assumptions reasonable?– Is the method similar to other methods in related work?– Is the improvement marginal or significant?– Are arguments logically sound? – Are evaluation metrics reasonable?– Is conclusion drawn logically from measurements?

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Develop Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is "the examination and testing of suggested solutions to see whether they will work." Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson, 1978.

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SWIFI

• We will setup a swifi website (collaborative website).– The assigned presenter must post presentation slides

and paper summary on swifi course page before the lecture starts.

– The assigned presenter will post a discussion summary on the swifi course page after the lecture ends.

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Next Week Reading

• Mark Weiser. "Some Computer Science Problems in Ubiquitous Computing." Communications of the ACM, July 1993.

• Mark Weiser. “Some computer science issues in ubiquitous computing.” Communications of the ACM, 36(7):75-85, July 1993.

• Mark Weiser, John S. Brown. "The Coming Age of Calm Technology." 1996.

• M. Satyanarayanan. "Fundamental Challenges in Mobile Computing", Fifteenth ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, May 1996.

• M. Satyanarayanan. “Pervasive Computing: Vision and Challenges”, In: IEEE Personal Communications. Carnegie Mellon University. (2001).

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Reading Sources

• IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine• ACM Ubicomp (2002, 2003, 2004)• Pervasive (2002, 2003)• IEEE Percom • ACM Mobisys, ACM Mobicom, ACM Mobihoc, ACM Sen

sys, SOSP, etc.• Can also be in any system & networking conferences, UI

conferences, etc.

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Project Component

• Rapid research prototype of an ubicomp application in one semester.

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Lifecycle of a Research Project

• Define motivation scenario (Tell an interesting story)– Emphasize the parts of scena

rio where it is currently not possible, but with your idea, it will become possible.

– Show me a proof-of-concept demo prototype

• Derive problem(s)– Assumptions, requirements, i

mplementation vs. research problems

• Survey related work

• Design solution(s) (new method, concept, and SW abstraction) – Differentiate your work from re

lated work– Must answer two questions:

What’s new? Why is it significant?

• Rapid prototype implementation

• Evaluation of Prototype Implementation (Experiments, user studies)

• Write a paper

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Project Phases

• Phase 1: project idea presentation– Fun, realizable within one semester time framework

and computing equipments, has a research component.

• Phase 2: project proposal document– Form teams, define goals, plan, and needed

equipments.• Phase 3: project working prototype and final

report– Working prototype demonstration– Project report detailing motivation, objective, related

work, design, implementation, and evaluation.

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Project Ideas

• References:– Georgia Tech “Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing” (Gregory

Abowd)• http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2003/cs7470_spring/

– MIT Pervasive Computing (Larry Rudolph)• http://www.cag.lcs.mit.edu/classes/6.898/projects.htm

– CMU “Mobile Computing Systems & Applications” (Satya)• http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~15-821/

– Stanford “Mobile and Wireless Networks & Applications” (Mary Baker)

• http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs444n/projects.html

• IEEE Pervasive Magazines– Education & Training articles by Scott F. Midkiff

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Project Idea (1) Weighting and RFID surfaces

• Ergo-chair: it can detect if a person is sitting in the correct posture

• Emotion-chair: it can detect a person’s mental state by the way how he/she sits on the chair

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Project Idea (2) Pollution monitor

• Monitor your exposure to pollutants – Toxic Air– Acid rain– Toxic drinking water– Food chemical or bacteria– Environmental radiation (SUN)– Radiation cell phones & WLAN

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Project Idea (3) Games

• Players’ physical context drives the games.– Players interact with the games and other players in both

physical and virtual spaces.– Physical world interactions are the “cool/innovative aspects”

(differs from PC-based games).• “Hide and Seek” (Nottingham):

– Runaways and policemen carry GPS-enabled cell phones in a city. Both can see their “approximate locations” on a city map. Policemen run around in a city to catch the runaways (caught if come within some small distance).

• “Ubicomp Doom” (MIT):– Game is projected on the wall.– No mouse and keyboard -> player’s physical movement moves

the virtual player.

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Project Idea (4) Healthcare

• Smart refrigerator• Smart chopsticks• Smart robes• Smart pads

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Project Idea (5) Everywhere Display

• Projector + mirror

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Project Idea (6) Personal Experience Computing

• Lots of photos from your digital camera +• Digital photograph frame +• Context information

– Reminder– Mood pleaser– Reliving memory

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Other project Ideas

• Interactive arts• Intelligent things• Indoor location systems• Location-based services• Security & Privacy protection• Using RFID• Anything …

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Ubicomp Toys I

• Nokia and Windows CE Smart phones

• HP IPAQ 5500 (Bluetooth + 802.11)

• IPAQ Accessories: expansion pack, camera, memory card, GPS, GPRS, ..

• Sensors: light, tilt, temperature, accelerometer, pressure, weight, orientation, ultrasound, etc.

• Philgets RFID kits• Berkeley Motes

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Ubicomp Toys II

• Passive RFID tags & readers (Skyetek and Alien)• Biometric sensors (heart rate, BVP, GSR, etc.)• Projector• WiFi based location systems (ekahau.com)• Ultrasound-based positioning systems (Navinotesd)• Use your imagination

– Anything you can find on the network or from your own lab …– However, budget may be limited

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Grading (Tentative)

• Class Participation (30%)– Paper presentation– Paper review – Paper discussion

• Project (70%)

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Course Requirements

• Class attendance (MUST!)– Please don’t register if you cannot wake up in the morning.

• Good programming skill• Some systems & networking background• Some creativity• Some research experience (if you are not my students)• Willing to spend extra time & efforts than what a regular

course would need• M1 and undergrads, please come & talk with me after

the class.

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Course Homepage(is not up yet.)

I will setup a link from my homepage

http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~hchu

(Click on course link)

Check on Wednesday

Watch for Course Announcements

Download papers

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Thank you