An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquitous computing experiment
PARC1
TL;DR: The ubiquitous computing philosophy, the PARCTAB system, user interface issues for small devices, and the experience in developing and testing a variety of mobile applications are described.
Abstract: The PARCTAB system integrates a palm-sized mobile computer into an office network. The PARCTAB project serves as a preliminary testbed for ubiquitous computing, a philosophy originating at Xerox PARC that aims to enrich our computing environment by emphasizing context sensitivity, casual interaction and the spatial arrangement of computers. This article describes the ubiquitous computing philosophy, the PARCTAB system, user interface issues for small devices, and our experience in developing and testing a variety of mobile applications.
Citations
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01 Nov 2000
TL;DR: This survey of research on context-aware systems and applications looked in depth at the types of context used and models of context information, at systems that support collecting and disseminating context, and at applications that adapt to the changing context.
Abstract: Context-aware computing is a mobile computing paradigm in which applications can discover and take advantage of contextual information (such as user location, time of day, nearby people and devices, and user activity) Since it was proposed about a decade ago, many researchers have studied this topic and built several context-aware applications to demonstrate the usefulness of this new technology Context-aware applications (or the system infrastructure to support them), however, have never been widely available to everyday users In this survey of research on context-aware systems and applications, we looked in depth at the types of context used and models of context information, at systems that support collecting and disseminating context, and at applications that adapt to the changing context Through this survey, it is clear that context-aware research is an old but rich area for research The difficulties and possible solutions we outline serve as guidance for researchers hoping to make context-aware computing a reality
2,272 citations
Cites methods from "An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..."
...The commercially available 3D-iD system from Pinpoint [ WL98 ] is also based on pure RF with granularity about 10 meters....
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01 May 1999
TL;DR: This work introduces the concept of context widgets that mediate betweent the environment and the application in the same way graphicalwidgets mediate between the user and the applications.
Abstract: Context-enabled applications are just emerging and promise richer interaction by taking environmental context into account. However, they are difficult to build due to their distributed nature and the use of unconventional sensors. The concepts of toolkits and widget libraries in graphical user interfaces has been tremendously successtil, allowing programmers to leverage off existing building blocks to build interactive systems more easily. We introduce the concept of context widgets that mediate between the environment and the application in the same way graphical widgets mediate between the user and the application. We illustrate the concept of context widgets with the beginnings of a widget library we have developed for sensing presence, identity and activity of people and things. We assess the success of our approach with two example context-enabled applications we have built and an existing application to which we have added context-sensing capabilities.
1,337 citations
Cites background from "An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..."
...In ubiquitous computing systems, devices sense and take advantage of nearby resources: a handheld computer located next to an electronic whiteboard may make use of the larger display surface or allow the user to interact with other nearby handheld users [15, 17 ]....
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...Likewise, office awareness systems sense usersO locations, but are also interested in their activities to e.g., help people locate each other, maintain awareness or forward phone calls [13, 16, 17 ]....
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TL;DR: The aim of this article is to factor out a simple class of context-aware applications and make the creation of these as easy as, say, creating Web pages.
Abstract: Current hardware developments are making mobile computing increasingly attractive. An important class of mobile applications are context-aware applications: applications that change their behaviour according to the user's present context-their location, who they are with, what the time of day is, and so on. This article is about software design for context-aware applications. Currently most such applications have been crafted by experts in research laboratories. Our aim is to factor out a simple class of context-aware applications and make the creation of these as easy as, say, creating Web pages.
834 citations
PARC1
TL;DR: A novel combination of inexpensive, unobtrusive and easy to use RFID tags, tag readers, portable computers and wireless networking demonstrates theility of invisibly, seamlessly and portably linking physical objects to networked electronic services and actions that arenaturally associated with their form.
Abstract: The role of computers in the modern office has divided our activities between virtual interactions in the realm of the computer and physical interactions with real objects within the traditional office infrastructure. This paper extends previous work that has attempted to bridge this gap, to connect physical objects with virtual representations or computational functionality, via various types of tags. We discuss a variety of scenarios we have implemented using a novel combination of inexpensive, unobtrusive and easy to use RFID tags, tag readers, portable computers and wireless networking. This novel combination demonstrates the utility of invisibly, seamlessly and portably linking physical objects to networked electronic services and actions that are naturally associated with their form.
690 citations
06 Jun 2004
TL;DR: Confab provides basic support for building ubiquitous computing applications, providing a framework as well as several customizable privacy mechanisms that allow application developers and end-users to support a spectrum of trust levels and privacy needs.
Abstract: Privacy is the most often-cited criticism of ubiquitous computing, and may be the greatest barrier to its long-term success. However, developers currently have little support in designing software architectures and in creating interactions that are effective in helping end-users manage their privacy. To address this problem, we present Confab, a toolkit for facilitating the development of privacy-sensitive ubiquitous computing applications. The requirements for Confab were gathered through an analysis of privacy needs for both end-users and application developers. Confab provides basic support for building ubiquitous computing applications, providing a framework as well as several customizable privacy mechanisms. Confab also comes with extensions for managing location privacy. Combined, these features allow application developers and end-users to support a spectrum of trust levels and privacy needs.
663 citations
Cites background or methods from "An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..."
...A key project in the initial foray into ubiquitous computing was the PARCTab system [145]....
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...For exampl e, the PARCTab system [145] was designed with centralized servers, making it so that thin clients could be deployed....
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References
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TL;DR: Consider writing, perhaps the first information technology: The ability to capture a symbolic representation of spoken language for long-term storage freed information from the limits of individual memory.
Abstract: Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires, radio waves and infrared, will soon be so ubiquitous that no-one will notice their presence.
9,073 citations
TL;DR: A novel system for the location of people in an office environment is described, where members of staff wear badges that transmit signals providing information about their location to a centralized location service, through a network of sensors.
Abstract: A novel system for the location of people in an office environment is described. Members of staff wear badges that transmit signals providing information about their location to a centralized location service, through a network of sensors. The paper also examines alternative location techniques, system design issues and applications, particularly relating to telephone call routing. Location systems raise concerns about the privacy of an individual and these issues are also addressed.
4,315 citations
"An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..." refers methods in this paper
...A similar system has been used to locate people using the Olivetti Active BadgeTM [31; 8; 12]....
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PARC1
TL;DR: Tapestry is intended to handle any incoming stream of electronic documents and serves both as a mail filter and repository; its components are the indexer, document store, annotation store, filterer, little box, remailer, appraiser and reader/browser.
Abstract: The Tapestry experimental mail system developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is predicated on the belief that information filtering can be more effective when humans are involved in the filtering process. Tapestry was designed to support both content-based filtering and collaborative filtering, which entails people collaborating to help each other perform filtering by recording their reactions to documents they read. The reactions are called annotations; they can be accessed by other people’s filters. Tapestry is intended to handle any incoming stream of electronic documents and serves both as a mail filter and repository; its components are the indexer, document store, annotation store, filterer, little box, remailer, appraiser and reader/browser. Tapestry’s client/server architecture, its various components, and the Tapestry query language are described.
4,299 citations
"An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..." refers methods in this paper
...In related work [10] a query language has been used to filter incoming mail....
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08 Dec 1994
TL;DR: This paper describes systems that examine and react to an individual's changing context, and describes four catagories of context-aware applications: proximate selection, automatic contextual reconfiguration, contextual information and commands, and contex-triggered actions.
Abstract: This paper describes systems that examine and react to an individual's changing context. Such systems can promote and mediate people's interactions with devices, computers, and other people, and they can help navigate unfamiliar places. We believe that a limited amount of information covering a person's proximate environment is most important for this form of computing since the interesting part of the world around us is what we can see, hear, and touch. In this paper we define context-aware computing, and describe four catagories of context-aware applications: proximate selection, automatic contextual reconfiguration, contextual information and commands, and contex-triggered actions. Instances of these application types have been prototyped on the PARCTAB, a wireless, palm-sized computer.
3,802 citations
"An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..." refers background in this paper
...The combination of mobile computing and context communications can be a powerful one [34; 24; 22 ; 26; 27; 25]....
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PARC1
TL;DR: What is new and different about the computer science in ubiquitous computing is explained, and a series of examples drawn from various subdisciplines of computer science are outlined.
Abstract: Ubiquitous computing is the method of enhancing computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user. Since we started this work at Xerox PARC in 1988, a number of researchers around the world have begun to work in the ubiquitous computing framework. This paper explains what is new and different about the computer science in ubiquitous computing. It starts with a brief overview of ubiquitous computing, and then elaborates through a series of examples drawn from various subdisciplines of computer science: hardware components (e.g. chips), network protocols, interaction substrates (e.g. software for screens and pens), applications, privacy, and computational methods. Ubiquitous computing offers a framework for new and exciting research across the spectrum of computer science.
2,662 citations
"An overview of the PARCTAB ubiquito..." refers background in this paper
...Communication allows system components to share information about their status, the user and the environment—that is, the context in which they are operating....
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