Mobile/Pervasive Computing

ACM Classification C.2.1

Mobility support for information technology services is currently fairly primitive. Mobile devices such as phones and PDA's are not powerful, network coverage is inconsistent, and there is no notion of a truly continuous user session that spans locations and computing devices.

The goal for mobility is that a user should have a continuous computing session that affords human-centered interaction with underlying computing services and persists regardless of location. Nicknamed a "halo" by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, such a session may be implemented through a context-aware, agent-based framework, and allowed access to all available computing services offered by physical facilities such as smart rooms as well as remote application services such as messaging, search, and simulation. The "halo" should reflect user preferences and attempt to modify the user's current environment accordingly.

Session presentation should vary in according to the resource richness of the mobile user's surrounding environment. If the user is using a mobile device, the device should host the session and provide services such as voice, messaging, entertainment, and multimedia capture and playback. If the user then moves into a resource-rich zone such as a smart room, the appropriate services subset should move to the room, with the device hosting the remaining services.

Interaction with computing sessions should be via natural and powerful Human Computer Interaction (HCI) modes. Users should be able to speak to the computing environment, use unobtrusive Heads Up Displays (HUDs) when mobile in a resource-poor environment, and take advantage of augmented reality.

Pervasive computing would provide a foundation for continuous access to teaching, learning, and research applications, regardless of location. Persistent sessions and natural interaction modes would enable academic users to focus on tasks at hand and spend less time trying to operate devices and access networks.

Related Resources:

• Project Aura: Toward Distraction-Free Pervasive Computing, David Garlan, Dan Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, and Peter Steenkiste
• Project Aura at Carnegie Mellon
• Project Oxygen at MIT
• Social Machines, Wade Roush

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