Intelligent environments: a manifesto

We explain basic features of an emerging area called Intelligent Environments. We give a short overview on how it has developed, what is the current state of the art and what are the challenges laying ahead. The aim of the article is to make aware the Computer Science community of this new development, the differences with previous dominant paradigms and the opportunities that this area offers to the scientific community and society

Mobile Bookstore (m-Bookstore)

Mobile technologies and computing are evolving and expanding each day, demanding and creating a much more ubiquitous computing environment. This research project proposes the development and implementation of the Mobile Bookstore - a mobile solution for bookstore businesses. This report presents the final research and study of the development of the Mobile Bookstore as a solution to the problem statements stated in the project proposal as well as in this report, which is considered as the main objective of the study. The Mobile Bookstore will address to the four problem statements, which are the geographical problems, the advancing mobile technologies, ubiquitous demands in computing and large bookstore information requests. These objectives help in answering the question to why this research is done and why would we need a mobile bookstore? With the mobile bookstore, companies can reach out to more customers, anywhere and everywhere using mobile devices. This concept allows for a more ubiquitous business and computing. Major bookstores need to compete and to be on top, implementing the latest technologies to serve its customers, and the mobile technology is one that should be taken advantage of. Browsing the large database of a bookstore can be time-consuming and difficult using expensive kiosks that come in limited numbers. A wireless environment can create wireless networks allowing those with mobile devices to browse through the bookstore database with ease. With this report, the basis for the research of this project will be underlined in detail, including the technologies, means, methods and study of recent researches related to the study. The result of this research project will be the software solution, a system (the Mobile Bookstore), which consists of two modules: the outdoor WAPbased module and the indoor Wireless Network module

Mobile Bookstore (m-Bookstore)

Mobile technologies and computing are evolving and expanding each day, demanding and creating a much more ubiquitous computing environment. This research project proposes the development and implementation of the Mobile Bookstore - a mobile solution for bookstore businesses. This report presents the final research and study of the development of the Mobile Bookstore as a solution to the problem statements stated in the project proposal as well as in this report, which is considered as the main objective of the study. The Mobile Bookstore will address to the four problem statements, which are the geographical problems, the advancing mobile technologies, ubiquitous demands in computing and large bookstore information requests. These objectives help in answering the question to why this research is done and why would we need a mobile bookstore? With the mobile bookstore, companies can reach out to more customers, anywhere and everywhere using mobile devices. This concept allows for a more ubiquitous business and computing. Major bookstores need to compete and to be on top, implementing the latest technologies to serve its customers, and the mobile technology is one that should be taken advantage of. Browsing the large database of a bookstore can be time-consuming and difficult using expensive kiosks that come in limited numbers. A wireless environment can create wireless networks allowing those with mobile devices to browse through the bookstore database with ease. With this report, the basis for the research of this project will be underlined in detail, including the technologies, means, methods and study of recent researches related to the study. The result of this research project will be the software solution, a system (the Mobile Bookstore), which consists of two modules: the outdoor WAPbased module and the indoor Wireless Network module

Context-Aware Software

With the advent of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smart phones, and other forms of mobile and ubiquitous computers, our computing resources are increasingly moving off of our desktops and into our everyday lives. However, the software and user interfaces for these devices are generally very similar to that of their desktop counterparts, despite the radically different and dynamic environments that they face. We propose that to better assist their users, such devices should be able to sense, react to, and utilise, the user's current environment or context. That is, they should become context-aware. In this thesis we investigate context-awareness at three levels: user interfaces, applications, and supporting architectures/frameworks. To promote the use of context-awareness, and to aid its deployment in software, we have developed two supporting frameworks. The first is an application-oriented framework called stick-e notes. Based on an electronic version of the common Post-It Note, stick-e notes enable the attachment of any electronic resource (e.g. a text file, movie, Java program, etc.) to any type of context (e.g. location, temperature, time, etc.). The second framework we devised seeks to provide a more universal support for the capture, manipulation, and representation of context information. We call it the Context Information Service (CIS). It fills a similar role in context-aware software development as GUI libraries do in user interface development. Our applications research explored how context-awareness can be exploited in real environments with real users. In particular, we developed a suite of PDA-based context-aware tools for fieldworkers. These were used extensively by a group of ecologists in Africa to record observations of giraffe and rhinos in a remote Kenyan game reserve. These tools also provided the foundations for our HCI work, in which we developed the concept of the Minimal Attention User Interface (MAUI). The aim of the MAUI is to reduce the attention required by the user in operating a device by carefully selecting input/output modes that are harmonious to their tasks and environment. To evaluate our ideas and applications a field study was conducted in which over forty volunteers used our system for data collection activities over the course of a summer season at the Kenyan game reserve. The PDA-based tools were unanimously preferred to the paper-based alternatives, and the context-aware features were cited as particular reasons for preferring them. In summary, this thesis presents two frameworks to support context-aware software, a set of applications demonstrating how context-awareness can be utilised in the ''real world'', and a set of HCI guidelines and principles that help in creating user interfaces that fit to their context of use

SUIDS : a resource-efficient intrusion detection system for ubiquitous computing environments

The background of the project is based on the notion of ubiquitous computing. Ubiquitous computing was introduced as a prospective view about future usage of computers. Smaller and cheaper computer chips will enable us to embed computing ability into any appliances. Along with the convenience brought by ubiquitous computing, its inherent features also exposed its weaknesses. It makes things too easy for a malicious user to spy on others. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a tool used to protect computer resources against malicious activities. Existing IDSs have several weaknesses that hinder their direct application to ubiquitous networks. These shortcomings are caused by their lack of considerations about the heterogeneity, flexibility and resource constraints of ubiquitous networks. Thus the evolution towards ubiquitous computing demands a new generation of resource-efficient IDSs to provide sufficient protections against malicious activities. SUIDS is the first intrusion detection system proposed for ubiquitous computing environments. It keeps the special requirements of ubiquitous computing in mind throughout its design and implementation. SUIDS adopts a layered and distributed system architecture, a novel user-centric design and service-oriented detection method, a new resource-sensitive scheme, including protocols and strategies, and a novel hybrid metric based algorithm. These novel methods and techniques used in SUIDS set a new direction for future research and development. As the experiment results demonstrated, SUIDS is able to provide a robust and resource-efficient protection for ubiquitous computing networks. It ensures the feasibility of intrusion detection in ubiquitous computing environments

Context-aware software

With the advent of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smart phones, and other forms of mobile and ubiquitous computers, our computing resources are increasingly moving off of our desktops and into our everyday lives. However, the software and user interfaces for these devices are generally very similar to that of their desktop counterparts, despite the radically different and dynamic environments that they face. We propose that to better assist their users, such devices should be able to sense, react to, and utilise, the user's current environment or context. That is, they should become context-aware. In this thesis we investigate context-awareness at three levels: user interfaces, applications, and supporting architectures/frameworks. To promote the use of context-awareness, and to aid its deployment in software, we have developed two supporting frameworks. The first is an application-oriented framework called stick-e notes. Based on an electronic version of the common Post-It Note, stick-e notes enable the attachment of any electronic resource (e.g. a text file, movie, Java program, etc.) to any type of context (e.g. location, temperature, time, etc.). The second framework we devised seeks to provide a more universal support for the capture, manipulation, and representation of context information. We call it the Context Information Service (CIS). It fills a similar role in context-aware software development as GUI libraries do in user interface development. Our applications research explored how context-awareness can be exploited in real environments with real users. In particular, we developed a suite of PDA-based context-aware tools for fieldworkers. These were used extensively by a group of ecologists in Africa to record observations of giraffe and rhinos in a remote Kenyan game reserve. These tools also provided the foundations for our HCI work, in which we developed the concept of the Minimal Attention User Interface (MAUI). The aim of the MAUI is to reduce the attention required by the user in operating a device by carefully selecting input/output modes that are harmonious to their tasks and environment. To evaluate our ideas and applications a field study was conducted in which over forty volunteers used our system for data collection activities over the course of a summer season at the Kenyan game reserve. The PDA-based tools were unanimously preferred to the paper-based alternatives, and the context-aware features were cited as particular reasons for preferring them. In summary, this thesis presents two frameworks to support context-aware software, a set of applications demonstrating how context-awareness can be utilised in the ''real world'', and a set of HCI guidelines and principles that help in creating user interfaces that fit to their context of use

Investigating research issues in ubiquitous computing: The capture, integration, and access problem

te and access the rich interaction of the classroom experience. This effort will grow to support a wide variety of classes and assist students throughout their educational career and beyond. We will investigate open issues, such as the effect of granularity of capture, support for revision during access, and how interaction between collaborators affects capture and integration. We will plan and carry out an evaluation plan to determine the impact of capture, access, and integration on educational goals. We are specifically interested in determining if this technology supports note-taking practices that contribute to near- and long-term retention of knowledge. We hope that our work will provide a standard of evaluation for the experimental ubiquitous computing community as well as provide insight into more effective and modern teaching and learning methods. Finally, we will further demonstrate the generality of the capture, access, and integration problem through its application to oth