Union
CT Pervasive Computing links page Part of the Union College Converging Technologies web site.
Pervasive Computing Links
You are welcome to examine this page, although it is not intended as a public page. It is a collection of ideas and references for new courses in Pervasive Computing at Union College. Comments to Doug Klein or Felmon Davis.
Union
CT Pervasive Computing links page
Part of the Union College Converging Technologies web site.
A rather interesting article on the social
impact of pervasive computing can be found at http://www.doorsofperception.com/projects/chi/
Articles on pervasive computing from the IBM Journal
(which
includes some of the ones Tom passed out at our meeting this week) can be found
at http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj38-4.html
Collection of misc. articles on Pervasive Computing and Pervasive
Technology, 2001-2002 (Click for zip file).
Indiana University Creates Three New Tech Labs
A multi-million dollar Lilly Endowment
grant has enabled Indiana University to launch three new laboratories to re-
search diverse aspects of pervasive computing. Pervasive computing is the
increasingly powerful integrated combination of high-speed computers and
intelligent devices, ranging from scientific instruments of all kinds and sizes,
to home appliances, low-cost ubiquitous sensors, personal communi- cators and
information stores, and online digital libraries --all completely interconnected
by wired and wireless net- works accessible anywhere in the world. Pervasive
Technology Labs will ultimately house six distinct labs, including the Advanced
Network Management Lab, Open Systems Lab, and Com- munity Grids Lab. Funded by a
$30 million Lilly Endowment, Pervasive Technology Labs will contribute to the
development of Indiana's information technology sector through technology
transfer, commercialization of innovations produced in the labs, and joint
research and development partnerships with industry.
For more information, visit http://www.pervasivetechnologylabs.iu.edu.
Tech Museum Awards $250K to
Humanitarians
Bunker Roy, representing The Barefoot College in
Rajasthan, India, received
a $50,000 Tech Museum Award in the education category for teaching practical
technology skills, from solar power to rainwater harvesting systems, to India's
rural poor. Roy was among five winners of the 2002 award, given to those who are
applying technology to improve the quality of life around the world. "The
Tech Awards bring to life one of the ideals of the UN -- the employment of
technology to address the needs of all the world's peoples," said Michael
Doyle, assistant Secretary General to the United Nations, which actively
promotes the awards program. In making the awards, more than 460 nominations
were reviewed by judging panels assembled by Santa Clara University's Center for
Science, Technology, and Society. The 25 2002 finalists came from Argentina,
Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, and the
United States. For more information, visit http://www.techawards.thetech.org/
Sniper Elusive Despite Surveillance
The Associated Press, Oct 16 2002 4:57PM
http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0100&id=021016165710207539
UNLOCKING THE SMART HOME
AOL has partnered with George Washington University to develop technology
aimed at connecting homes and their appliances to the Web. Using a PC or
Palm-like device and sensors, researchers will use wireless technology to
connect such items as TVs, refrigerators, and alarm systems to monitor them over
the Internet. The system would help firefighters locate a house on fire, and TVs
would display different movies for different viewers. AOL will provide funding
for the test prototype, gear, and academic grants. The team is creating its test
site at GW's Ashburn, Va., campus. Currently, about 20 students and six teachers
are involved in the project. (Washington Post, 26 April 2001)
Pervasive Computing 2002 Focus:
Pervasive Computing in Health Care
National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD;
October 1-2, 2002
More information and on-line registration: http://www.nist.gov/pc2002
MIT WORKING ON NEW KIND OF COMPUTING
ENVIRONMENT
The two-year old Project Oxygen Alliance, a project at MIT, is working to
develop a new, "smart" environment for computing and communication.
Ken Steele, a research scientist at MIT, said the goal is to have computers that
understand and communicate with people as if the devices were also people,
similar to having a personal assistant for everyone. For example, in this new
environment, a person could tell the computer to make plane reservations. The
computer would understand speech, know the person's seat preference, and handle
the entire process with no further input. Steele admitted that researchers don't
have a clear vision of exactly what the completed project might look like,
though some observers compare the project to the technology in the recent film
"Minority Report," a science fiction thriller. NewsFactor Network, 25
June 2002 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18363.html
Pervasive partnerships for the future -
Pervasive computing in Australia.
By Adam Turner November 5 2002 - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/02/1036027090602.html
May 18, 2002 The path toward pervasive
computing
Michel Burger, CTO of Embrace Networks, presented the “The Path toward
Pervasive Computing: A Network Approach.”People are appropriately beginning to
think that the availability of the network is the norm rather than the
exception. He explores how this can be best taken advantage of.
http://www.samoore.com/blog/archives/000004.html
Regional EDUCAUSE conference, "Visions, Expectations, and Reality: The
Implications of Pervasive Computing", that will be held in Baltimore at
the beginning of December. You should also be aware that this conference also
has tracks that had previously been part of the Ubiquitous Computing Conference
at Seton Hall University. http://www.educause.edu/conference/marc/2001/
LEARNING TO SWIM IN THE RISING TIDE OF SCIENTIFIC DATA
Today's researchers are compiling and
analyzing an ever-increasing amount of digitized scientific data. Central
databases of scientific knowledge allow researchers to approach questions from a
comprehensive viewpoint. This has led to the integration of computer science and
other core science fields, such as biology, said Stephen D. Prince of the
University of Maryland, College Park. Systems biology, for example, focuses on
translating biological functions into mathematical equations so that scientists
can gain perspective on how their specific focus relates to the whole system.
Several universities, including the University of California at San Diego, are
now offering degrees in the field of bioinformatics, which concentrates on the
interrelation of scientific research and computer data systems.
http://www.chronicle.com/free/v47/i42/42a01401.htm
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 June 2001)
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No.
210. Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London < http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 07:07:47 -0700
GOAL: The goal of this series is to explore how emerging technologies will
transform the presentation, communication, and our understanding of history and
the humanities.
GRID COMPUTING: THE NEXT BIG THING?
Many experts say that the next wave in computing, particularly for
university and research purposes, will be grid computing. Grids are networks of
computers, databases, and applications that combine to offer users huge gains in
computational speed and the amount of resources available. Some experts suggest
that grid computing will fundamentally alter the way we use computers. Rick
Herrmann of Intel Corporation said that several countries, including China, are
working to develop the best possible infrastructure to support grid computing.
The best infrastructure, Herrmann said, will attract the brightest talent. Ian
Foster of the University of Chicago, however, warns that it will take many years
before the dream of grid computing is fully realized. Chronicle of Higher
Education, 27 November 2002 http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002112701t.htm
Grid Computing documents from IBM
Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger - Kennedy
Consulting Summit lecture, 11/29/01 Also a Powerpoint
presentation
AUBURN UNIVERSITY OFFERS NEW DEGREE IN WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Beginning this fall, Auburn University will offer a bachelor's degree in
wireless technology. The program is funded in part by a $25 million donation by
Samuel Ginn, graduate of Auburn and former chairman of Vodafone. The degree
program is part of the departments of electrical engineering and computer
engineering and has an advisory board that includes members from Verizon
Wireless, Nortel Networks, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, and Vodafone. Despite a
current wireless market that many on the board admit is a "little
shaky," officials from those companies expect the industry to rebound and
remain interested in graduates of the program. Victor Nelson, a professor at
Auburn, said that between 30 and 50 students have already signed up for the
program and that many more are expected to register during the fall semester.
Wired News, 30 August 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54536,00.html
Smart Laundry Redux: Web-enabled Washers
On Friday, we reported that Maytag Corp. was holding laundry seminars on
various campuses to tout its smart washing machines, high-efficiency units
equipped with horizontal-axis tumblers that promise to use 18 fewer gallons of
water per load than the average top-loading washer. Not to be outdone, IBM Corp.
and USA Technologies said they will Web-enable 9,000 washing machines and dryers
at U.S. colleges, eliminating much of the hassle associated with dorm laundry
operations. Called e-Suds, the systems replace coin-operated technology with a
method that allows students to pay with an ID card or via cell phone. Students
will be able to visit a website to find out when a machine is available and
select functions, such as soap and fabric softener dispensing. When the wash is
done, they'll be notified via an email sent to their pagers or PCs.
THE EMBEDDED REVOLUTION
Embedded processors currently compose 90 percent of the total silicon
processor market and 50 percent of overall chip revenue, said Embedded Processor
Forum director Steve Liebson. Because they are less complex than the processors
in PCs, which must support multiple tasks, embedded processors cost less to make
and are far more reliable. At this month's Embedded Processor Forum, makers of
embedded processors showed why their segment of the IT industry remains upbeat
during the current economic downturn. For example, PMC-Sierra showcased its
RM9000x2 multiprocessor, which features a single die containing two 64-bit
processors that together provide 1 GHz of speed. IBM displayed its Gekko
processor, built for Nintendo's GameCube, a next-generation game console, and
LSI Logic unveiled its LiquidLogic core, which is a basic logic
chip--inexpensive, with low power consumption and high performance--that can be
reconfigured as if it were a programmable chip. (eWeek, 18 June 2001)
IBM RESEARCHER TRIES TO BUILD AN ETHICAL COMPUTER
A scientist at IBM is working on a
"Hippocratic database" that he says is based on a code of
responsibility for the data it holds. Rakesh Agrawal's idea was influenced by
his brother, a doctor, who pointed out that the Hippocratic Oath is a strong
foundation for people's trust in their doctors. Agrawal's database goes beyond
basic rules for handling data, including reasons why each piece of data is
collected and limits on how long those data should be kept. Data that are no
longer needed are deleted from the database. Rules in the functioning of the
database allow enforcement of the underlying policies for what data are
collected, how they are used, and how long they are kept. According to Agrawal,
a World Wide Web Consortium standard that aims for the same level of trust lacks
any provision for enforcement. PCWorld, 27 August 2002 http://www.idg.net/ic_940272_1794_9-10000.html
IBM TO SELL INFRASTRUCTURE OVER THE INTERNET
A new service from IBM will allow users running Linux to buy infrastructure
over the Internet. [This is what IBM now is calling "computing on
demand" - DK] The Linux Virtual Services program is the newest step in
IBM's utility computing effort, in which customers purchase computing power and
storage from a remote, host company. IBM spokesperson Jim Larkin said the
project is important because it is the first to deliver true infrastructure over
the Web. IBM claims that even with falling hardware costs, the utility computing
model offers a competitive price and benefits, including lower personnel
overhead. Some analysts agree, saying that as technologies mature, utility
computing will become increasingly common. NewsFactor Network, 1 July 2002 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18449.html
Global Wireless Education Consortium
GWEC is a membership organization established in 1997 and composed of
corporate leaders in the wireless industry and educational partners with the
desire to integrate wireless technology into their current curricula. Thanks to
strong and, quite frankly, amazing collaboration, GWEC has created a basic
wireless curriculum that is available to 65 GWEC member colleges and
universities worldwide for full or partial integration. The modular format for
the curriculum was selected to allow for maximum flexibility and use, and all
modules (46 at present) are being updated regularly to reflect changes in the
technology. (See list of curriculum module titles/topics attached; also
please visit the Web site at www.gwec.org.)
EUROPEAN WORKSHOP ON MOBILE AND CONTEXTUAL LEARNING.
June 20th and 21st, University of Birmingham, UK are now available on the
Workshop Website at http://www.eee.bham.ac.uk/mlearn
UCLA Med Mobilizes Student Web Applications
The UCLA School of Medicine is mobilizing its web infrastructure to enable
key student information to be made accessible to medical students via their
personal digital assistants. The school installed a wirelelss server and
developed custom applications, such as handbooks for clinical clerkship
rotations, Office of Student Affairs information and emergency guidelines. Other
applications being rolled out include a patient log application and a course and
rotation evaluation survey application. Bob Trelease, associate director of the
school's instructional design and technology Unit said students, "are
extremely mobile by their third year of medical school," adding that "PDAs
will be as common as the stethoscope" in medicine in the future. To set up
the wireless program, the school installed wireless enterprise server software
from AvantGo Inc.
Physicians Group Launches PDA Info Clearinghouse
pdaMD, a provider of handheld computing
technology for physicians, said it would create a PDA Center for the American
College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM), the
national organization of internal medicine specialists. The PDA Center will
provide physicians access to a library of medically oriented handheld
applications, advanced customization options to speed deployment, and dedicated
support personnel. Handheld technology has become increasingly important in
today's medical environment, providing improved access to critical information
such as drug prescribing data, treatment strategies, patient history and
reference material, all at the point of care. According to a 2001 ACP-ASIM
survey of 489 members, 47 percent were found to use handheld computers, and
usage among internists is expected to increase. For more information, visit: http://www.acponline.org
San Diego State Secures Healthcare Network
San Diego State University has licensed
secure networking technology that will enable student patients or student health
service staff to communicate securely via the Internet. The customized messaging
technology, from Healinx Corp., would protect online prescription ordering,
routing and renewals, online appointment scheduling, lab results, referrals, and
medically reviewed content. Greg Lichtenstein, medical director of SDSU, said,
"with our highly mobile population, it has often been difficult to contact
our patients -- even those with cell phones -- and we are pleased to be able to
use a secure messaging system to improve communications." Under the
agreement, Healinx will deliver a co-branded version of its secure messaging
platform for SDSU. To encourage usage, SDSU Student Health Services will
actively promote the online service to the student population.
MIT WORKING ON NEW KIND OF COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT
The two-year old Project Oxygen Alliance,
a project at MIT, is working to develop a new, "smart" environment for
computing and communication. Ken Steele, a research scientist at MIT, said the
goal is to have computers that understand and communicate with people as if the
devices were also people, similar to having a personal assistant for everyone.
For example, in this new environment, a person could tell the computer to make
plane reservations. The computer would understand speech, know the person's seat
preference, and handle the entire process with no further input. Steele admitted
that researchers don't have a clear vision of exactly what the completed project
might look like, though some observers compare the project to the technology in
the recent film "Minority Report," a science fiction thriller.
NewsFactor Network, 25 June 2002 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18363.html
GOVERNMENT WANTS TO REINVENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
A new project from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has
as its goal the "total reinvention of technologies for storing and
accessing information." The Total Information Awareness (TIA) system, which
will be funded by grants from DARPA, is an attempt by the federal government to
construct a highly data-intensive system that can spot clues to terrorist plans
long before they come to fruition. Grant applicants are warned that no money
will be invested in "research that primarily results in evolutionary
improvements to existing technology"; officials are committed to a
fundamental redesign of technology. TIA plans call for unprecedented amounts of
data, measured in petabytes, to be stored and accessed. Civil liberties groups
including the Electronic Frontier Foundation find the prospect of such a system
very worrisome without strict rules to prevent it from becoming a powerful
secret spy machine. Wired News, 7 August 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,54342,00.html
JAPANESE FIRMS TO WORK ON COMPUTER-CHIP DESIGN
Six Japanese firms--Fujitsu, Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC, and
Toshiba--will each contribute about $85 million a year to form a new company,
called Aspla, to design new computer chips. Another $268 million will come from
the Japanese government to support the flagging Japanese technology industry.
The company will focus its efforts on "system-on-a-chip" platforms,
which are designed to link various electronic devices. The so-called SoC
technology will be in great demand if predictions are correct that devices such
as cell phones and digital TVs will communicate with each other and all link to
the Internet. Other companies, including Sanyo, Sharp, and Sony, will contribute
funding to the new company but will not participate in research. Associated
Press, 13 July 2002 http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/465285p-3720527c.html
TODAY'S CYBORGS GET AN EYEFUL
New wearable computers and retinal scanning devices are enabling more people
to adopt a "connected" lifestyle. Thad Starner, an assistant professor
of computer science at Georgia Tech, uses a wearable device composed of a
mini-monitor mounted on his eyeglasses and a portable computer keyboard that he
needs only one hand to operate. Another cyborg pioneer, Steve Mann of the
University of Toronto, uses a viewing device called the Eye Tap, which allows
other people to see what he sees and enter in data that appears superimposed on
his vision. Mann said his wife helps him buy the correct groceries at the
supermarket through the device by "scribbling" on his retina. Many on
the forefront of wearable computer technology are quick to point out that
pervasive computing is much closer than most realize and that the popularization
of PDAs, cell phones, and computerized health aids is taken for granted as
progress toward real cybernetics. (USA Today, 2 July 2001)
BOEING GETS APPROVAL FOR IN-FLIGHT WEB ACCESS
The Federal Aviation Administration has given its approval to Connexion, a
product from Boeing that provides in-flight access to broadband network
services. Passengers will be able to access high-speed Internet connections,
e-mail, and broadband entertainment offerings including real-time television. A
three-month certification trial was performed on a Boeing aircraft to ensure no
interference between Connexion and the other electronic systems of the plane.
German airline Lufthansa is expected to be the first carrier to offer the
service in late 2002. Associated Press, 7 May 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Boeing-Connexion.html
PBS Launches First Web-Only Non-Fiction Series
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
launched its first program to run exclusively on the World Wide Web. The series,
P.O.V. Borders, was webcast on Oct. 9. It was the first of 10 weekly
installments of the series, which discusses the idea of physical and
metaphysical borders that challenge peoples’ ideas about individual, cultural,
and geographic boundaries. The series is a prototype for an expanded project set
to begin in 2003. The producers said they hope the initial webcast will appeal
to Internet users interested in point-of-view perspectives and educators in
search of issue-based materials. "P.O.V.'s Borders is an extension of our
continued interest in … innovative, interactive methods of presenting
non-fiction film," said P.O.V. executive director, Cara Mertes. "It is
our hope that the series will [be] a model for high-quality, compelling and
sustainable storytelling that inspires civic engagement online.”
For more information, visit: http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders
MAKING COMPUTER SCIENCE MORE OPEN TO WOMEN
Jane Margolis of UCLA and Carnegie Mellon University's Allan Fisher propose
ways that high schools and colleges can encourage more women to take computer
science courses in their new book, "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in
Computing." The authors contend that society discourages women from taking
an interest in computer science as early as childhood, while a prevailing
"geek culture" further estranges them. Margolis and Fisher conducted a
four-year study of female Carnegie Mellon students as the university retooled
its school of computer science, instituting new admissions policies, community
groups, and interdisciplinary courses. These programs, along with a
"ferocious attention to the quality of student experience," have
yielded positive results, according to the professors. Between 1995 and 2000,
the percentage of female computer science majors leapt from just 7 percent to
roughly 40 percent. Furthermore, the concluding surveys indicated that female
students were no more likely than their male counterparts to leave the major,
whereas they were twice as likely to do so in 1995. http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002012501t.htm
(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 25 January 2002)
FDA SAYS IMPLANTABLE ID CHIPS WON'T BE REGULATED
In a decision that surprised many
observers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that ID chips from
Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) can be implanted in people without regulation,
provided the chips are used for "security, financial, and personal
identification or safety applications." The chips can also be used for
medical purposes--providing emergency-room personnel with medical histories, for
example--but the FDA ruling does not apply to such cases. An FDA investigator
had previously commented that all other implantable devices, such as those for
cosmetic purposes, are subject to FDA regulation. After the recent announcement,
that investigator deferred questions to the FDA press office.
Wired News, 23 October 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55952,00.html
INITIAL MIT COURSEWORK GOES ONLINE
This week MIT began placing courseware online as part of its OpenCourseWare
project (http://ocw.mit.edu/). MIT opted not to develop a for-profit learning
initiative, as some other colleges and universities have, choosing instead to
make its courseware open to the public online. MIT plans to put lecture notes,
assignments, syllabi, tutorials, video simulations, and reading lists from over
2,000 courses on the site over the next ten years, though no credit will be
offered for those who complete the assignments. Questions remain about
technology tools for the site and intellectual property issues, but a
representative of the program said that so far the response has been
overwhelmingly positive. Critics said the offerings so far are limited and that
merely posting such resources online does not substitute for an education at
MIT. Officials from OpenCourseWare agreed that the experience of learning at MIT
is not replicated by the program, but they hope that it will serve as a model
for other institutions to disseminate their own resources. Wired News, 4 October
2002 http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,55507,00.html
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO has created a "supercomputer
cluster"
at a fraction of the cost of a conventional supercomputer by linking more than
2,000 standard servers through fast network switches. The mammoth cluster,
unveiled Tuesday, will become the computational workhorse for a new
bioinformatics center at the university. http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002090401t.htm
BBC Zen garden secrets revealed
Creating the perfect Zen garden is now
possible, thanks to the work of a team at Kyoto University in Japan. Zen gardens
and the art of invisible trees Daily Telegraph Zen Garden's Calming Effect Due
to Subliminal Image? National Geographic http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2283398.stm
Boundaries: Technology and the Natural World, a Humanities and Technology
Conference
at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology,
to be held this October. The call for entries is at: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/hta/
IBM DEBUTS NEW PROCESSOR FACILITY
IBM opened a $2.5 billion microprocessor facility this week in East
Fishkill, New York, saying that the new plant is the "most advanced of its
kind." It is the first large-scale facility to produce chips on 300
millimeter wafers rather than typical 200 millimeter ones, allowing the company
to save more than 30 percent of production costs. The plant will mass-produce
chips thinner than 0.1 micron and will also allow for circuits smaller than 100
nanometers. The opening of the plant comes amid tough times for IBM and for the
semiconductor industry at large. An official with IBM said the facility is an
investment in the future, pointing out that the industry is cyclical. NewsFactor
Network, 1 August 2002 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18844.html
Digital Worlds Institute
The Digital Worlds Institute exists to
nurture leading edge research and education between engineering and the arts,
utilizing the tools of digital technology and culture. By bringing together the
diverse talents of University of Florida faculty, students, and staff in a
multifaceted collaborative environment, the Institute serves as a platform for
interdisciplinary research that would not have occurred within the confines of
any one college or department. Through the use of telecommunications and high
performance technologies, the Institute reaches out across the campus, state,
nation, and the world to share new tools and opportunities with creative people
everywhere. http://www.digitalworlds.ufl.edu/SC2001/
U. Chicago Lauded for Work in Bioinformatics
Sun Microsystems, Inc. named the University of Chicago one of its Centers of
Excellence in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Medical Informatics. The
university is one of a group of schools Sun has identified which are doing
groundbreaking research in the field of computational biology, which is becoming
essential to all aspects of biological research, especially work in the human
genome. To further its work, the university will use Sun technology to build a
data warehouse linking genomic data to patient genetic and clinical data
generated by researchers at Chicago and its worldwide network partners. http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2002-04/sunflash.20020416.3.html
Potential speakers:
Page last modified 12/17/02 . Additions, corrections, comments to Doug Klein