International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Ubiquitous computing refers to a twenty-first-century era of computing in which networking and computing technologies become so small, fast, interconnected, and cheap that they can be seamlessly embedded into the environment and everyday objects. It implies that computing will become ubiquitous. User-friendly services are expected to be available anytime and anywhere and only when demanded by users. This implies that computing will become intelligent because it will need to understand human behavior in context. The term “ubiquitous computing” was coined by Mark Weiser (1952–1999), chief scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, in a seminal paper published in 1991 (→  Human–Computer Interaction ; Information Society ; Technology and Communication ). The idea of ubiquitous computing, or “ubicomp,” has been taken up and developed since then, in many different parts of the world under a variety of terms : pervasive computing, disappearing computing, proactive computing, sentient computing, affective computing, wearable computing, intelligent networks, and ambient intelligence. The use of these terms usually implies a different focus, such as augmenting everyday objects (e.g., a coffee cup) with sensors and/or activators in order for them to sense physical activity and, consequently, to act or communicate this information (e.g., coffee is hot). Others ... log in or subscribe to read full text