Deploying Pervasive Technologies

Communication technologies are currently addressing our daily lives. Internet, fixed-line networks, wireless networks, and sensor technologies are converging, and seamless communication is expected to become widely available. Meanwhile, the miniaturization of devices and the rapid proliferation of handheld devices have paved the path towards pervasive computing and ubiquitous scenarios. The term ubiquitous and pervasive computing refers to making many computing devices available throughout the physical environment, while making them effectively invisible to the user (Weiser, 1991). Thanks to advances in the devices’ processing power, extended battery life, and the proliferation of mobile computing services, the realization of ubiquitous computing has become more apparent, being a major motivation for developing location and context-aware information delivery systems. Strongly related to ubiquitous computing is context-aware computing. In context-aware computing, the applications may change or adapt their functions, information, and user interface depending on the context and the client’s profile (Weiser, 1993). Many research centers and industries are actively working on the issues of context-awareness or more generally on ubiquitous computing (Baldauf, Dustdar, & Rosenberg, 2007). In particular, several proposals focus on smart spaces and intelligent environments (Harter, Hopper, Steggeles, Ward, & Webster, 1999; Kindberg et al., 2002; Smart-its, 2007), where it is expected that smart devices all around us will maintain updated information about their locations, the contexts in which they are being used, and relevant data about the users. Clearly, contextual services represent a milestone in today’s mobile computing paradigm, providing timely information anytime, anywhere. Nevertheless, there are still few examples of pervasive computing environments moving out from academic laboratories into our everyday lives. This occurs since pervasive technologies are still premature, and also because it is hard to define what a real pervasive system should be like. Moreover, despite the wide range of services and potential smart applications that can benefit from using such systems, there is still no clear insight about a realistic killer application.