Fundamentals of Ubiquitous Tracking

Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp) environments require detailed, coherent and up-to-date spatial models of the world. However, current tracking technologies are limited in their range and operating environments. To extend the scope of Ubicomp applications, it will be necessary to combine heterogeneous tracking and sensor technologies dynamically, aggregating their data and balancing their trade-offs. In this paper, we propose a formal framework, called Ubiquitous Tracking, which uses a graph-based model of spatial relationships to build dynamically extendible networks of trackers with high-precision, low-latency requirements. The framework is powerful, allowing us to model existing complex tracking setups; extensible, accommodating new trackers, filtering schemes and optimisation criteria; and efficient, allowing an effective implementation within existing systems.