Locator technology in distributed systems: the Active Badge

Experiments with technology for locating and tracking people and things are occurring in computer science research centers in Europe and the United States. Although in its early stages, this location capability is viewed as an enabler for nextgeneration distributed computing systems in offices, universities, and perhaps the wider world. Such systems will no longer shackle users to their desktop PC or leave them stranded, unconnected, when using portable and notebook systems. Instead, ubiquitous wireless networks will track users and machines, delivering information and services as needed to people on the go [SciAm91 ].