Ubiquitous computing goes mobile

In the late 80's and early 90's Mark Weiser published a vision for the next generation of computing which he termed ubiquitous computing. In the last few years a number of research projects in areas of ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1991; Weiser, 1993), proactive computing (Tennenhouse, 2000, Borriello and Want, 2000), wearable computing (Siewiorek, Smailagic, Bass, Siegel, Martin, and Bennington, 1998; Sunkpho, Carrett, Smailagic, and Sieworek, 1998) and context-aware (Schilit, 1995, Schilit, Adams, and Want,1995) computing have begun. In this article I'll[ discuss some of these efforts and how they relate to the concept of "aware information" which I use to describe the focus that will make "computing" truly useful to the "man on the street." I'll describe some exploratory research efforts partially funded through the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) as well as other efforts funded by research agencies and industry. Let's start with Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing. Consider a world where the desktop computer is replaced with computing embedded in typical physical objects without interfering with the current functionality of those objects. The computers would be small enough to be invisible inside the physical objects and would enhance the original functionality of the physical objects. In Weiser's vision, people would do their work assisted by computer technology, but without having to focus on the computers. Some of the early work at Xerox PARC included the PARCTABs (Want, Schilit, Adams, Gold, Petersen, Goldberg, Ellis & Weiser, 1995) Project. Xerox PARC developed computer prototypes in three sizes corresponding to whiteboard, a pad of paper, and a post-it note size. The PARCTABs project focused on communication and context. Communication (wireless, in this case) let the system share information about users, state, and context. Context acquired by the devices included the user's current location, the identities of people close by, the identities and status of computing devices close by, and physical properties of the environment such as light level, temperature, etc. The goals for the PARC Tabs project were