What Comes Next

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What ComesNext ?

• Tim Finin
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• February 17, 2004
• http//ebiquity.umbc.edu/v2.1/resource/html/id/16/

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Caveat

• It's tough to make predictions, especially about
  the future.-- Yogi Berra

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• (0) Opening thoughts
• Some current research at UMBC
• (1) Pervasive computing
• (2) Wearable computing
• ( ) Intelligent agents
• ( ) The semantic web
• (3) Final thoughts

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IT Evolution
During the past 20 years, computers have engaged
the general population and made a difference in
our lives.
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IT Evolution
The possibilities for what comes next is very
large. Advances in hardware, software and theory
will take us in many directions. Research is
exploration, evolution, often done by random
search performed by 10,000 grad students typing
on keyboards.
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IT Evolution
?
AutonomicSystems
Trust
Natural Language Understanding
Intelligentsoftwareagents
ecommerce
Internet
Wearable Computing
Web Services
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Pervasive Computing
Semantic Web
Web
Personalcomputer
AdaptiveSystems
Google
Our ebiquity lab at UMBC is exploring some of
these Based on the idea of intelligent, pervasive
computing.
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Human Evolution?
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Human Evolution?
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Human Evolution?
Pervasive Computing aims to embed computing into
our lives, making it as natural as using other
ordinary objects like pen, paper, and cups and
available anytime and anywhere.
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(1) Pervasive Computing

• The most profound technologies are those that
  disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric
  of everyday life until they are indistinguishable
  from it Mark Weiser
• Think writing, central heating, electric
  lighting,
• Not taking your laptop to the beach, or
  immersing yourself into a virtual reality

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Practical Pervasive technology the ambient orb
The orb is connected by a pager to a network
intrusion detection system monitoring the status
of the UMBC network. The number and severity of
security incidents are visualized by its changing
color and frequency of pulsing.
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Communication is a key enabler
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We have many standards
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The devices must be more social
Thank God! Everything is done for me!
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Ongoing research issues

• Languages for devices to exchange and share
  information using common vocabularies
• User configurable policies for trust and privacy
• Context aware systems that can anticipate the
  needs of users and act in advance by
  understanding their situation
• Intelligent middleware and agents to
• Sense, acquire and share context knowledge
• Reason about and maintain consistent context
  knowledge
• Enforce policies for security, trust, safety
  privacy

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A Birds Eye View of CoBrA
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Our intelligent room
B
Room Booker
(Semantic Web)
SOAP/OWL
Services
FIPA-ACL/OWL
Mocha PC8x6x2
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A Typical CoBrA Use Case
Alice in Wonderland
Our intelligent meeting room
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A Typical CoBrA Use Case
Alice in Wonderland

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(2) Wearable computing

• A new form of human-computer interaction with
  small body-worn computing components
• Always on, always ready, always accessible
• Supporting hands busy and eyes busy interactions
• Not hand held devices, laptop computers and
  personal digital assistants (PDAs).
• Will lead to a new form of synergy between human
  and computer, characterized by long-term
  adaptation through constancy of user-interface.

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Wearable computer, not
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Wearable computing, maybe
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Wearable computing, today
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(3) Final Thoughtstwo enabling technologies

• The Web continues to evolve
• Web services and the semantic web are enabling
  more automation and agents
• The web is not just for people anymore
• Its a universal acid, consuming all in its path
• Wireless communication makes it easy and cheap
  for things to senseand interoperate

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The Evolution of Useful Things

• The Evolution of Useful Things, Henry Petroski,
  1994.
• Before 1900, papers were held together with
  straight pens!
• The development of spring steel allowed the
  invention of the paper clip in 1899.
• It took about 25 years (!) for the evolution of
  the standard gem paperclip considered to be
  optimal for general use.
• Things take time, but the incremental results pay
  the way.

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ClimbingMountImprobable

• The sheer height of the peak doesn't matter, so
  long as you don't try to scale it in a single
  bound. Locate the mildly sloping path and, if you
  have unlimited time, the ascent is only as
  formidable as the next step.
• -- Richard Dawkins, Climbing MountImprobable,
  Penguin Books, 1996.

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http//ebiquity.umbc.edu/