Programming of Handheld and Mobile Devices

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Programming of Handheld and Mobile Devices

• Lecture 21 Brave New World
• Rob Pooley rjp_at_macs.hw.ac.uk

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Are we easily fooled?

• O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there
  here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new
  world,That has such people in't!
• Miranda
• The Tempest

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Ad hoc networks

• An ad hoc network is created on the fly as
  devices connect and disconnect from it without
  central control
• Bluetooth is often seen as a model for ad hoc
  networks
• Pico nets allow up to 8 devices to connect
• Scatternets allow any number to do so
• Maybe WiFi or some other approach?

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Desirable properties

• Seamless connection
• Stable behaviour
• Secure
• Transparent connection
• Easy to use
• Not there yet!

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ubiquitous (y -b k w -t s) adj.Being or
seeming to be everywhere at the same time
omnipresent "plodded through the shadows
fruitlessly like an ubiquitous spook" Joseph
Heller.

• Claims for ubiquitous computing have been made
  for many years
• Typical applications include
• Intelligent washing machines
• Intelligent shoes
• Smart dust
• Low cost, connected, unobtrusive
• Personal area networks
• Home area networks

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Claims for ubiquity

• Diagnostic
• Health monitoring of people
• Servicing requirements for machines
• Supportive
• Reporting of status of house/car/fridge
• Ubiquitous
• Linked by wireless comms
• Linked by Web

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Pervasive

• Pervasive computing relates to services
• It is built on top of ubiquity
• It depends on seamless handove
• It uses agent technology
• It uses redirection of services
• It supports virtual devices
• It supports virtual users

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Scenario

• You are at home when your boss phones you to
  collect a parcel on your way to work
• Your TV becomes a video terminal
• Your PDA downloads the details
• You go to your car, with your PDA linked by
  Bluetooth to your home phone for low cost calls
• Your PDA uploads the details into your cars
  SatNav system
• You drive as directed to the Post Office
• You get near the Post Office and your car
  computer downloads details of parcels waiting to
  be collected

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Scenario continued

• You spot a second parcel which looks like it
  belongs to your company
• You contact your boss requesting authorisation to
  collect both parcels
• Electronic authorisation is sent to the Post
  Office and to your PDA (now Bluetoothed to your
  car phone)
• Your car phone signals to the Post Office to have
  the parcels waiting for you
• You collect the parcels and al parties (including
  the sender) are informed

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Utopia?

• Much of this already happens in a restricted way
• The GPO and major couriers have Web-based
  reporting on parcels
• Postal workers, meter readers etc have PDAs and
  some have wireless links to their bases
• Phones, sat nav systems and PDAs are becoming
  more integrated
• Sat nav maps etc can be replenished dynamically

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Was Miranda right?

• O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there
  here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new
  world,That has such people in't!

• So where are the people in our brave new world?

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Some issues in the world of handheld devices

• This short note is an agenda for you to think
  about the world of handheld devices and portable,
  user friendly computing.
• As we move to wards more power and more memory,
  the limits on devices are retreating. What does
  this mean?
• Would people rather have a portable computer or a
  PDA or an intelligent mobile phone? What will the
  differences be in the future?
• What applications will people want? E-books,
  e-newspapers, online diaries, wireless
  conferencing?
• Will we want point to point, peer to peer models
  of connection? Will we want to be part of some
  super-internet?
• Is local power preferable to a simple device
  connecting to various pervasive services on
  networked servers?

• Do we really trust these devices and their
  networks?
• Can we relax in the bath reading our PDA?
• Who is excluded by the rise of PDAs etc. The
  disabled? The poor? The old?
• Who stands to benefit? Microsoft? Big business
  (smartcards etc?) or the individual?
• We have been moving from the specific (games
  consoles, personal diaries etc.) to the general.
  Is that the future or will we find a world of
  sensors and dumb networked devices? (Phone your
  fridge and ask it to speak to the oven?)
• Intelligent shoes, intelligent car seats? Where
  do we interface when systems learn our
  preferences from our behaviour? (Personalisation
  versus learned responses?)

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Final thought prove me wrong

• I pitied thee,Took pains to make thee speak,
  taught thee each hourOne thing or other when
  thou didst not, savage,Know thine own meaning,
  but wouldst gabble likeA thing most brutish, I
  endow'd thy purposesWith words that made them
  known. But thy vile race,Though thou didst
  learn, had that in't which good naturesCould not
  abide to be with therefore was thouDeserv'dly
  confined into this rock, who hadstDeserv'd more
  than a prison.
• Prospero to Caliban
• The Tempest