UbiComp Info 

1 Vision

2 Related Concepts

2.1 Wearable Computig

• The MIT Wearable Computing Web Page
  This page contains an introduction to the field of wearable computing, a resource for some technical information and links to some related events.
  
• Wearable Computing Group, TecO, University of Karlsruhe
  Their main research topics are: Context-Aware wearablecomputing, New Interaction Metaphores, and Minimizing the Gap Between Physical Objects and the Virtual World.

2.2 Augmented Reality

• Introduction to Augmented Reality
  Provided by Jim Vallino at Rochester Institute of Technology. This is a part of his thesis proposal.

• Augment-able Reality at Sony CSL
  In many of the conventional Augmented Reality Environments, users are consumers of prepared information. However, in Augmentable Reality, Users can easily be authors of information. 

2.3 Telepresence

2.4 Tangible Bits  

2.5 Roomware  

2.6 Cooperative Buildings

2.7 Information Appliances 

• Invisible Computer (Don Norman's book)

2.8 Proactive Computing 

• Tennenhouse David, Proactive Computing, Communications of the ACM, May 2000. Vol.43, No.5, pp.43-50.

2.9 Amorphous Computing

• H. Abelson, D. Allen, D. Coore, C. Hanson, E. Rauch, G.J. Sussman, R. Weiss. Amorphous computing. Communication of the ACM, May 2000, Vol. 43, No.5. pp.75-82. The challenges of amorphous computing include engineering prespecified, coherent behavior from the cooperation of vast numbers of unreliable parts interconnected in unknown, irregular, and time-varying ways. Applying the lessons of cellular cooperation in biological organisms. 

3 Classic Systems

• PARCTAB
  The PARCTAB system is a research prototype developed at Xerox PARC. 
  
• Active Badge
  A classic location system within a building developed at the Olivetti Research Laboratory (aquired by AT&T in 1999).
  
• Smart Rooms
  Developed at MIT Media Lab. Using cameras, microphones, and sensors, the system tries to capture what people are doing in a room. For example, a virtual dog on a large projection screen responds to gestures of a person in front of the screen. This system was used to construct a number of unique application environments.
  
•  NaviCam
  Developed at Sony CSL. Using a palmtop TV and a CCD camera, the system augments the real world by the computer's synthetic information.

4 Ongoing Research

4.1 Research Groups

• Xerox PARC
  This page contains links to various interesting projects at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
  
• FCE (Future Computing Environments) Group
  The Classroom 2000 (now it's called eClass) is one of their projects. Currently they are building a living laboratory for ubiquitous and everyday computing in the home (Aware Home).
  
• Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab
  Focuses on "the seamless coupling of physicality and virtuality."
  
• Things That Think (TTT) Consortium
  This consortium of MIT Media Lab includes a number of projects related to UbiComp.
  
• AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
  Interesting research projects including Active Bat (The Ultrasonic Location System).
  
• Input Research Group, University of Toronto
  This group did a lot of work on haptic input to computer systems. Bill Buxton may be one of the most well-known person in this field. He provides an extensive directory of sources for input technologies on his website. By "haptic", they mean input that involves physical contact (such as by the hand or foot).
  
• i-LAND project, GMD (German National Research Center for Information Technology).
  i-LAND stands for "an Interactive Landscape for Creativity and Innovation".  They have built a unique system by integrating so-called roomware components (Dynawall, InteracTable, CommChairs, and Passage). [See also: Roomware and Cooperative Buildings.]
  
• Microsoft Research EasyLiving Research Group
  This page provides the overview of the effort at Microsoft Research to build an intelligent environments using Vision Technologies 
  
• Human Computer Interaction (Intelligent Environments) group at MIT AI Lab
  Three research projects are listed under this name. Intelligent Room, which was presented at the 1st international workshop on Cooperative Buildings, seems to have evolved to a new project called Hal: The Next Generation Intelligent Room. It seems that they are building something interesting using Vision, Gesture and Speech Recognition techniques. Vision Interface Project works on perceptual human-computer interfaces.
  
• Vision and Modeling Group at MIT Media Lab
  A number of unique projects led by prominent researchers: research topics include Sandy Pentland's Perceptual Intelligence  Rosalind Picard's Affective Computing and Aaron Bobick's Seeing Action. Some examples of their projects: Smart Rooms, Smart Desks, Smart Chair, Smart Spaces, Smart Clothes, Affective Tangibles, Tanigble Phone, smartCar, Visually Aware Interactive Spaces, etc.
  
• Human Computer Interaction Projects at IBM Research 
  Interesting projects including BlueEyes (Attentive Environments, eye/gaze, head, person tracking), Interfaces for pervasive computing, Natural Interactions (Gesture recognition -- DreamSpace), Personal Area Communication (PAN)
  
• Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project
  Experimental hardware and software testbeds were built using high-resolution wall-mounted and tabletop displays (Interactive Murals and Interactive Tables), laptops, PDAs, wireless LAN, LCD-tablets, laser pointer trackers, microphone arrays, pan-and-tilt cameras. Their major research thrusts include a scalable distributed display architecture, architectures for the integration of multiple people and devices, interaction styles and associated toolkits, and a generalized interaction architecture (which is based on a ser-centered interaction model.)
  
• Interaction Laboratory, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
  Members: Jun Rekimoto, Toshiyuki Masui and Kim Binsted. A number of interesting projects including HoloWall, Matrix Code, Pick-and-Drop, Augmented Surfaces, Time-Machine Computing, Real World GUI, Real World Programming and HyperMask. More information can be found at individual pages of each researcher.
  
• Center for LifeLong Learning and Design, University of Colorado at Boulder
  A number of interesting projects that are based on certain philosophies and theoretical concepts. EDC (The Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory ) is a collaborative environment integrating physical and computational aspects. Coleman Project is a joint research project supported by the Coleman Family Foundation and its mission is to provide computationally enhanced environments to assist people with a wide range of cognitive disabilities.
• Ubiquitous Computing Group at TecO, University of Karlsruhe
  Wide range of research topics including uses of PDAs, integration of everyday objects (like coffee cups) with computational media, middleware for ubiquitous and mobile computing, Web and UbiComp, gathering context-awareness for mobile information appliances, and Wearables.
  
• FX PAL
• Portolano Project at the University of Washington
  "The Portolano project seeks to create a testbed for investigation into the emerging field of invisible computing". They seem to focus on User Interfaces, Network Infrastructure and Distributed Services.

4.2 Some Examples of Interesting Research Activities

Integrated Design of Smart Environments

• Swisshouse Program
  I thought they were building an interesting house somewhere in Boston. They probably talked about their visions at the 2nd International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings.
  
• The Adaptive House, Boulder, Colorado
  Michael Moser's group have constructed a prototype of a control system in an actual residence. The house is equipped with many sensors and actuators. The system which is based on neural network techniques etc. learns to manage heat, water, air heat, lighting and ventilation.
  
• Augmented Surfaces
  Developed at Sony CSL. A computer augmented environment allowing for spatially continuous operations across portable computers, table and wall displays, and other physical objects (videotapes, document folders, etc.). A window on a portable computer jumps out onto a table display (Hyperdragging) and the other way around. Pick and Drop operations can be done using Laser pointers. Digital Attachment links physical object like book pages to related digital objects. PropCamera on a table display creates 3D views on a wall display. [They also used a similar hardware environment to create Baseball Watching Station, assigning different kinds of information (TV broadcast, games, chat systems) concerning live baseball games. Kind of reminds me of the EDC environment at the University of Colorado.]
•  Vision system

Handheld Devices and CSCW

• NotePals at UC Berkeley
  This is a "Lightweight Meeting Support Using Personal Digital Assistants and Note-Taking Appliances". It automatically combines individual's meeting notes into a shared meeting record. An extension of NotePals may be used for supporting distributed collaborative learning.
  
• Integrating Information Appliances into an Interactive Workspace
  This is a part of the research activities at the Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project. Check the Pubilications section at the bottom of the page.
• TransVision
  Developed at Sony CSL. This system allows for sharing of computational media (3D models) using palmtop video-see-through displays. They discuss that this system can provide something fundamentally different from Shared Virtual Reality.
• IrChat, PocketWeb, etc. 
  Developed by PDA Developers Group at TecO, University of Karlsruhe. Using PDAs (like Apple Newton) for Chat, Web access, Electronic Conference Support, Tourism Support and Email.
• PDAs at CMU
• U Calgary Work
• Dr. Minenko's System

Infrastructure

• Networking for Smart Spaces Project and AirJava at NIST Information Technology Laboratory
  It seems that they are building a test bed to explore the use of Java, Jini, and multicast technology together with wireless systems (like Bluetooth and HomeRF) as a networking foundation for pervasive computing or smart spaces.
•  Dynamic Multi-Device Services
  Henrik Gustafsson at Ericsson Research discusses communications/ services for various information devices around us, at home and elsewhere. Mobile Cliproard is one of his activities, introducing various ActiveBadge-like devices.
• SECA (Smart Environment Control Architecture) at TecO, University of Karlsruhe
  I don't know exactly what this is. Looks like a sort of XML/WAP based directory/ naming service for controlling some devices.
• Middleware for Mobile Computing at TecO, University of Karlsruhe
  "addresses topics like Application Stability in mobile environments, Multimedia, Quality of Service, Bandwidth and cost awareness, application transparency and Security." 
• Ubiquitous Location-Awareness
  This is a paper presented by Ulf Leonhardt of Imperial Collage at the 5th CaberNet Radicals Workshop.

Gesture

• Dynawall/ InteracTable
  Gestures for a Roomware environment. Suffle, Take, Put, Rotate, etc. 
• Visual Instruments for an Interactive Mural
  "presents a design for interacting with a prototype device combining a large, high-resolution wall-mounted display and an optically tracked laser pointer." This is a part of the research activities at the Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project. Check the Pubilications section at the bottom of the page.
• Pick and Drop: A Direct-manipulation Technique for Multiple-Computer Environments
  Proposed by Jun Rekimoto at Sony CSL. Simple gestures allow users to "pick" a digital object from one computer and "drop" it into another computer. GMD's DynaWall uses a similar interaction method for transporting data across multiple devices as well as within a large shared display device.
•  Tilting Interface for Small Screen Computers
  This is a web page at Sony CSL. Contains a few links to some information on the uses of tilt sensors in User Interfaces.

Walls

• DataWall 
  DataWall was designed at MIT Media Lab a number of years ago to realize seamless full-motion, ultra high-resolution projection display.

• DynaWall

• PowerWall

• Interactive Workspace at Stanford

• Research project at CREW, University of Michigan

Tables and Desks

Chairs

Capture and Access

• Classroom2000
• U Berlin's work
• ZombieBoard
• (French system @CoBuild99)

Information Appliance

• FieldMouse
  Developed at Sony CSL. FieldMouse is an interesting example of combining two different kinds of input technologies (a barcode reader and a motion sensor). It brings GUI components such as buttons, menus and sliders into the physical space. Some of this work, I think, was presented at the UIST'99 conference.
• Real World Programming (in Japanese)
  A concept for programming in the real world. 
• InfoPoint
  A direct-manipulation device for Inter-Appliance Computing developed at Sony CSL.
• E-Books @ FX PAL

Paper and Electronic Documents

• EnhancedDesk
• InteractiveDesk
• CHI97 session
• Matrix Method 
  A realtime object identification and registration method using 2D barcodes and video cameras. This method not only identifies IDs of physical objects but also detects their position and orientation. Useful for linking physical paper/books and electronic documents. Sony CSL's Augmented Reality Environments are developed using this technology.
• UbiquitousLinks
  Developed at Sony CSL. This system detects IDs of physical objects and then automatically retrieves corresponding web sites.

Tangble/ Tactile User Interface

• mediaBlocks
  An interesting system developed at MIT. People can transport and edit sequences of digital video clips using physical blocks.
  
• InformativeThing
• Passage
• EDC
• Bricks
• ThingsBoard
  Developed and available at Sony CSL. Electronic discussion forums are linked to IDs of physical objects (like JAN(EAN), ISBN, Magazine Code, CDDB ID).

Vision-based System

• The Kids Room: An Interactive Narrative Playspace
  This is an interesting work by Perceptual Computing Group at the MIT Media Laboratory. They transformed a child's bedroom into a unique environment for fantasy play. A sophisticated vision system detects kids' positions and actions in the room and feed them to the narration control system. This seems to be one of the activities in the context of the Digital Life consortium.

Two-Handed Interaction / parallel Inputs

• Responsive Workbench
  This is a project at Stanford Computer Graphics Lab. It is based on a 3D interactive workspace developed at GMD. Using shutter glasses and 6DOF head trackers. One of their focuses is Two-Handed Manipulation.
• HoloWall
  An input technology for large interactive displays. Developed at Sony CSL. Unlike common touch sensitive surfaces, the display surface has (infrared) eyes that can see what is going on near the surface. Any objects that reflect infrared lights can be recognized by the system and used as system inputs. Allows for two-handed interaction.

Everyday Objects

• MediaCup
  Developed at TecO, University of Karlsruhe. Cofee cups augmented with sensing, processing and communication. For example, meetings in a room may be detected by monitoring activities of MediaCups. You may hear a beep sound when your coffee is too hot. Or a coffee machine may automatically start making coffee when MediaCups are running out of coffee.

Networking Distributed Physical Objects and Places

• Ambient Telepresence
  A project at TecO, University of Karlsruhe. Build on top of the MediaCup system. "Creates an ambient feeling of the presence of a distant person" by transferring ambient events like "cup events" and then interpreting them as noise conditions.

Web and UbiComp

• UbicompBrowser
  Using a handheld computer and various output devices (e.g., display devices), people can access/control the Web. Web contents are dispatched to appropriate devices using the location information of handheld computers. New families of URLs are defined for local devices like TV, radio and light.
• UbiquitousLinks

Home Automation

Experiment Capture

Health Monitoring

5 Enabling Technologies

5.1 General

• IBM Pervasive Computing

5.2 Handheld Device

• Reading Appliance
• PDA

5.3 Display Technology

• SMART

• Electronic Paper
  Paper-like flexible display devices coming soon
  - Electronic Reusable Paper at Xerox PARC.
  - Electronic Ink at E Ink. (Immedia products are available.)
  - Also, some Japanese companies including TDK will probably manufacture E-paper in the near future.

5.4 Automatic Identification

• RFID
  - Tag-it system can read multiple tags by a reader.
• RTLS
• GPS
• Barcode System
• Electronic Scale

5.5 Networked Sensors

• Sensors.com
  Founded by G.J. Pottie and W.J. Kaiser in 1998 in Los Angeles, to enable continuous sensing, signal processing for event detection, local control of actuators, event identification, and communication at low power. A related article can be found in the May 2000 issue of Communication of the ACM 43(5), pp.51-58.

• Sensor Multiplexing
  Related website: http://netweb.usc.edu/SCADDS/

5.6 Biometrics

• Biometric Consortium
  Founded by DOD in 1992. "The Biometric Consortium serves as the US Government's focal point for research, development, test, evaluation, and application of biometric-based personal identification/verification technology."
• Biometrics Authentication Systems, Coming Soon!, IPSJ Magazine, Vol.40, No.11, November 1999.
  This issue of the IPSJ magazine discusses various biometrics systems and their applications. (in Japanese). Typical biometrics systems uses different patterns of faces, retinas, irises, fingerprints, palm shapes; voice, (dynamic) signature.
• Fingertip/ Fingerprint UI
  Biometrics is often used for user authentication purposes. But researchers at NEC C&C Media Laboratories explore the use of fingerprint scanners in creating a novel user interface. Use fingertips as shortcuts/ bookmarks. (Each finger has a different fingerprint pattern.) They have papers on IEICE Technical Report, OFS98-26, IE98-52, pp.13-18. (Sep. 1998) and IPSJ Interaction'99 Conference, pp. 169-176, March 1999.
• National Biometric Test Center (NBTC)
  This center is at San Jose State University.
• International Computer Security Association
  Assessment of Biometrics systems
• Sandia National Laboratories
  Assessment of Biometrics systems.
• ECOM, Japan
  Assessment of Biometrics systems

5.7 Distributed Computing

• XML

• Java, applets, and Jini

5.8 MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems)

• Analog Devices
  iMEMS home
• PARC Prject

5.9 Devices/ Electronics

• Embedded Web servers
  - Hydra (Xerox PARC's embedded Web server)
  - Tini (Dallas Semiconductor's commercial embedded Web server)
  - Boolean server (for example, such servers are implemented on Microchip PIC and on FairchildACE1101MT8 processor)
• (a company selling TCP/IP Chip)
• Moser Electronics

5.10 UI Toolkit

• Pad++
  Ben Benderson's impressive system based on the concept of ZUI (Zooming UI).
• Jazz
  ZUI (Zooming UI) for Java. Ben Benderson's ongoing project. Version 1.0 was released on the 4th of July, 2000. MID (I don't know if it is a part of Jazz or not) may be an interesting feature as it can be used to construct single-device multiple-user groupware.

5.11 Voice Recognition

• Speaker identification engines
  - Sprint's system
  - T-NETIX's SpeakEZ
  - Animo & Fujitsu's VoiceGATE
  - Animo's VoiceSync

5.12 Wireless networking

• Bluetooth
  A low cost wireless solution. No more than several meters. Uses 2.4GHz band w/ frequency hopping. Raw data rate 1Mbps. Application level data rate approx. 721Kbps.
• IrDA
  Data rates ranging from 9.6Kbps to 4Mbps. line-of-sight operation.
• Home RF
  

6 Research Community

6.1 Journal

• IEEE Personal Technologies
• TOCHI
• Communications of ACM (available online at ACM Digital Library)
  - Embedding the Internet (May 2000. Vol.43 No.5)
  - PUI (March 2000, Vol.43, No.3)
  - 1993 AR stuff
• IEEE Computer....

6.2 Conference/ Workshop/ Symposium

• International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings
• ACM CHI
• ACM CSCW
• ACM UIST
• HUC (Handleld and Ubiquitous Computing)
• DARE
• Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces  
• IBM Conference on Ease of Use (Make It Easy)
• Smart Spaces
• International Workshop on Networked Appliances'98, Kyoto, Japan.
• MobiCom

6.3 Online Community

• comp.wearables

7 Survey

• New Challenges of Ubiquitous Computing and Augmented Reality
  This is a paper presented by Albrecht Schmidt and Michael Beigl of University of Karlsruhe at the 5th CaberNet Radicals Workshop. 

8 Related Link Collections

• Computer Vision Homepage
  A comprehensive site providing information on Hardware, Software, Demos, Test Image, Conferences, Publication, General Info, Links, Search, etc.
  
• Intelligent Environment Resource Page
  This page (at Microsoft Research) provides a collection of links related to Intelligent Environments. 
  
• Links to Augmented Reality & Computer Augmented Environments
  This page is maintained by Jun Rekimoto at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
• Augmented Reality Page
  Provided by Jim Vallino at Rochester Institute of Technology.