What Is Ubiquitous Computing (Pervasive Computing)? Meaning, Layers, Examples, and Applications

Pervasive computing, also known as ubiquitous computing, integrates connectivity functionalities into all of the objects in our environment so they can interact with one another, automate routine tasks, and require minimal human effort to complete tasks and follow machine instructions. This article explains how ubiquitous computing works and its top applications in 2022. 

What Is Ubiquitous Computing?

Pervasive computing, or ubiquitous computing, integrates connectivity functionalities into all of the objects in our environment so they can interact with one another, automate routine tasks, and require minimal human effort to complete tasks and follow machine instructions. 

Pervasive computing, also known as ubiquitous computing, refers to the growing pattern of embedding computing capacity (generally in the form of microprocessors) into ordinary items to make them communicate effectively and accomplish helpful tasks while reducing the end subscriber’s need to communicate with computers. Pervasive computing tools are network-connected and always on.

The late 1980s were the birthplace of ubiquitous computing. The term “ubiquitous computing” was coined in 1988 by Mark Weiser, CTO at Xerox PARC (or the Palo Alto Research Center). He co-authored some of the first studies on the subject alongside John Seely Brown, chief scientist and director of PARC. Weiser is credited for coining the term “ubiquitous computing” and diving into its underlying difficulties. 

The proliferation of interconnected devices in work, home, and transportation environments is called ubiquitous computing or ambient computing. These integrated technologies would make these settings and transportation methods far more engaging and practical via contextual data collection, application, and seamless payment mechanisms. 

This is a system in which computer network technology permits itself to exist discreetly in the background of the consumers’ awareness. The seamless integration of computers into our regular activities and physical settings is a core concept in the ubiquitous computing paradigm. Ubiquitous computing tries to make the computer “invisible”  by enabling these embedded processors to detect and respond to their application environment autonomously.

Pervasive computing, as opposed to desktop computing, may operate with any device, anytime, in any location, and datatype across networks and can transfer duties from one computer to another when a consumer walks from vehicles to the workplace. Laptops, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, and sensors are ubiquitous computing devices (fleet management and pipeline components, lighting systems, and appliances). 

A great example of a ubiquitous computing system is an autonomous vehicle that recognizes its authorized passenger via smartphone vicinity, docks and charges itself when required, and handles the emergency response, toll, and fast-food payments efficiently by interfacing with the infrastructure. It entails linking electrical equipment, including installing microprocessors to transfer data. Devices that employ ubiquitous computing are always available and fully connected. 

Ubiquitous computing keeps a close focus on learning by decreasing computer complexity and enhancing efficiency while utilizing computing for everyday activities. Ubiquitous computing, which is sometimes regarded as the successor to mobile computing, usually entails wireless communication and networking technologies, mobile devices, embedded systems, wearable computers, radio frequency ID (RFID) tags, middleware, and software agents. 

Internet connectivity, speech recognition, and artificial intelligence (AI) features are frequently added. It incorporates computers into everyday items, allowing people to connect with information-processing equipment more easily and freely than they do now, regardless of place or context. 

The expression is further described as a computing environment where each instructor and student has their own internet-connected, private mobile computing device that they may use at home and in the classroom. While computers were formerly large and heavy equipment, ubiquitous computing is based on the downsizing of electronics, which allows for the integration of computer technologies into lightweight handheld devices and various other ubiquitously emerging situations.

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Layers of Ubiquitous Computing

It is not as easy as creating a new type of computer with varying abilities from its predecessors to define ubiquitous computing. It’s as complex as establishing a unique manner of engaging with and obtaining information, communicating, and a new way of living. One may use wireless sensor networks with the Internet of Things (IoT).

Such sensor networks gather information from selected device sensors before passing it to an IoT server. A system of layers with a specific series of tasks that come together to make up ubiquitous computing might be considered. These layers include the following: 

Layer 1: The task management layer

It examines user tasks, context, and index. It also controls the territory’s complicated dependencies. The system uses knowledge about a user’s jobs to set up and reconfigure the surroundings on the consumer’s behalf. To begin, the infrastructure must understand what to configure for; i.e., what a user requires from surroundings to complete their responsibilities. Second, the infrastructure must understand how to design the environment appropriately: it must have processes to match the user’s demands to the resources and capabilities available in the environment. 

Task management also analyzes explicit user cues and occurrences in the user’s physical environment. It coordinates the two aspects of preserving the user-level state of a suspended task and reinstating the resumed task on receiving a signal from the user – whether to suspend the current task or resume another task. One can also capture complex depictions of user tasks through task management. 

It collects information about customer tasks and their related purpose. This information is used to regulate the setup of the environment when the user’s work or situation changes. For example, a user seeking to complete a task in a new environment can have task management access to all relevant information and manage task support with the environment management layer.

Layer 2: The environment management layer

It is responsible for mapping service needs, user-level conditions of specific attributes, and resource and capability tracking.The environment’s abstract models are kept in the environment management layer. These models bridge the gap between the user’s demands, described in environment-independent terms, and the actual abilities of every environment. 

Such directions are utilized to handle environmental heterogeneity as well as dynamic change. In terms of heterogeneity, when customers require services, such as voice recognition, environment management will locate and configure a “supplier” for that service from among those accessible in the environment. 

In terms of dynamic change, explicit models of the environment’s capabilities permit automated reasoning when those abilities change constantly. The environment management automatically updates such a mapping in reaction to variations in the subscriber’s wants (adaptation triggered by task management) and modifications in the environment’s resources and capabilities (adoption initiated by environment management). Maximizing a utility function expresses the user’s preferences and guides adjustment in both circumstances. 

Layer 3: The environment layer

It monitors and maintains essential resources. The environment layer includes programs and devices that one may customize to help a user complete a job. Aside from configuration difficulties, these vendors engage with the user just because they would without the system. The network simply intervenes to set up such vendors on the user’s behalf.

The environment manager manipulates the individual abilities of every supplier, acting as an interpreter for the environment-independent definitions of user demands supplied by task management. 

The platform allows applications to perform the adaptation strategies suited for every job by factoring models of users’ needs and circumstances out of individual applications. This information is challenging to gain at the application level, but once decided at the user level via task management, it is readily transferred to the programs that support the subscriber’s task. 

Computing systems on which people rely must increasingly adapt to failures in contexts that are not totally within the control of the system implementers. They must modify their run-time features to accommodate the changing loads, resources, and objectives. The field of ubiquitous computing is a particularly relevant sector for self-adaptation. 

Consumers are now exposed to diverse, ubiquitous, and changeable technology. It is diverse because computation may occur on various computer systems, interfaces, networks, and services. It penetrates much of our working and residential surroundings via wireless and cable communication. It is flexible because resources change: users might relocate from resource-rich to resource-poor areas.

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Examples of Ubiquitous Computing

The qualities and functions that describe the scope of ubiquitous computing operations are enumerated below. Mobility and ad hoc networking are already widespread in real-world communication. Autonomy, context awareness, and energy autonomy are not projected for another two to five years. Context-awareness and embedding in daily things are definitive and formative features of ubiquitous computing. In comparison, energy autonomy and systems and components autonomy are secondary features.

As a result, it logically follows that pervasive computing will emerge gradually as its properties evolve in several steps. There are ubiquitous computing applications everywhere. It has developed into various devices, including computers, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, wearable gadgets, smart speakers, and sensors. 

In other words, examples of ubiquitous computing are unlimited, allowing the technology to be one of the most recognized and efficient types. It is a research-based technology that strives for the appropriate computing whenever and wherever. It is used in several ways and is designed to reduce waste and time-lapses.

Electronic toll systems on roads are examples of ubiquitous computing, as are monitoring programs such as Life360, which can measure the user’s position, speed, and smartphone battery life; smart traffic lights; and Fitbit. Pervasive computing apps are intended for consumer usage and assist individuals in their daily activities. An example of ubiquitous computing is an Apple Watch that notifies the customer of a call and enables the call to be finished through the watch. 

Another example is when a registered user of Audible, Amazon’s audiobook server hosted on AWS cloud, starts their book on the train using the Audible app on a smartphone and continues listening to the book at home using Amazon Echo. A ubiquitous computing environment is one in which devices are present everywhere and are capable of some type of computing. The following industries are investing in research and development for ubiquitous computing: energy, entertainment, military, healthcare, and logistics. 

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Self-driving cars may be voice-controlled, allowing more efficient trips, and saving time and energy. Smart locks safeguard the home and employ cutting-edge technology to keep the owner informed. Pervasive computing also includes smart clocks and lamps that can be controlled by voice and aid with energy efficiency.

Because ubiquitous computing systems can gather, analyze, and communicate data, they can adapt to the context and activity of the data. That is a network that can comprehend its environment and improve life experiences and life quality. 

The dystopian sci-fi thriller ‘Minority Report’ showed a bleak future of widespread computer misuse. The proliferation of gadgets, latent biometric scans, and people monitoring using standard identification methods seemed overwhelming when the Internet of Things (IoT) was only starting to gain traction.

Access to wireless Internet, email on mobile phones, and handheld computers give us the impression that continuous, unrestricted data exchange is commonplace. However, the unique performance characteristics of ubiquitous computing will enable an entirely new level of data, information, and knowledge exchange and processing in the future. 

With ubiquitous computing, many tasks can be relegated to the background, and the remaining bulk can then be performed wholly or partially autonomously. However, pervasive computing will not arise simultaneously and uniformly across all socioeconomic sectors. 

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Applications of Ubiquitous Computing

A wide variety of devices are compatible with ubiquitous computing systems. In this section, let’s examine the most prominent uses of ubiquitous computing. Pervasive computing envisions a future where small, potentially portable devices, sensors, and actuators connect. Environment monitoring, health and home care, and intelligent transportation systems are just a few of the many prospective uses for pervasive computing. The various applications include the following; 

1. Logistics

The difference in IT control systems between physical movement and information flow is bridged by tracking logistical commodities across the entire transportation cycle of raw materials, semi-finished goods, and completed products (including ultimate disposal). This offers the chance to automate and streamline logistics that are already apparent. Computers may use sensor technology to gather, define, and interpret factual information. Users must translate the data into a higher-level idea, the “scenario.” 

In the actual world, sensory inputs from the physical surroundings are solved using scenario identification approaches, which can be specification-based like, logic programming, fuzzy logic, ontologies, or learning-based, for instance, neural networks, web mining, and decision trees. 

Sensor technology is used in manufacturing and logistics to regulate operations and product quality. A critical problem for smart freight items in the transportation of sensitive commodities is assessing quality changes while considering environmental circumstances. 

2. Self-driving vehicles

It is also an excellent use of ubiquitous computing expertise. The system is designed to respond to transmitted information with several degrees of autonomy, either reactively, through basic monitoring, or proactively. The system is intended to provide an in-vehicle system that supports the driver with journey planning (drive panel), provides a comfortable atmosphere for the driver while observing him (wellness panel), and adaptively manages interactions with their mobile phone and the online world. 

3. Home automation 

There is no shortage of smart home gadgets, and the number will only grow as home automation becomes more popular. Smart lamps, smart locks for doors, windows, and cupboards – we’re only just beginning to see how technology can alter our daily lives. Home automation systems may control elements like temperature, entertainment, and appliances in addition to lights.

Ubiquitous computing can thus transform many home technological devices, including heating, lighting, ventilation, and communication equipment, into intelligent objects that automatically respond to the needs of the residents. Ubiquitous computing enables the automation of regular physical chores, freeing us from all the manual labor in the household and allowing us to live more freely.

The usage of these technologies tends to alter our traditional views of time and space, breaking free from the constraints provided by the physical confines of the household. Smart home systems may simply bring ease to daily tasks, in addition to the advantages supplied by mechanical and electrical technology.

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4. E-commerce

Utilizing a wide variety of digital services, smart objects employed through ubiquitous computing enable the development of new business models. This includes location-based services, the transition from buying to renting goods, and software agents that will teach pervasive computing components to start and run services and business activities on their own.

In today’s corporate world, smart services adapt to changing market conditions. Because market conditions change, so should the design of devices that provide smart services. This aspect of adaptability in creating smart gadgets has inherent issues that may impair the device’s quality of service. Nonetheless, the benefits outweigh the slight problems associated with implementing and operating smart devices.

5. National security

Identification devices – for example, electronic passports and smart cards – are examples of ubiquitous computing applications in inner security. Monitoring devices are becoming increasingly crucial in the long term, for example, in environmental protection and surveillance of critical facilities, including airports and power grids. 

6. Medical technology

Medical applications provide various options, such as smart implants, for monitoring health of the ill and aged in their homes as pervasive computing becomes more autonomous, adaptable, miniaturized, and connected. The fact that ubiquitous computing integrates effectively with numerous application areas may make it a topic of particular interest. 

Ubiquitous technology is already allowing the development and management of tailored health and wellness services that intelligently respond and adapt to consumers’ ever-changing demands. In doing so, this field handles a wide variety of issues, including but not restricted to disease monitoring, support diagnosis, behavior coaching, and others. 

7. Military and armed forces

The military field needs information on avoiding and combating potential risks that are as detailed, multidimensional, and interconnected as feasible. This includes information gathering and processing. It also covers the creation of new weaponry systems. The 21st-century war style has evolved into a digitalized cooperative union technique that depends primarily on real-time information technology. 

The use of ubiquitous computing and network technologies in military defense is required to conduct many battles in the twenty-first century. Moreover, these techniques can increase strategic abilities such as sensing and detecting, exchanging and sharing sophisticated real-time information, and strengthening the strategic units’ capacity.

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Takeaway

Ubiquitous computing is all around us, and as IoT devices become more mainstream, it will be a crucial concept for enterprises and personal use. Eventually, the physical world will comprise the building blocks of IT infrastructure to enable smart homes, smart campuses, and entire smart cities. For ubiquitous computing to succeed, the industry requires affordable microprocessor technology, easy access to the cloud, and ruggedized, energy-efficient hardware – which is the next leap in the evolution of computing. 

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