Ubiquitous Computing Expert Group

Going through the process of understanding ubiquitous computing and its integration into our society has been very eye opening for me. It’s really amazing understanding what is already on the technology market and what is right around the corner. Ubiquitous computing, which we found to also be referenced to as pervasive computing, is the growing trend towards embedding microprocessors in everyday objects so they can communicate  information. The words pervasive and ubiquitous mean “existing everywhere.” Pervasive computing devices are completely connected and constantly available. A technology trying to embed PCs into everyday objects to make conventional PCs invisible.

There are three main stages of computing that lead up to today’s standards of ubiquitous computing. The stages being the mainframe, and PC era, and then finally ubiquitous computing. The mainframe era was the time when there were multiple people using one machine. The example of this is when this peaked in the 90's, everyone had a PC in the home but it was one computer for the entire family. In the PC ear there was one machine per one person. Finally ubiquitous computing is when there are multiple machines per one person. This also shows us that the continuous connection is actually the opposite of virtual reality. Virtual reality immerses the person into the computer generated world, where computers are being embedded into the real world with ubiquitous computing.

The idea of having ubiquitous technology can be embedded into any aspect of your everyday life. We showed this in class by bring the groups together to think of different technologies in different areas. These being wearable, healthcare, home, automobile, and commercial technologies. For every category each group came up with multiple examples.  There are advantages and disadvantages or each category.

One of the categories with the most examples was for wearable technology. This would include things like Bluetooth jewelry, fit bit, smart watch, and the smart phone. The convergence of these technologies on one person would make that ubiquitous. The advantages for this wearable technology outweigh the disadvantages in my opinion. You have unlimited data that is at your literal fingertips 24/7. This data can tell you about your work, social life, family, and even your health. With the tracking technology of a fit bit people can see and keep record of their health. The only real disadvantages of this is to have to constantly keep you multiple devices charged. There could be a future around the corner, where all our wearable ubiquitous computing is in one single device.