Week 12: Mobile Technologies and Pervasive Computing

"Which shall it be?"
- the final scene from Korda's film of "Things to Come" (1936) (http://www.archive.org/details/ThingstoCome [1])

Wikipedia Quick Reference

Ambient Devices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_Devices [2]
Pervasive Ubiquitous Computing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_computing [3]
Mark Weiser/Calm Technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calm_technology [4]
Mobile Computing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_computing [5]
RFID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID [6]
Augmented Reality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality [7]
Doug Engelbart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart [8]

Outline

This week we consider contemporary developments in mobile and pervasive computing - their convergence and technosocial implications. The ideas and readings here refer to a constellation of ideas rather than a coherent discipline - it is a nascent field that needs much sharp questioning and enquiry - though its roots stretch back into the extensive history of user-interface design and information representation and interactivity.

Pervasive computing can be pragmatically defined as:

"Pervasive computing describes access to information using new communications and networking technologies. The technology implies computing power, freed from the desktop, extended to wireless handheld devices, home appliances, and commercial tools-of-the-trade.

Pervasive computing solutions must support much more than just the devices and the embedded technology: businesses and service providers are further challenged to develop software solutions that manage the complex, flexible infrastructure and the mobility of those who use these devices; information architectures and system designs must flexibly support changing interaction models and user interface technologies." (http://webraft.its.unimelb.edu.au/615672/pub/ [9])

Mobile computing is becoming widely distributed via the increasing computational power and capabilities of mobile phones, PDAs and ubiquitous wifi and ad hoc networks. Currently these technologies rely stongly upon point-and-click interfaces and conventional modes of user interaction ("affordances" in HCI jargon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance [10] .) However, the utopian image of pervasive/ubitquitous computing suggests an idea that computing can become a "horizonal" technology (cf. Don Ihde http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ihde [11]), where it effectively disappears into the "infosphere" in which human culture and activity unfolds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosphere [12]) or operates as a type of cultural prosthesis, "augmenting" human potential. Clearly, such ideas are strongly influenced by science fiction in literature and film as well as thinkers in futorology (cf. http://www.kurzweilai.net/ [13] .) We need to think through the relationship between the real and the imaginary as ubiquitous computing becomes more real but provides more access to or pervasiveness of the imaginary.

Suggested Reading:

[article] Vannevar Bush "As We May Think" http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush [14]

[article] Mark Weiser
- " Ubiquitous Computing" http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html [15]
- "The Coming Age of Calm Technology" http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/acmfuture2endnote.htm [16]
- "The Computer for the 21st Century" http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/SciAmDraft3.html [17]

[article] Luciano Floridi - A look into the future impact of ICT on our lives - http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/pdf/alitfioiool.pdf [18]

[article] Smith, R. (2004) "RFID: a brief technology analysis" CTOnet.org - http://www.ctonet.org/documents/RFID_analysis.pdf [19]

[video] Engelbart, D. "The Demo" 1968: http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html [20] (amazing!) or complete video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8734787622017763097 [21]

[video] I Cringely interview with Engelbart: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/shows/#11 [22]

[video] Jeff Han, TED Interactive Desktop Demo: http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han&flashEnabled=1 [23]

[interview] with Brendan Harkin: http://molife.com.au/node/40 [24]

[novel] Greg Egan, "Permutation City" http://catalogue.library.uwa.edu.au/search/c825.535+E28+D11/c825.535+e28... [25]

[novel] Nel Stephenson, "Snow Crash" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash [26]

Websites:

Reality Mining: http://reality.media.mit.edu/ [27]
Visualising Complex Networks: http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/ [28]
Blackshoals Stockmarket Planetarium: http://www.blackshoals.net/ [29]
mo:life : http://molife.com.au/ [30]
Centre for Pervasive Computing: http://www.daimi.au.dk/~cfpc/ [31]
Things That Think: http://ttt.media.mit.edu/ [32]
Bureau of Inverse Technology: http://www.bureauit.org/ [33]
IEEE Pervasive Computing: http://www.computer.org/portal/site/pervasive// [34]
Thinkgeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/ [35]
HITlabNZ: http://www.hitlabnz.org/ [36]
Greg Egan: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ [37]
Discovery Channel: How William Shatner Changed The World: http://www.discoverychannel.ca/on_tv/how_shatner/shatner_home/ [38] and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQVO62QM0&search=shatner [39]

Things to think about:

1] Trace the history of ubiquitous computing, paralleling fictional and factual activities
2] What are the sociopolitical implications of ubiquity in computing? Is there a tension between utopian and dystopian conceptions? (cf. George Orwell's "1984" vs H.G. Wells "Things to Come", Movies: "Colossus: The Forbin project" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/ [40]), "The Matrix" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ [41]), "Things To Come" (http://www.archive.org/details/ThingstoCome [42]) and Star Trek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek [43]).)
3] What sorts of devices will we interact with in the future and what will they look/be like?
4] What are "affordances" and how do they enable us to think through the phenomenology of technology?
5] How will computational technologies disappear and yet be useful to us? Give some examples of already "invisible" technologies.