1. Systems

Question 1

What is the ubiquitous vision of Mark Weiser?

Answer 1

He envisioned a world where computing and applications are embedded in everyday objects like cars, televisions and clothes.

Question 2

What are the 3 waves in computer technology evolution?

Answer 2

Mainframe
Personal computing
Ubicomp

Question 3

What are the properties of a pervasive computing system?

Answer 3

(5) Core properties
1. Context-awareness - knowing their own state, the state of their user, and of their surroundings
- Ex: time, location, noise level, “user is tired”
2. Implicit human-computer interaction - interaction with humans is implicit and multi-modal (beyond communication with keyboard, mouse, and display)
3. Seamless networking - many computers are networked in a transparent way
4. Autonomy - no human intervention needed for system to operate
5. Intelligence - some form of AI

Question 4

What are some problems and challenges in PC?

Answer 4

Privacy concerns + Fear that Moore’s law might come to a close (because heat dissipation and quantum effects will become a problem when chip size approaches atomic scale) + Unsolved technical issues exist concerning energy, scalability, and mobility management + Health and environment concerns + Ethical, privacy, legal, and usability concerns

Question 5

What are the main PC system building blocks?

Answer 5

Basic components

• Sensors - capture environmental information
• Actuators - act on environment depending on signal
  
  • Ex: motors, heaters, loudspeakers, buzzers, displays, LEDs
• Software agents(controllers) - infer context, reason, and make decisions based on a process model
• Communication modules(optional) - exchange of information between systems in a transparent way
  
  • Ex: collects data from sensors, sends messages or medical info about a patient, obtains exact location from GPS system, updates software