http://www.computer.org/pervasive IEEE Pervasive Computing delivers the latest peer-reviewed developments in pervasive, mobile, and ubiquitous computing to developers, researchers, and educators who want to keep abreast of rapid technology change. With content that's accessible and useful today, the quarterly publication acts as a catalyst for realizing the vision of pervasive (or ubiquitous) computing, described by Mark Weiser nearly a decade ago. The essence of this vision is the creation of environments saturated with computing and wireless communication, yet gracefully integrated with human users. Many key building blocks needed for this vision are now viable commercial technologies: wearable and handheld computers, high bandwidth wireless communication, location sensing mechanisms, and so on. The challenge is to combine these technologies into a seamless whole. This will require a multidisciplinary approach, involving hardware designers, wireless engineers, human-computer interaction specialists, software agent developers, and so on. en-us Wed, 4 Jan 2012 11:00:01 GMT http://csdl.computer.org/common/images/logos/pervasive.gif List of recently published journal articles http://www.computer.org/pervasive http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.6 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.6 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.13 Ten years ago, the articles in this magazine's inaugural issue provided a snapshot of the start of the art in pervasive computing and charted the progress the field had made in the 10 years since Weiser's seminal article. To mark the 20th anniversary, this issue similarly contains a series of articles that reflect on Weiser's vision, consider how far the field has come, and ponder where we're headed.Mark Weiser, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.13 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.1 A range of platforms have become available that can help researchers and hobbyists prototype new concepts in the ubiquitous computing domain. Such platforms, including Arduino and Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer, lower the barrier to entry for building custom electronic devices and facilitate plug-and-play prototyping. They also bring sophisticated software tools and abstractions to the embedded arena, letting users quickly and easily create devices with complex behaviors. Combined with recent advances in rapid-physical-prototyping technologies, it's now possible to control the form factor of these prototypes and create devices with form and function approaching consumer expectations for electronics devices.Arduino, .NET Gadgeteer, prototyping, ubicomp devices, pervasive computing, digital camera prototype http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.1 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.9 Gesture Search offers users an alternative to existing WYSIWYG, GUI-oriented interaction with smartphones. It supports random access of a phone's content and functionality using gesture shortcuts, so users no longer need to manually search and navigate through the interface hierarchy.Gesture Search, gesture shortcuts, smartphones, pervasive computing http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.9 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.85 This retrospective on 20 years of ubiquitous computing research identifies opportunities for leveraging utility computing and the Internet of Things to grow the ubicomp infrastructure, and discusses remaining challenges to taking ubicomp systems to where they indeed become ubiquitous. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.85 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.81 This discussion reflects on four themes from Weiser's original vision from a human-computer interaction perspective: computing everywhere, personal computing, the social dimension of computing, and privacy implications. The authors review developments both in accordance with and contrasting this vision. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.81 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.82 The new generation of smartphones has realized the early vision of context awareness. The next step is facilitating real-world impact of more complex recognition, moving toward next-generation opportunistic recognition configurations and large-scale ensembles of networked subsystems interacting with communities of users. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.82 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.80 How far have we come with respect to commercial deployments of the devices Mark Weiser described? This review of Weiser's vision evaluates the commercial success of tabs, pads, and boards and discusses their real-world use. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.80 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.78 Over the past two decades, the pervasive computing field evolved through roughly three generations of research challenges. Now, the scientific community, in a new research agenda book, articulates next-generation research directions as the quest to attain Weiser's vision continues. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2011.78 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.3 Norbert Streitz, Scientific Director of the Smart Future Initiative, was one of the early pioneers of ubiquitous computing in Europe. Nigel Davies interviews Streitz about technology's evolution and the significance of Weiser's vision today, his work on the Disappearing Computing Initiative, and his prediction of where we'll be 20 years from now. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.3 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2010.47 Building low-power location-based services that can run for hours on mobile phones is challenging. This survey of power conservation methods profiles how different phone features and types of LBSs consume power and discusses related design considerations. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2010.47 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.11 This instalment looks at two novel applications for m-health and free messaging. The first application can display real-time ECG tracings—in particular, it can monitor clinical data or alarms from standard and proprietary protocols. The second application is based on the missed-call-duration interpretation project. It presents a time-sliced messaging communication protocol that's useful for transmitting small data packets that can form complete messages at no cost. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.11 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.12 The first context-aware applications have found their way into app stores. However, these are mostly simple location-aware services and basic motion-analysis tools that are well behind the state of the art in wearable context recognition. Understanding how future applications can bridge this gap was the focus of the Qualcomm Context-Awareness Symposium. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.12 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.2 Virginia Tech offers an interdisciplinary design course for pervasive computing products, with the goal of providing undergraduates with the interdisciplinary and technical skills required to design and develop pervasive computing devices. The course has been developed and taught by a team of faculty from three departments—Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Design, and Marketing—and a faculty member from the Department of Engineering Education has helped develop the class's interdisciplinary teaming processes. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.2 http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.10 This recap of MobiSys 2011 reports on all of the topics and sessions, covering smartphones, energy efficiency, and location-aware technology. Other topics discussed include sensor network protocols, mobile privacy and security, and novel mobile applications and services. http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MPRV.2012.10