e-Campus – an overview
rodger lea
Internal use only
What is it
– … a unique testbed for large scale ubiquitous computing systems
deployment and experimentation. The overall aim of e-campus is to
create a large-scale facility that provides ubiquitous computing
applications for all staff, students and visitors to the university
campus.
Internal use only
why
Impact of pervasive computing
technology on university population
• Eg, does knowing what is happening
where lead to better space usage
Context and information
provision
• what context aware
services are of value to a
large campus population
Internal use only
Interface metaphors for public
displays
• Eg, how can one user access a public
display without reducing the utility for others
Support for rapid content
creation
• Eg, how can users quickly
create and deploy content
centric apps/services
Privacy in sensor rich environments
• Eg, can we tailor information and still
protect privacy
Approach and Timeline

E-Campus is an ambitious project
– Complex infrastructure and deployment issues
– Wide range of research questions and research disciplines

Start – March 2004, 2 year program
– ‘Vision’ calls for 4 year development

Initial 2 phase approach
– Phase 1: 5 small scale prototypes – understand key issues
• May 04 through to Jan 05
– Phase 2: initial deployment of campus wide infrastructure
• Jan 05 through to March 06
Internal use only
Initial prototypes - Underpass


Interactive media wall in
underpass
Aims:
– Understand deployment issues for
projectors
– Understand Content creation for eCampus

Initial prototype
– Interactive art piece – sensor
based
– Deployed Oct 2005
Internal use only
Initial prototypes - spine


Interactive panels on public
walkway
Aims:
– Develop canonical ubicomp appl
– Explore interaction models
– Develop core software infra

Initial prototype
– Planned to follow underpass
• Possible reuse of core software
– Creation of affiliated project –
steerable projectors
Internal use only
Initial prototypes

InfoLab21 Navigation
– Navigation system using displays and doorplates
– Aims:
• Explore message based communication in semi wild
environments
• Use of displays to foster community
• Technology and ethnography tracks
– Investigations in office as well as domestic
environments
• Folded into Hermes project and evolving into CASIDE
– CASIDE – situated displays
– Original timeline: May 04 – Dec 04
– Status (Oct05): Small scale Hermes deployment in
InfoLab
• (Hermes has carried out a set of external
deployments/test)
Internal use only
Initial prototypes

Fairy Lights
– SMS driven display prototype
using low cost lights
– Aims
• Viability of low cost display
technology
• Network issues in deploying
low cost ‘addressable’ lights
– Original timeline: May 04 –
Dec 04
– Status (Oct05): In progress,
prototype under construction,
Demo target Dec 05. Patent
application underway
Internal use only
Initial prototypes

Library info system
– Display campus wide computing lab status in library
– Aims:
• Provide real-world (and useful) data to campus population
• Explore bluetooth for local interaction
– Original timeline: May 04 – Dec 04
– Status (Oct05):
• Basic system deployed in library since Oct
• advanced system in final prototyping at Bark farm.
– Exploration of blue-zone concept
Internal use only
Status Oct 2005

4 of 5 prototypes deployed

3 in use on daily basis

Underpass generated significant publicity
– Involved interesting art collaboration

Fairy-lights potentially a spin-off/start-up

Two e-Campus inspired research grants
– Caside – communications and co-ordination using public displays
– Visiting research fellow – Content management in ubicomp
environments

General feeling that interesting lessons have been learned
Internal use only
Interim research results

Experience
– Significant deployment and prototype experience
• Underpass/spine related efforts have led to a new emphasis on content
management
• Better understanding of content needs and tool requirements

Publications?
Internal use only
Infrastructure evolution

Infrastructure has iterated based on a series of prototypes culminating
in the underpass demo
– Other projects have fed in requirements
•Scheduler
• manage requests for resource
• provide fair and deterministic
scheduling
•Event heap
• tuple space model
• main synchronisation point for
applications
Internal use only
Infrastructure evolution

Modified platform deployed in March 2005 (?)
• Event heap proved difficult to use
• ordering, sematics and
performance
• Stateless
• replaced by Elvin
•Smiley
• ad-hoc solution to state
management
Internal use only
Infrastructure evolution

Underpass deployment
– Significant hardware and software extensions to brewery
3 projectors
Single or multi
screen
Video
switch
4 Macs
PC
3 XGA
Audio
switch
2 live
cameras
Internal use only
3 sound
channels
Movement
Sensors (IR)
Current Infrastructure features

High level System model
– General purpose event model for basic communications between
system entities (Elvin)
– ‘media centric’ content programming model
• Media presentations, referred to as ‘applications’
– Media streams and time line plus event generation
• Media presentation devices – ‘displays’
– Display + computation element + screen management
• System state change managers – ‘handlers’
– Policy modules that sit between applications and displays
– Basic model is that applications use events (within transactions) to
secure resources, schedule media and perform interaction.
– Applications currently hand crafted – plan to provide tool or
extensions to existing tools
Internal use only
Infrastructure – future plans

Initial trials led to a number of observations
– Content management a key system issues
• Provisioning, versioning, meta-data management, workflow etc

Event model needs more flexibility
– Better support for state and state persistence
– Flexible ordering schemes, ie lightweight

Proposed approach
– Use content management system as core of infrastructure
– Augment with event management component
• Currently under development
Internal use only
Other infrastructure

ISS experimenting with Domino and Sharepoint
– Simple content management/portal infrastructure

Hermes/CASIDE using in-house infra

Testbed group keen for reuse
Internal use only
Observations

‘stolen time’ is ok for initial investigation but not acceptable for
full scale deployment
– Project severely hampered by lack of resources

stay focused on research – it can get lost within development
and deployment
– Research goals need to be clearly articulated and pursued

document and discuss – sharing knowledge key to looser
collaboration
– Process seems weak within e-campus

Testbed versus infrastructure – did you get this right?
Internal use only
Next Steps

Significant amount of ‘internal’ learning
– This needs to be shared and analysed

What are long term goals for e-Campus
– Is the e-Campus ‘vision’ still valid – and feasible?
– Is e-Campus still planning a shared infrastructure?
– Or is e-Campus simply an umbrella for a set of loosely related
projects?

Infrastructure evolution needs to be revisited
– What are requirements
• From existing and future work, eg CASIDE
– What are research issues and what can be used ‘off the shelve’
Internal use only
Infrastructure - observation

No strong appetite for common infrastructure
– Complex user base
•
•
•
•

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Simple web and RSS feed for day to day university needs
Bluetooth interactive
CASIDE has separate needs
Interactive art/technology/media requirements
Perhaps better to deploy a basic simple infrastructure
(commercial?) designed to meet common needs, eg campus
info, socs, faculty stuff etc
Parallel research infrastructure used just for e-Campus research
experiments
Internal use only