Topic: Pervasive Computing
Presented by: Sachin Singh
Date: Sep 14, 2003
Summary
The topic presented sheds light upon the concept of pervasive computing. Pervasive computing means a
technology which is so interwoven into the daily life that it is unrecognizable. Pervasive computing is not
having the capability to carry a laptop to the beach and neither is it virtual reality inside a computer. An
example of pervasive computing is Follow Me music, files and etc. An employee will be listening to
music in his office and when he goes to the hallway, the system will remember where the music was
stopped and will continue playing it. Pervasive computing can be achieved by maintaining a unique id for
every system and using the id to load the preferences. Biometric authentication will be used instead of the
conventional login and password. Issues like Distributed security, availability, scalability, adaptive
applications and etc need to be resolved for the successful growth and development of pervasive
computing.
Strength
Pervasive computing presents a novel idea of communication and customization with respect to stored
preferences. It provides the promise of providing a global identity that can be used to retrieve personal
preferences and customize the surroundings based on it and access to files. The use of biometric
authentication will eliminate the need to remember passwords and will significantly reduce identity theft.
Weakness
The concept of pervasive computing sounds promising. More information needs to be provided about the
infrastructure needed and when such resources are available. Also the demand for a pervasive
environment should be high enough to compensate for the costs involved in building such a network. A
highly robust infrastructure is needed with really sophisticated distributed systems.
Interesting Points
The idea of Follow Me files, music, etc will solve one of the major drawbacks of today’s communication
systems. Having customized services at everyplace will make it easier to go about the daily chores.
Not having to remember multiple login and passwords due to biometric authentication is a dream come
true.
Critical Questions
How cost effective is developing a fully functional pervasive computing environment?
What will be the level of confidence and comfort achieved against the amount of computation that needs
to be achieved?
How will security of the systems and information be maintained? It seems that highly foolproof security
systems need to be developed.
Has there been any research done to identify demand for such an environment?
Is there enough availability of infrastructure needed to build such an environment?
It appears that a lot of standards first need to be defined. Is there any work being done in that respect?