What Comes

Next ?
Tim Finin
University of Maryland,
Baltimore County
February 17, 2004

http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/v2.1/resource/html/id/16/
1
 Caveat

“It's tough to make predictions,

especially about the future.”
-- Yogi Berra

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an Honors University in Maryland 2
 (0) Opening thoughts
Some current research at UMBC
(1) Pervasive computing
(2) Wearable computing
( ) Intelligent agents
( ) The semantic web
(3) Final thoughts

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an Honors University in Maryland 3
 IT Evolution
ecommerce
Internet

1970 1980 1990 2000

Personal Web
computer
Google

During the past 20 years, computers have engaged the

general population and made a difference in our lives.
UMBC
an Honors University in Maryland 4
 IT Evolution

?
ecommerce
Internet

1970 1980 1990 2000

Personal Web
computer Google

The possibilities for what comes next is very large. Advances in hardware,
software and theory will take us in many directions. Research is exploration,
evolution, often done by random search performed by 10,000 grad students
typing on keyboards.
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an Honors University in Maryland 5
 IT Evolution Autonomic Trust

?
Systems

Natural
Language
Intelligent Understanding
ecommerce software
Internet agents
Wearable
Computing

Web
1970 1980 1990 2000 Services 2010
Pervasive
Computing
Semantic
Personal Web Web
Adaptive
computer Systems
Google
Our ebiquity lab at UMBC is exploring some of these
Based on the idea of intelligent, pervasive computing.
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an Honors University in Maryland 6
 Human Evolution?

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 Human Evolution?

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an Honors University in Maryland 8
 Human Evolution?

Pervasive Computing aims to embed computing into

our lives, making it as natural as using other ordinary
objects like pen, paper, and cups and available anytime
and anywhere.
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an Honors University in Maryland 9
 (1) Pervasive Computing
“The most profound technologies are those
that disappear. They weave themselves into
the fabric of everyday life until they are
indistinguishable from it ” – Mark Weiser

Think: writing, central heating, electric

lighting, …
Not: taking your laptop to the beach, or
immersing yourself into a virtual reality

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an Honors University in Maryland 10
 Practical Pervasive technology: the ambient orb

The orb is connected by a pager to a network

intrusion detection system monitoring the
status of the UMBC network. The number and
severity of security incidents are visualized by
its changing color and frequency of pulsing.

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an Honors University in Maryland 11
 Communication is a key enabler

Too bad they

Cool
can’t talk to
toys…
each other…

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an Honors University in Maryland 12
 We have many standards

Sync.
Configuration?
Download
Too much work…
. Done.

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an Honors University in Maryland 13
 The devices must be more social

Thank God!
Everything is
done for me!

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an Honors University in Maryland 14
 Ongoing research issues
 Languages for devices to exchange and share
information using common vocabularies
 User configurable policies for trust and privacy

 Context aware systems that can anticipate the

needs of users and act in advance by

“understanding” their situation
 Intelligent middleware and agents to

 Sense, acquire and share context knowledge

 Reason about and maintain consistent context knowledge

 Enforce policies for security, trust, safety & privacy

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an Honors University in Maryland 15
 Our intelligent room

B Room
Booker
(Semantic Web)

SOAP/OWL

Services

FIPA-ACL/OWL

P
Personal Agent
Mocha PC (FIPA/JADE)
8”x6”x2”

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an Honors University in Maryland 17
 A Typical CoBrA Use Case

Alice in Wonderland*
Alice enters a The broker detects The broker negotiates
conference room Alice’s presence privacy policy with Alice

B 


Policy says, The broker builds The broker knows

“can share with any the context model Alice’s role and
agents in the room” intention
Web
B +
A

UMBC * Our intelligent meeting room

an Honors University in Maryland 18
 A Typical CoBrA Use Case

Alice in Wonderland
The broker informs The projector agent The projector agent
the subscribed agents wants to help Alice asks slide show info.

B A
B

The broker acquires The broker informs The projector agent

the slide show info. the projector agent sets up the slides

Web
B
B

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an Honors University in Maryland 19
 (2) Wearable computing
 A new form of human-computer interaction with
small body-worn computing components
 Always on, always ready, always accessible
 Supporting hands busy and eyes busy interactions
 Not hand held devices, laptop computers and
personal digital assistants (PDAs).
 Will lead to a new form of synergy between
human and computer, characterized by long-
term adaptation through constancy of user-
interface.

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an Honors University in Maryland 20
 Wearable computer, not

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 Wearable computing, maybe

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an Honors University in Maryland 22
 Wearable computing, today

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an Honors University in Maryland 23
 (3) Final Thoughts
two enabling technologies
 The Web continues to evolve
 Web services and the semantic web are enabling
more automation and agents
 The web is not just for people anymore

 Its a universal acid, consuming all in its path

 Wireless communication makes it easy

and cheap for things to sense
and interoperate

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an Honors University in Maryland 24
 The Evolution of Useful Things
 The Evolution of Useful Things,
Henry Petroski, 1994.
 Before 1900, papers were held
together with straight pens!
 The development of “spring
steel” allowed the invention of
the paper clip in 1899.
 It took about 25 years (!) for
the evolution of the standard
“gem paperclip” considered to
be optimal for general use.
 Things take time, but the
incremental results pay the
way.
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an Honors University in Maryland 25
 Climbing
Mount
Improbable

“The sheer height of the peak doesn't matter, so

long as you don't try to scale it in a single bound.
Locate the mildly sloping path and, if you have
unlimited time, the ascent is only as formidable
as the next step.”
-- Richard Dawkins, Climbing Mount
Improbable, Penguin Books, 1996.
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an Honors University in Maryland 26
 http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/

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an Honors University in Maryland 27