Sentient Computing Andy Hopper

1. Sentient ComputingAndy Hopper Presenter : Youn Do Lee Oct 31, 2005

2. Why this presentation • There have been many presentations about location systems • Active bat, Active badge, Cricket, Radfinder, etc. • This presentation is about issues beyond the location systems • Refining location information • What to do with location information

3. Contents • INTRODUCTION • REASERCH ISSUES • Location sensing • Spatial monitoring • Data distribution • Applications • OBSERVATION

4. Sentient Computing? • Sentient computing is • The proposition that applications can be made more responsive and useful by observing and reacting to the physical world • A form of ubiquitous computing which uses sensors to perceive its environment and react accordingly

5. Sentient computing project • AT & T Laboratories Cambridge • Active bats • Follow-me systems • Now defunct • Reference • Mike Addlesee , Rupert Curwen , Steve Hodges , Joe Newman , Pete Steggles , Andy Ward , Andy Hopper, Implementing a Sentient Computing System, IEEE Computer Magazine, v.34 n.8, p.50-56, August 2001

6. Location Sensing • Categorising the concept of location • Containment • Active badge, Cricket • Proximity • Bluetooth • Co-ordinate • GPS, Active bat

7. Active badge

8. Active bat

9. Spatial monitoring • Location systems provide raw spatial facts about objects • But location-aware applications need more than raw spatial data • They need spatial relationships between objects that are significant • How to decide whether a spatial relationship is significant

10. Spatial monitoring (cont’d) • One possible approach • Operating on the basis of zones of containment surrounding objects Person X is “holding” Keyboard K Person X can be “seen” by camera B but not by camera A

11. Data distribution • Beyond location-publishing application • An automatic control of the digital environment without user intervention • For example • The personal desktop follows the user to any nearby device • To archive this, A platform for connecting and displaying information on all these devices are needed in addition to location information

12. Data distribution (cont’d) • VNC (Virtual Network Computer) • A simple device independent protocol • The viewer has no state, and simply displays information graphically • The connection from viewer to server is also stateless, just keystrokes and pointer clicks

13. Applications • Opening and closing doors automatically • A textual indication of where someone is, how fast the are moving, how long they have been there • Showing the local context, including who and what else is nearby • Personalization by teleporting VNC desktops • Surveillance applications which the selection of a particular camera is based on spatial data

14. Contents • INTRODUCTION • REASERCH ISSUES • Location sensing • Spatial monitoring • Data distribution • Applications • OBSERVATION

15. Observation • Attempts at automatic control without user intervention have not proved enduring • Automatically teleporting to the nearest screen • Automatic routing of phone calls • Once more than a simple inference is attempted it seems that hit a brick wall • The sighting of three or more Active Badges in a single space => “meeting” ?

16. Observation (cont’d) • One potential research direction is to provide much more feedback to the user • Visual and aural feedback with perhaps every nearby wall being used display may be one approach • The user can interact in a much more informed way and help guide any decision-making process • Perhaps a way to make progress beyond the engineering level is to imagine a “perfect” sensing system with full coverage of the environment

17. Thank you, any question?