We envision a future where people’s living spaces are interactive and programmable. Users interact with their offices, homes, cars, malls and airports to request information, benefit from the resources available, and configure the habitat’s behavior. Data and tasks are always accessible and are mapped dynamically to convenient resources present in the current location. Users may extend the habitat with personal devices that seamlessly integrate with the environment. Such user-oriented interactive environments may require a novel software infrastructure to operate their resources, sense context properties, and assist in the development and execution of applications. In this article, we present an experimental middleware infrastructure called Gaia that we have used to prototype the resource management of and provide the useroriented interfaces for such physical spaces populated with network-enabled computing resources. To limit the scope of our research, we focus on physical spaces used for teaching; classrooms, offices, and lecture rooms. The system described in this paper is derived from a series of experiments starting in 1996. We show how, by applying the concepts of a conventional operating system to middleware, we can manage the resources, devices and distributed objects in a room, building, or physical space, how a distributed extension of the model–view–controller that is use in personal computers simplifies and structures practical applications for these environments, and how, by driving context-sensitivity into its data storage mechanisms, the system can help satisfy the requirements for user-centricity and mobility. 1.

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We describe the design of and experience with PointRight, a peerto-peer pointer and keyboard redirection system that operates in multi-machine, multi-user environments. Point-Right employs a geometric model for redirecting input across screens driven by multiple independent machines and operating systems. It was created for interactive workspaces that include large, shared displays and individual laptops, but is a general tool that supports many different configurations and modes of use. Although previous systems have provided for re-routing pointer and keyboard control, in this paper we present a more general and flexible system, along with an analysis of the types of re-binding that must be handled by any pointer redirection system This paper describes the system, the ways in which it has been used, and the lessons that have been learned from its use over the last two years.

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In the past, a central mainframe computer provided terminals for many users. In the current age of the personal desktop computer, there is one computer for one person. Observation of early adopters and predictions about the future point to an era where each person will have multiple devices and computational power will be ubiquitous. Against this background, we present a vision for the workspaces of the future and a user-centered approach for an integrated design of virtual information spaces and real architectural spaces. The resulting environments are called cooperative buildings. The design approach is based on the roomware concept. By roomware, we mean computer-augmented objects resulting from the integration of room elements, e.g., walls, doors, furniture (tables, chairs, etc.) with computer-based information devices. They are part of the vision that the world around us will be the interface to information -- where the computer as a device will disappear and people's interaction w...

Abstract. We present our results of the conceptual design and the implementation of ubiquitous computing applications using smart identification technologies. First, we describe such technologies and their potential application areas, then give an overview of some of the applications we have developed. Based on the experience we have gained from developing these systems, we point out design concepts that we have found useful for structuring and implementing such applications. Building upon these concepts, we have created two frameworks based on Jini (i.e., distributed Java objects) and Web Services to support the development of ubiquitous computing applications that make use of smart identification technology. We describe our prototype frameworks, discuss the underlying concepts and present some lessons learned.

Abstract. As the trend towards technology-enriched home environments progresses, the need to enable users to create applications to suit their own lives increases. While several recent projects focus on lowering barriers for application creation by using simplified input mechanisms and languages, these projects often approach application creation from a developer’s perspective, focusing on devices and their interactions, rather than users ’ goals or tasks. In this paper, we present a study that examines how users conceptualize applications involving automated capture and playback of home activities and reveals a breadth of home applications that people desire. We introduce CAMP, a system that enables end-user programming for smart home environments based on a magnetic poetry metaphor. We describe how CAMP’s simple interface for creating applications supports users ’ natural conceptual models of capture applications. Finally, we present a preliminary evaluation of CAMP and assess its ability to support a breadth of desired home applications as well as the user’s conceptual model. 1

Abstract. The current interest in programming models and software infrastructures to support ubiquitous and environmental computing is heightened by the falling cost of hardware and the ubiquity of local-area wireless networking technologies. Interactive workspaces are technologically augmented team-project rooms that represent a specific sub-domain of ubiquitous computing. We argue both from related work and from our own experience with a prototype that the tuplespace model of communication forms the best basis for a coordination infrastructure for such workspaces. This paper presents the usage and characteristics expected of interactive workspaces, from which we derive a set of key system properties for any coordination infrastructure in an interactive workspace. We show that the design aspects of tuplespaces, augmented with some new extensions, yield a system model, which we call the Event Heap, that satisfies all of the desired properties. We also briefly discuss why other coordination models fall short of the desired properties, and describe our experience using our implementation of the Event Heap model. The paper focuses on a justification of the use of tuplespaces in interactive workspaces, and does not provide a detailed discussion of the Event Heap implementation or our more general experience with interactive workspaces, each of which is treated in detail elsewhere. 1

In this paper, a conceptual model for synchronous applications in ubiquitous computing environments is proposed. To test its applicability, it was used to structure the architecture of the BEACH software framework that is the basis for the software infrastructure of i-LAND (the ubiquitous computing environment at FhG-IPSI). The BEACH framework provides the functionality for synchronous cooperation and interaction with roomware components, i.e. room elements with integrated information technology. To show how the BEACH model and framework can be applied, the design of a sample application is explained. Also, the BEACH model is positioned against related work. In conclusion, we provide our experiences with the current implementation.

Ubiquitous computing challenges the conventional notion of a user logged into a personal computing device, whether it is a desktop, a laptop, or a digital assistant. When the physical environment of a user contains hundreds of networked computer devices each of which may be used to support one or more user applications, the notion of personal computing becomes inadequate. Further, when a group of users share such a physical environment, new forms of sharing, cooperation and collaboration are possible and mobile users may constantly change the computers with which they interact; we refer to these digitally augmented physical spaces as Active Spaces. We present in this paper an application framework that provides mechanisms to construct, run or adapt existing applications to ubiquitous computing environments. The framework binds applications to users, uses multiple devices simultaneously, and exploits resource management within the users' environment that reacts to context and mobility. Our research contributes to application mobility, partitioning and adaptation within device rich environments, and uses context-awareness to focus the resources of ubiquitous computing environments on the needs of users.