Ubiquitous Computing and Active Spaces (The Gaia approach)

03.05.2001

Foredragsholdere
Fabio Kon

Abstact:
Mobile computing and active spaces are part of the next revolution in information technology, which will lead us to Ubiquitous Computing. Mobile computing includes systems as diverse as digital cellular telephony, traffic control and information systems, and simple web browsing via wireless connections. Active spaces consist of physical spaces -- such as offices, lecture and meeting rooms, schools, homes, hospitals, campuses, train stations, cities -- that are augmented with computing devices integrated into the environment. The objective of these devices is to provide information to and obtain information from users of the space, helping them to perform activities they would not be able to perform otherwise, or helping them to perform conventional activities more easily.

Effective management of the next generation environments for ubiquitous computing requires a novel architectural model for operating systems and middleware. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are developing Gaia, an operating system for active spaces. In this lecture we will describe the requirements faced by such a system and discuss an integrated architecture meeting these requirements. In Gaia, flexible and adaptive communication is supported by UIC, a component-based reflective ORB that can be dynamically customized according to user requirements.

Finally, we will present the Project SIDAM at the University of São Paulo, which is building a large-scale, adaptive, real-time information system for mobile computing.


About the speaker:
Fabio Kon is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science at the University of São Paulo. He received BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from the University of São Paulo and a BA degree in Music from the São Paulo State University. Recently, he got his PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the area of Automatic Configuration of Component-Based Distributed Systems. His research interests include reflective middleware, distributed operating systems, object-oriented systems, dynamic configuration, mobile agents, computer music, and multimedia.



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