Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
(1952–1999)
The Founder of
Ubiquitous
Computing
Mark Weiser was the chief technology officer at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Cen-
ter (Parc). He is often referred to as the father of ubiquitous computing. He coined the
term in 1988 to describe a future in which invisible computers, embedded in everyday
objects, replace PCs. Other research interests included garbage collection, operating sys-
tems, and user interface design. He received his MA and PhD in computer and com-
munication science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After completing his PhD,
he joined the computer science department at the University of Maryland, College Park,
where he taught for 12 years. He wrote or cowrote over 75 technical publications on such
subjects as the psychology of programming, program slicing, operating systems, pro-
gramming environments, garbage collection, and technological ethics. He was a mem-
ber of the ACM, IEEE Computer Society, and American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Weiser passed away in 1999. Visit www.parc.xerox.com/csl/
members/weiser or contact communications@parc.xerox.com for more information
about him.
18 PERVASIVE computing
REACHING FOR WEISER’S VISION
The Computer
for the 21st Century
Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires,
radio waves and infrared, will be so ubiquitous that no one will notice
their presence.
T
he most profound technologies are colleagues and I at the Xerox Palo Alto Research
those that disappear. They weave Center think that the idea of a “personal” computer
themselves into the fabric of everyday itself is misplaced and that the vision of laptop
life until they are indistinguishable machines, dynabooks and “knowledge navigators”
from it. is only a transitional step toward achieving the real
Consider writing, perhaps the first information potential of information technology. Such machines
technology. The ability to represent spoken language cannot truly make computing an integral, invisible
symbolically for long-term storage freed informa- part of people’s lives. We are therefore trying to con-
tion from the limits of individual memory. Today ceive a new way of thinking about computers, one
this technology is ubiquitous in industrialized coun- that takes into account the human world and allows
tries. Not only do books, magazines and newspa- the computers themselves to vanish into the back-
pers convey written information, but so do street ground.
signs, billboards, shop signs and even graffiti. Candy
wrappers are covered in writing. S uch a disappearance is a fundamental conse-
The constant background pres- quence not of technology but of human psychology.
By Mark Weiser ence of these products of “liter- Whenever people learn something sufficiently well,
acy technology” does not require they cease to be aware of it. When you look at a
active attention, but the infor- street sign, for example, you absorb its information
mation to be transmitted is ready for use at a glance. without consciously performing the act of reading.
It is difficult to imagine modern life otherwise. Computer scientist, economist and Nobelist Her-
Silicon-based information technology, in contrast, bert A. Simon calls this phenomenon “compiling”;
is far from having become part of the environment. philosopher Michael Polanyi calls it the “tacit
More than 50 million personal computers have been dimension”; psychologist J.J. Gibson calls it “visual
sold, and the computer nonetheless remains largely invariants”; philosophers Hans Georg Gadamer and
in a world of its own. It is approachable only Martin Heidegger call it the “horizon” and the
through complex jargon that has nothing to do with “ready-to-hand”; John Seely Brown of PARC calls
the tasks for which people use computers. The state it the “periphery.” All say, in essence, that only when
of the art is perhaps analogous to the period when things disappear in this way are we freed to use them
scribes had to know as much about making ink or without thinking and so to focus beyond them on
baking clay as they did about writing. new goals.
The arcane aura that surrounds personal com- The idea of integrating computers seamlessly into
puters is not just a “user interface” problem. My the world at large runs counter to a number of pre-
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1991 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. PERVASIVE computing 19
REACHING FOR WEISER’S VISION
Control button
The Active Badge. This harbinger of inch-scale computers contains a small microprocessor and an infrared transmitter. The badge
broadcasts the identity of its wearer and so can trigger automatic doors, automatic telephone forwarding and computer displays
customized to each person reading them. The active badge and other networked tiny computers are called tabs.
magazine) and yard-scale displays that are size of an employee I.D. card, first devel- will leave the screen free for information and
the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin oped by the Olivetti Cambridge research also let people arrange their computer-based
board. laboratory. These badges can identify projects in the area around their terminals,
How many tabs, pads and board-size themselves to receivers placed throughout much as they now arrange paper-based pro-
writing and display surfaces are there in a a building, thus making it possible to keep jects in piles on desks and tables. Carrying a
typical room? Look around you: at the track of the people or objects to which they project to a different office for discussion is
inch scale, include wall notes, titles on are attached. as simple as gathering up its tabs; the asso-
book spines, labels on controls, ther- In our experimental embodied virtuality, ciated programs and files can be called up
mostats and clocks, as well as small pieces doors open only to the right badge wearer, on any terminal.
of paper. Depending on the room, you may rooms greet people by name, telephone calls
see more than 100 tabs, 10 or 20 pads and can be automatically forwarded to wher- The next step up in size is the pad, some-
one or two boards. This leads to our goal ever the recipient may be, receptionists thing of a cross between a sheet of paper
for initially deploying the hardware of actually know where people are, computer and current laptop and palmtop computers.
embodied virtuality: hundreds of comput- terminals retrieve the preferences of who- Robert Krivacic of PARC has built a proto-
ers per room. ever is sitting at them, and appointment type pad that uses two microprocessors, a
Hundreds of computers in a room could diaries write themselves. The automatic workstation-size display, a multibutton sty-
seem intimidating at first, just as hundreds diary shows how such a simple task as lus and a radio network with enough com-
of volts coursing through wires in the walls knowing where people are can yield com- munications bandwidth to support hun-
once did. But like the wires in the walls, plex dividends: meetings, for example, con- dreds of devices per person per room.
these hundreds of computers will come to sist of several people spending time in the Pads differ from conventional portable
be invisible to common awareness. People same room, and the subject of a meeting is computers in one crucial way. Whereas
will simply use them unconsciously to most probably the files called up on that portable computers go everywhere with
accomplish everyday tasks. room’s display screen while the people are their owners, the pad that must be carried
Tabs are the smallest components of there. No revolution in artificial intelligence from place to place is a failure. Pads are
embodied virtuality. Because they are inter- is needed, merely computers embedded in intended to be “scrap computers” (analo-
connected, tabs will expand on the useful- the everyday world. gous to scrap paper) that can be grabbed
ness of existing inch-scale computers, such My colleague Roy Want has designed a and used anywhere; they have no individ-
as the pocket calculator and the pocket tab incorporating a small display that can ualized identity or importance.
organizer. Tabs will also take on functions serve simultaneously as an active badge, cal- One way to think of pads is as an anti-
that no computer performs today. For endar and diary. It will also act as an exten- dote to windows. Windows were invented
example, computer scientists at PARC and sion to computer screens: instead of shrink- at PARC and popularized by Apple in the
other research laboratories around the ing a program window down to a small icon Macintosh as a way of fitting several dif-
world have begun working with active on the screen, for example, a user will be able ferent activities onto the small space of a
badges—clip-on computers roughly the to shrink the window onto a tab display. This computer screen at the same time. In 20
years computer screens have not grown can hold electronically mediated meetings Prototype tabs, pads and boards are just
much larger. Computer window systems or engage in other forms of collaboration the beginning of ubiquitous computing.
are often said to be based on the desktop around a live board. Others use the boards The real power of the concept comes not
metaphor—but who would ever use a desk as testbeds for improved display hardware, from any one of these devices—it emerges
only nine inches high by 11 inches wide? new “chalk” and interactive software. from the interaction of all of them. The
Pads, in contrast, use a real desk. Spread For both obvious and subtle reasons, the hundreds of processors and displays are
many electronic pads around on the desk, software that animates a large shared dis- not a “user interface” like a mouse and
just as you spread out papers. Have many play and its electronic chalk is not the same windows, just a pleasant and effective
tasks in front of you, and use the pads as as that for a workstation. Switching back “place” to get things done.
reminders. Go beyond the desk to draw- and forth between chalk and keyboard What will be most pleasant and effective
ers, shelves, coffee tables. Spread the many may involve walking several steps, and so is that tabs can animate objects previously
parts of the many tasks of the day out in the act is qualitatively different from using inert. They can beep to help locate mislaid
front of you to fit both the task and the a keyboard and mouse. In addition, body papers, books or other items. File drawers
reach of your arms and eyes rather than to size is an issue. Not everyone can reach the can open and show the desired folder—no
fit the limitations of glassblowing. Some- top of the board, so a Macintosh-style searching. Tabs in library catalogues can
day pads may even be as small and light as menu bar might have to run across the bot- make active maps to any book and guide
actual paper, but meanwhile they can ful- tom of the screen instead. searchers to it, even if it is off the shelf, left
fill many more of paper’s functions than We have built enough live boards to per- on a table by the last reader.
can computer screens. mit casual use: they have been placed in In presentations, the size of text on over-
Yard-size displays (boards) serve a num- ordinary conference rooms and open areas, head slides, the volume of the amplified
ber of purposes: in the home, video screens and no one need sign up or give advance voice, even the amount of ambient light,
and bulletin boards; in the office, bulletin notice before using them. By building and can be determined not by guesswork but
boards, white boards or flip charts. A using these boards, researchers start to by the desires of the listeners in the room
board might also serve as an electronic experience and so understand a world in at that moment. Software tools for tally-
bookcase from which one might download which computer interaction informally ing votes instantly and consensus checking
are already available in electronic meeting
Prototype tabs, pads and boards are just the rooms of some large corporations; tabs can
make them widespread.
beginning of ubiquitous computing.
The technology required for ubiquitous
The real power of the concept emerges from computing comes in three parts: cheap,
low-power computers that include equally
the interaction of all of them. convenient displays, software for ubiqui-
tous applications and a network that ties
texts to a pad or tab. For the time being, enhances every room. Live boards can use- them all together. Current trends suggest
however, the ability to pull out a book and fully be shared across rooms as well as that the first of these requirements will eas-
place it comfortably on one’s lap remains within them. In experiments instigated by ily be met. Flat-panel displays containing
one of the many attractions of paper. Sim- Paul Dourish of EuroPARC and Sara Bly 640 × 480 black-and-white pixels are now
ilar objections apply to using a board as a and Frank Halasz of PARC, groups at common. This is the standard size for PCs
desktop; people will have to become accus- widely separated sites gathered around and is also about right for television. As
tomed to having pads and tabs on a desk boards—each displaying the same image— long as laptop, palmtop and notebook
as an adjunct to computer screens before and jointly composed pictures and draw- computers continue to grow in popularity,
taking embodied virtuality any further. ings. They have even shared two boards display prices will fall, and resolution and
Prototype boards, built by Richard Bruce across the Atlantic. quality will rise. By the end of the decade,
and Scott Elrod of PARC, are in use at sev- Live boards can also be used as bulletin a 1,000 × 800-pixel high-contrast display
eral Xerox research laboratories. They mea- boards. There is already too much text for will be a fraction of a centimeter thick and
sure about 40 by 60 inches and display people to read and comprehend all of it, weigh perhaps 100 grams. A small battery
1,024 × 768 black-and-white pixels. To and so Marvin Theimer and David Nichols will provide several days of continuous use.
manipulate the display, users pick up a piece of PARC have built a prototype system that Larger displays are a somewhat differ-
of wireless electronic “chalk” that can work attunes its public information to the peo- ent issue. If an interactive computer screen
either in contact with the surface or from a ple reading it. Their “scoreboard” requires is to match a white board in usefulness, it
distance. Some researchers, using them- little or no interaction from the user other must be viewable from arm’s length as well
selves and their colleagues as guinea pigs, than to look and to wear an active badge. as from across a room. For close viewing,
the density of picture elements should be essarily be filled to capacity with usable operating systems such as those developed
no worse than on a standard computer information. Abundant space will, how- by Rick Rashid of Carnegie Mellon Uni-
screen, about 80 per inch. Maintaining a ever, allow radically different strategies of versity and A.S. Tanenbaum of Vrije Uni-
density of 80 pixels per inch over an area information management. A terabyte of versity in Amsterdam. These experimental
several feet on a side implies displaying tens disk storage will make deleting old files vir- systems contain only the barest scaffolding
of millions of pixels. The biggest computer tually unnecessary, for example. of fixed computer code; software modules
screen made today has only about one Although processors and displays to perform specific functions can be read-
fourth that capacity. Such large displays should be capable of offering ubiquitous ily added or removed. Future operating sys-
will probably be expensive, but they should computing by the end of the decade, trends tems based on this principle could shrink
certainly be available. in software and network technology are and grow automatically to fit the changing
The large display will require advanced more problematic. Current implementa- needs of ubiquitous computation.
microprocessors to feed it. Central-pro- tions of “distributed computing” simply Current window display systems also
cessing-unit speeds reached a million make networked file servers, printers or are not ready to cope with ubiquitous com-
instructions per second in 1986 and con- other devices appear as if they were con- puting. They typically assume that a par-
tinue to double each year. Some industry nected directly to each user’s computer. ticular computer will display all the infor-
observers believe that this exponential This approach, however, does nothing to mation for a single application. Although
growth in raw chip speed may begin to exploit the unique capabilities of physically the X Window System and Windows 3.0,
level off about 1994 but that other mea- dispersed computers and the information for example, can cope with multiple
sures of performance, including power embodied in knowing where a particular screens, they do not do well with applica-
consumption and auxiliary functions, will device is located. tions that start out on one screen and move
still improve. The 100-gram flat-panel dis- to another, much less those that peregri-
play, then, might be driven by a micro- C omputer operating systems and win- nate from computer to computer or room
processor that executes a billion operations dow-based display software will have to to room.
per second and contains 16 megabytes of change substantially. The design of current Solutions to this problem are in their
on-board memory along with sound, video operating systems, such as DOS and Unix, infancy. Certainly no existing display sys-
and network interfaces. Such a processor is based on the assumption that a com- tem can perform well while working with
would draw, on average, a few percent of puter’s hardware and software configura- the full diversity of input and output forms
the power required by the display. tion will not change substantially while it required by embodied virtuality. Making
Auxiliary storage devices will augment is running. This assumption is reasonable pads, tabs and boards work together seam-
main memory capacity: conservative for conventional mainframes and personal lessly will require changes in the kinds of
extrapolation of current technology sug- computers, but it makes no sense in terms protocols by which applications programs
gests that removable hard disks (or non- of ubiquitous computing. Pads, tabs and and their displayed windows communicate.
volatile memory chips) the size of a match- even boards may come and go at any time The network that will connect ubiqui-
book will store about 60 megabytes each. in any room, and it will certainly be impos- tous hardware and software poses further
Larger disks containing several gigabytes sible to shut down all the computers in a challenges. Data transmission rates for both
of information will be standard, and ter- room to install new software in any one of wired and wireless networks are increasing
abyte storage—roughly the data content them. (Indeed, it may be impossible to find rapidly. Access to gigabit-per-second wired
of the Library of Congress—will be com- all the computers in a room.) nets is already possible, although expen-
mon. Such enormous stores will not nec- One solution may be “micro-kernel” sive, and will become progressively cheaper.
(Gigabit networks will seldom devote all of ied virtuality is like trying to predict the boxes. Sure enough, there is the tiny tab the
their bandwidth to a single data stream; publication of Finnegans Wake shortly after manufacturer had affixed in the cover to try
instead they will allow enormous numbers having inscribed the first clay tablets. Nev- to avoid Email requests like her own.
of lower-speed transmissions to proceed ertheless, the effort is probably worthwhile: On the way to work Sal glances in the fore-
simultaneously.) Small wireless networks, view mirror to check the traffic. She spots a
based on digital cellular telephone princi- Sal awakens; she smells coffee. A few slowdown ahead and also notices on a side
ples, currently offer data rates between two minutes ago her alarm clock, alerted by her street the telltale green in the foreview of a
and 10 megabits per second over a range restless rolling before waking, had quietly food shop, and a new one at that. She decides
of a few hundred meters. Low-power wire- asked, “Coffee?” and she had mumbled, to take the next exit and get a cup of coffee
less networks capable of transmitting “Yes.” “Yes” and “no” are the only words while avoiding the jam.
250,000 bits per second to each station will it knows. Once Sal arrives at work, the foreview
eventually be available commercially. Sal looks out her windows at her neigh- helps her find a parking spot quickly. As
Yet the problem of transparently linking borhood. Sunlight and a fence are visible she walks into the building, the machines
wired and wireless networks resists solu- through one, and through others she sees in her office prepare to log her in but do
tion. Although some stopgap methods have electronic trails that have been kept for her not complete the sequence until she actu-
been developed, engineers must develop of neighbors coming and going during the ally enters her office. On her way, she stops
new communications protocols that explic- early morning. Privacy conventions and by the offices of four or five colleagues to
itly recognize the concept of machines that practical data rates prevent displaying exchange greetings and news.
move in physical space. Furthermore, the video footage, but time markers and elec- Sal glances out her windows: a gray day
number of channels envisioned in most tronic tracks on the neighborhood map let in Silicon Valley, 75 percent humidity and
wireless network schemes is still very small, Sal feel cozy in her street. 40 percent chance of afternoon showers;
and the range large (50 to 100 meters), so Glancing at the windows to her kids’ meanwhile it has been a quiet morning at
that the total number of mobile devices is rooms, she can see that they got up 15 and the East Coast office. Usually the activity
severely limited. The ability of such a sys- 20 minutes ago and are already in the indicator shows at least one spontaneous,
urgent meeting by now. She chooses not to
Neither an explication of the principles of shift the window on the home office back
three hours—too much chance of being
ubiquitous computing nor a list of the technologies caught by surprise. But she knows others
who do, usually people who never get a call
involved really gives a sense of what it would be from the East but just want to feel involved.
The telltale by the door that Sal pro-
like to live in a world full of invisible widgets. grammed her first day on the job is blink-
ing: fresh coffee. She heads for the coffee
tem to support hundreds of machines in kitchen. Noticing that she is up, they start machine.
every room is out of the question. Single- making more noise. Coming back to her office, Sal picks up
room networks based on infrared or newer At breakfast Sal reads the news. She still a tab and “waves” it to her friend Joe in the
electromagnetic technologies have enough prefers the paper form, as do most people. design group, with whom she has a joint
channel capacity for ubiquitous computers, She spots an interesting quote from a colum- assignment. They are sharing a virtual office
but they can work only indoors. nist in the business section. She wipes her for a few weeks. The sharing can take many
Present technologies would require a pen over the newspaper’s name, date, sec- forms—in this case, the two have given
mobile device to have three different net- tion and page number and then circles the each other access to their location detectors
work connections: tiny-range wireless, quote. The pen sends a message to the paper, and to each other’s screen contents and
long-range wireless and very high speed which transmits the quote to her office. location. Sal chooses to keep miniature ver-
wired. A single kind of network connec- Electronic mail arrives from the company sions of all Joe’s tabs and pads in view and
tion that can somehow serve all three func- that made her garage door opener. She had three-dimensionally correct in a little suite
tions has yet to be invented. lost the instruction manual and asked them of tabs in the back corner of her desk. She
for help. They have sent her a new manual can’t see what anything says, but she feels
N either an explication of the principles and also something unexpected—a way to more in touch with his work when notic-
of ubiquitous computing nor a list of the find the old one. According to the note, she ing the displays change out of the corner of
technologies involved really gives a sense can press a code into the opener and the her eye, and she can easily enlarge anything
of what it would be like to live in a world missing manual will find itself. In the garage, if necessary.
full of invisible widgets. Extrapolating from she tracks a beeping noise to where the oil- A blank tab on Sal’s desk beeps and dis-
today’s rudimentary fragments of embod- stained manual had fallen behind some plays the word “Joe” on it. She picks it up