2 PERVASIVEcomputing 1536-1268/02/$17.00 © 2002 IEEE

T he convergence of wireless commu-nication and portable computers is

happening before us today. Hardly aweek passes without an announcementby some major player in this arenaabout technology, deployment, or a new strategic partnership. Well-attendedconferences and workshops attest to thevibrancy of the research community inthis area. Something big is clearly underway. Where will it take us?

Mark Weiser described a tantalizingdestination just over a decade ago. In aseminal article, “The Computer for the21st Century,” he described a hypo-thetical world in which humans andcomputers were seamlessly united. Thearticle’s opening words are memorable:

The most profound technologies are those

that disappear. They weave themselves

into the fabric of everyday life until they

are indistinguishable from it.

He called this vision ubiquitous com-puting. Its essence was the creation of

environments saturated with comput-ing and communication yet gracefullyintegrated with human users.

When articulated, this was a visionfar ahead of its time—the hardwaretechnology needed to achieve it simplydid not exist. Not surprisingly, theimplementation attempted by Weiserand his colleagues at Xerox Parc fellshort. After a decade of hardwareprogress, many critical elements thatwere exotic in 1991 are now viable

commercial products: handheld andwearable computers, wireless LANs,and devices to sense and control appli-ances. We are now better positioned tobegin the quest for Weiser’s vision.

MISSIONIEEE Pervasive Computing’s mission

is to be a catalyst for progress towardthis vision. As a magazine rather than atransactions, it is well suited to this role.Because mobility brings unique chal-

A Catalyst for Mobile andUbiquitous ComputingM. Satyanarayanan, Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Research Pittsburgh

Editor in Chief: M. Satyanarayanan � satya@cs.cmu.edu

From the Editor in Chief

a person or thing acting as the stimulus in

bringing about or hastening a result

Webster’s New World Dictionary, 1986

cat•a•lyst

lenges of its own, we identify it explic-itly in this magazine’s charter.

One of the most difficult challengesin realizing Weiser’s vision is that itrequires a multidisciplinary approach.A successful deployment will requirethe collaboration of hardware design-ers, wireless engineers, human-com-puter interaction specialists, softwaresystem developers, and so on. Thismagazine will serve as a forum fortimely material to bring these diversecommunities together.

Fostering dialog and collaborationacross these diverse technical commu-nities will be the touchstone of our edi-torial decisions. We envision many dif-ferent types of articles, such as researchreports of ongoing projects, survey arti-cles on the state of the art in differentareas, and interviews with system archi-tects and lead implementers. Ensuringthat articles are readable and useful toa wide segment of the readership whilestill being of interest to specialists willbe a challenge. Please give us your con-structive feedback as we strive to bal-ance these considerations.

ORGANIZATIONThe range of topics this magazine will

cover is far broader than any single per-son’s expertise. Hence, we’ve groupedthe topics into five broad areas, eachwith an associate editor in chief to assistme in making sound editorial decisions.The areas and AEICs are

• Hardware technologies: Roy Want,Intel Research

• Software infrastructure: Tim Kind-berg, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

• Sensing and influencing the physicalworld: Deborah Estrin, University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles

• Graceful integration with users: Gre-gory Abowd, Georgia Institute ofTechnology

• Deployment, scalability, security, andprivacy: Nigel Davies, Lancaster Uni-versity and University of Arizona

These areas overlap significantly, and

articles might span multiple areas.Indeed, the frequent appearance of arti-cles in which these areas are blurredwill be a symptom of good health. Afterall, stimulating work that leads to sucharticles is this magazine’s goal.

In addition to full-length articles,each issue of the magazine will haveshort pieces in four departments. Thedepartments and their editors are

• Applications: Vince Stanford, NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology

• Education and Training: Scott Mid-kiff, Virginia Polytechnic Instituteand State University

• Standards, Tools, and Best Practices:Sumi Helal, University of Florida

• Wearable Computing: Thad Starner,Georgia Institute of Technology

As the magazine evolves, we will alsoexperiment with other kinds of content.For example, the magazine might containreports of relevant conferences and work-shops. Other examples include reviews ofhardware and software products, opin-ion pieces, and news items. We anticipatemany special issues, each focusing on aparticular topic. The next two issues, forexample, will cover integrated pervasivecomputing environments and context-aware computing. The latter issue will bejointly produced with IEEE PersonalCommunications. It will be the first tan-gible product of a mutually beneficialcollaboration that we foresee betweenthese two magazines.

TERMINOLOGYIn the mid 1990s, the term pervasive

computing came to represent essentiallythe same vision that Weiser defined.More recently, researchers have pro-posed other visions, such as proactivecomputing and autonomic computing.This proliferation of terms can be quiteconfusing, especially since they are allspeculations about the future.

In many ways, we are like the prover-bial blind men touching different partsof an elephant and trying to visualize thewhole. Proactive computing, for exam-

ple, focuses on improving performanceand user experience through speculativeor anticipatory actions. Autonomic com-puting focuses on improving user expe-rience through the system’s self-regula-tion. Proactive and autonomic behaviorare important aspects of Weiser’s vision,but their overlap with ubiquitous com-puting is only partial; we can envisionthose behaviors in many systems unre-lated to ubiquitous computing.

This magazine will treat ubiquitouscomputing and pervasive computing assynonyms—they mean exactly the samething and will be used interchangeablythroughout the magazine. AlthoughWeiser introduced the term ubiquitouscomputing, there is reason to believethat he was not wholly satisfied with it.Toward the end of his 1991 article isthe following passage:

Sitting back and reading the paragraph,

Sal wants to point to a word. She gestures

again with the “Joe” tab onto a nearby

pad and then uses the stylus to circle the

word she wants: “I think it’s this term

‘ubiquitous.’ It’s just not in common

enough use and makes the whole passage

sound a little formal. Can we rephrase the

sentence to get rid of it?”

INAUGURAL ISSUEWe dedicate this first issue, “Reaching

for Weiser’s Vision,” to Mark Weiser.We begin with his original 1991 article,reprinted with the permission of Scien-tific American. We then present fiveinvited articles by the AEICs and coau-thors, each examining the state of theart in one of the five areas of pervasivecomputing mentioned earlier. Each arti-cle begins by crisply characterizing therelevance of its area to Weiser’s vision.It then summarizes recent advances andasking if they suggest any refocusing ofWeiser’s vision. Finally, the article looksout into the future and identifies thechallenges ahead in its area:

• “Beyond Prototypes: Challenges inDeploying Ubiquitous Systems,” byNigel Davies and Hans-W. Gellersen,

JANUARY–MARCH 2002 PERVASIVEcomputing 3

describes technical and social advancesin ubiquitous computing and presentskey reasons why, despite advances, we are still falling significantly short of realizing the type of world Weiserenvisioned.

• “Disappearing Hardware,” by RoyWant, Trevor Pering, Gaetano Bor-riello, and Keith Farkas, discussesubiquitous hardware, reviewing howclose we are to Weiser’s vision andwhat will be enabled in the future.

• “The Human Experience,” by Gre-gory Abowd, Elizabeth Mynatt, andTom Rodden, defines the scope ofhuman experience in pervasive com-puting and discusses evaluation aswell as social implications.

• “Connecting the Physical World withPervasive Networks,” by DeborahEstrin, David Culler, Kris Pister, andGaurav Sukhatme, discusses issuesrelated to sensing, actuation, localiza-tion, and node resource constraints. Itreviews developments of the lastdecade, trends, and challenges.

• “Software Infrastructure for Ubiqui-tous Computing,” by Tim Kindbergand Armando Fox, discusses thedefining characteristics of ubiquitoussystems—integration with the phys-ical world and ad hoc interoperabil-ity—and presents criteria for ubiqui-tous computing software research.

This issue also includes pieces in thefour departments, each providing athought-provoking report or perspectiveon an aspect of pervasive computing.Vince Stanford reviews pervasive com-puting and elder care, and Thad Starneroffers an overview of wearable comput-ing. Sumi Helal discusses pervasive Java,and Scott Midkiff discusses a multidis-ciplinary design course on the rapid pro-totyping of computing systems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe birth of a new magazine is not

the work of one person. Many peoplehave worked very hard and shownexcellent team spirit in making this hap-pen. It is a pleasure to recognize their

contributions. The IEEE Computer Society’s 2001

president, Benjamin Wah, and publisherAngela Burgess and assistant publisherDick Price provided leadership for cre-ating this magazine. Their wise counseland support has been invaluable to mein the magazine’s formative stages.Crystal Chweh, Shani Murray, andtheir colleagues have done a fine job intransforming raw content into thisinaugural issue. As a novice in the roleof editor in chief, I am grateful to theComputer Society staff for theirpatience and good cheer in helping melearn my role.

The founding editorial board of thismagazine is almost a “Who’s Who” ofthe pervasive computing field. In spiteof their busy schedules and manyresponsibilities, the board membershave contributed high-quality time andattention to the creation of this maga-zine. They have offered valuable in-sights and good suggestions on content,structure, and other aspects of the mag-azine. They have also done a wonderfuljob of producing detailed reviews of thearticles for this issue in a short amountof time.

The AEICs and the department edi-tors have done an amazing job ofauthoring articles and departmentpieces of high quality for this inauguralissue under tight time constraints. Icouldn’t have asked for a better groupof colleagues to share custody of mag-azine content. I look forward to work-ing with them and the others for the restof my term as editor in chief.

A NEW FRONTIERWhen describing his vision, Weiser

was fully aware that attaining it wouldrequire tremendous creativity and effortby many people, sustained over manyyears. The early decades of the 21st cen-tury will be a period of great excitementas we engage in the research anddeployment challenges of pervasivecomputing. Like the frontier of theAmerican West in the early 19th cen-tury, pervasive computing offers new

http://computer.org/pervasive

IEEE Computer SocietyPublications Office

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STAFF

Associate Lead EditorShani Murray

smurray@computer.org

Group Managing EditorCrystal Chweh

cchweh@computer.org

Senior EditorDale Strok

Associate EditorsJenny Ferrero and Dennis Taylor

Staff EditorsScott L. Andresen

and Kathy Clark-Fisher

Editorial AssistantsRebecca Deuel and Ty Manuel

Magazine AssistantsPauline Hosillos

pervasive@computer.org

Dawn Craig

Contributing EditorKeri Schreiner

Design DirectorToni Van Buskirk

Layout/Technical IllustrationsLarry Bauer and Alex Torres

PublisherAngela Burgess

Assistant PublisherDick Price

Membership/Circulation Marketing ManagerGeorgann Carter

Business Development ManagerSandra Brown

Assistant Advertising CoordinatorDebbie Sims

Submissions: Submit two copies of all articlesand track proposals to IEEE Pervasive Computing,Magazine Assistant, 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle,Los Alamitos, CA 90720-1314, phone +1 714 8218380, pervasive@computer.org. Manuscripts shouldbe approximately 5,000 words long, preferably notexceeding 10 references. Visit http://computer.org/pervasive for editorial guidelines.

Editorial: Unless otherwise stated, bylined articles as wellas products and services reflect the author’s or firm’sopinion; inclusion does not necessarily constituteendorsement by the IEEE Computer Society or the IEEE.

MOBILE AND UBIQUITOUS SYSTEMS

beginnings for the adventurous and therestless—a rich open space where therules have yet to be written and the bor-

ders yet to be drawn. We hope thismagazine can help you reach andinhabit that frontier.

JANUARY–MARCH 2002

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Mahadev Satyanarayanan is the Carnegie Group Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon

University. He is currently on partial sabbatical, serving as the founding director of Intel Research Pitts-

burgh. He is an experimental computer scientist who has pioneered research in the field of mobile

information access. One outcome of this work is the Coda File System, which supports disconnected

and bandwidth-adaptive operation. Microsoft has incorporated key ideas from Coda into the Intel-

liMirror component of Windows. Another outcome is Odyssey, a set of open-source operating system

extensions for enabling mobile applications to adapt to variation in critical resources such as band-

width and energy. Coda and Odyssey are building blocks in Project Aura, a research initiative at Carnegie

Mellon to build a distraction-free ubiquitous computing environment. Earlier, he was a principal archi-

tect and implementer of the Andrew File System, which was commercialized by IBM. He received his

BTech and MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his PhD in computer science

from Carnegie Mellon. He is the founding editor in chief of IEEE Pervasive Computing. Contact him at

satya@cs.cmu.edu.

How to Reach Us

WritersFor detailed information on submitting articles, write for our Editorial Guidelines(pervasive@computer.org) or access http://computer.org/pervasive/author.htm.

Letters to the EditorSend letters to

Shani Murray, Associate Lead EditorIEEE Pervasive Computing10662 Los Vaqueros CircleLos Alamitos, CA 90720smurray@computer.org

Please provide an email address or daytime phone number with your letter.

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Reprint PermissionTo obtain permission to reprint an article,contact William Hagen, IEEE Copyrightsand Trademarks Manager, at whagen@ieee.org.

MOBILE AND UBIQUITOUS SYSTEMS

COMING NEXT

Integrated PervasiveComputing

Environments

The April–June issue will offer a

survey of pervasive computing

projects and case studies in

academia and industry.

COMING NEXT