Small logo of ETH main building ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : Events : Ladenburg : Summary (English)

The Discourse "Ubiquitous Computing"

Organiser: Friedemann Mattern, ETH Zurich

A discourse on the subject of "Ubiquitous Computing" was held for the first time on the 9th and 10th February in Ladenburg. Half of the twenty-eight participants came from the field of computer science, other areas represented were jurisprudence, social sciences, philosophy, economics and cultural studies.

By the term "Ubiquitous Computing", created in 1988 by Mark Weiser, Chief Technologist at the of XEROX Palo Alto Research Centre, the omnipresence of innumerable small microprocessors is understood, which can be invisibly installed in any everyday objects, communicating with one another via radio. Equipped with sensors, these microscopically small computers can capture the environment of the object in which they are implanted (or with which they are even fused into one) and provide them with information processing and communication abilities. This possibility gives objects an entirely new, additional quality – they "know", for example, their location, which other objects are in their vicinity and what happened to them in the past.

From a technical viewpoint, visions of an extensive computerization and networking of almost anything in everyday life actually seem feasible within the next few years. Since completely new applicatons are opened by such "smart objects", the vision of ubiquitous computing could also be economically successful, so that information processing capacity and information services will perhaps ultimately be as ubiquitous as, for example, electricity today: readily available and – from a present point of view – capable of seemingly magical things.

Several conceivable future scenarios were presented in the discourse and, to some extent, lively and controversially discussed. For example, if a vehicle always knows precisely where it is situated and can offer this information at any time to all other neighbouring vehicles, then many collisions would basically be avoidable. The potential of future "wearable computers" and "smart clothes" is also interesting. As a personal technology, always kept on one’s person or even worn, this enables not only the replacement of present common portable aids, such as mobile phones or address books, but could be used as "IT prostheses" for the expansion of human perception and information processing capacity.

The realisation of such visions would certainly have enormous economic and social consequences (which was the central theme of the talk "Social and Economic Dimension"), and also provokes ethical and legal arguments. The problem of data protection and privacy is immediately presented with the introduction of a vast number of microsensors into the environment which can pass on their data via Internet at will, (e.g. identified people or recognised objects which are tagged either optically, chemically or electronically). For this reason, two of the discourse’s talks devoted their attention to the themes "Protection of Privacy and Omnipresence" and "Private Sphere despite or even due to Ubiquitous Computing".

Further short talk themes dealt with the technical infrastructure of ubiquitous computing, the computerization of the environment, the utilization of artificial intelligence technologies and agent systems, and the cultural relevance of the emerging technical development.

The necessity for an interdisciplinary discussion on the subject was not only apparent when considering possible technological effects. It became clear that even dealing with invisible computers presents a challenge for such disparate disciplines as computer science, media science and design. If technology steps into the background, then objects of the real world must serve as an interface to the information world. This was impressively demonstrated during the evening banquet by H.-W. Gellersen who, by merely touching business cards (which were prepared with so-called "radio tags"), conjured up the homepage of the person specified on a nearby PC.

The diversity of the short talks and the lively discussions was very positively assessed by the participants. The discourse brought together people interested in the subject from various disciplines in German speaking regions for the first time. Discussions were held at the end which widely reflected what had been heard and discussed. If the "networking of all things" should have an even greater effect on us all than Internet today with its worldwide networking of all computers, political questions also ultimately arise: Are we essentially defenceless against the situation or can, for example, classical European values be consciously brought into this development?

Most of the participants got the impression that we are at the beginning of an exciting development. Consequently, a resumption of the discourse or even an in-depth discussion on the subject beyond individual disciplines seems very promising!

Participants: Dr. Natascha Adamowsky (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Alfred Büllesbach (DaimlerChrysler AG), Prof. Dr. Barbara Dauner-Lieb (Fernuniversität Hagen), Prof. Dr. Meinolf Dierkes (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin), Prof. Dr. Rainer Dietrich (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Hermann Engesser (Springer-Verlag), Dr. Hans-Werner Gellersen (Universität Karlsruhe), Dr. Ralf-Guido Herrtwich (DaimlerChrysler AG), Prof. Dr. Bernd Holznagel (Universität Münster), Dr. Jörg Klein (Gottlieb Daimler- und Karl Benz-Stiftung), Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer (Universität Augsburg), Prof. Dr. Friedemann Mattern (ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser (TU Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Günter Müller (Universität Freiburg), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Nehmer (Universität Kaiserslautern), Prof. Dr. Andreas Pfitzmann (TU Dresden), Dr. Joachim Posegga (Deutsche Telekom AG), Prof. Gisbert Frhr. zu Putlitz (Universität Heidelberg), Dr. Kai Rannenberg (Microsoft Research), Prof. Dr. Kurt Rothermel (Universität Stuttgart), Dr.-Ing Diethard Schade (Akademie f. Technikfolgenabschätzung), Prof. Dr. Alexander Schill (TU Dresden), Dr. Detlef Schoder (Universität Freiburg), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz (TU Darmstadt), Dr.Dr. Norbert Streitz (GMD), Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Wolfgang Wahlster (DFKI / Universität des Saarlandes), PD Dr. Peter Welzel (Universität Augsburg), Prof. Dr. Lars Wolf (Universität Karlsruhe).

Further information on the Ladenburger Diskurs "Ubiquitous Computing" (copies of presentation slides) and bibliographical data, texts and other information on the subject can be found on the website https://www.inf.ethz.ch/vs/events/UCdiskurs1.html

ETH ZurichDistributed Systems Group
Last updated June 20 2023 01:45:18 PM MET webvs