Sentient Computing for Everyone

Abstract

Sentient Computing gives perception to computing systems so that they can detect, interpret and respond to changing aspects of user contexts. The location attribute of a user{\rq}s context is of special interest because it makes human-computer interactions more natural. In the last few years, several sophisticated indoor location technologies, which can track user whereabouts, have been developed. However, they are yet to be widely adopted because of their high cost and complexities in deployment, configuration and maintenance. This paper describes a novel vision-based software location system, known as TRIP, whose low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware requirements and easy deployment features overcome other systems{\rq} limitations. Nevertheless, in order to foster the deployment of ``sentient spaces'' that bring services to users wherever they are or about to move to, a location system must also be accompanied by the middleware to facilitate user-bound software service activation, migration and deactivation. LocALE addresses this issue by providing a CORBA-based solution that deals with heterogeneous object lifecycle and location control. Some distributed applications combining TRIP{\rq}S and LocALE{\rq}s capabilities are presented to demonstrate that Sentient Computing can be made readily available for everyone and everywhere.