A Software Engineering Perspective on Ubiquitous Computing Systems

Abstract

We are now facing a migration from the traditional computing, based on personal computers, to an era of pervasiveness, on which computing devices will be spread all around us, seamlessly integrated into our lives. It is this new stage of computing that researchers have named of ubiquitous computing, also known as pervasive computing. There is no doubt that this vision is certainly a promising computing paradigm for the 21st Century. However, its completely new characteristics have an impact on the way that software is developed. We should emphasize that, for example, to achieve the seamless integration characteristic of ubiquitous computing environments, applications must implement mechanisms for discovering the needs of users in order to present them with relevant information at the right place and at the right time. This, and other intrinsic features of ubiquitous computing systems, makes necessary