An Architecture for the Integration of Physical and Informational Spaces

✍ Scribed by Scott M. Thayer; Peter Steenkiste

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 321 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1617-4909
• DOI: 10.1007/s00779-003-0234-y

✦ Synopsis

While computer processing power, storage capacity, and bandwidth are continuing to experience exponential growth, individual human processing capabilities are not increasing significantly. Pervasive computing offers an opportunity for applications to interact with the physical environment and to provide a task-centric and mobile infrastructure for the user. However, this rich environment can also be distracting, in part because of a lack of convergence between the physical infrastructure observed by users and the information space seen by applications. In this paper we introduce AIPIS, an architecture that bridges the physical and informational realms of the human and the computer, respectively. The purpose of AIPIS is two-fold: (1) provide users with a hands-free computing environment that automates much of the drudgery associated with the use of computers; and (2) require human attention for only critical aspects of task execution that require their input. We also describe the Aura desktop, a first prototype of the AIPIS architecture.