Editorial Will ubicomp make GIS invisible ?
نویسنده
چکیده
While speculating about the future of computers in the 21st century, Mark Weiser argued back in 1991 that ‘‘the most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it (p. 94).’’ Although the computer as we know it has not vanished as Weiser (1991) predicted, recent advances in ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) have accelerated the pace toward the disappearance of computers, as more and more embedded computers are found in mobile phones, car navigational systems, gas pumps, ATM machines, electronic road/bridge tolls, precision agricultural products, retail point-of-sale systems, etc. (Mann, 1996; The US National Research Council, 2001). Additionally, radio chips, led by the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, are designed to replace barcodes on manufactured objects. RFID, along with existing location technologies as reviewed by Hightower and Borriello (2001) will be able to make the location of every single entity on earth trackable. Hand-held communication media such as cell phones, PDAs, or iPODs can easily mutate into wearable remote-control devices for the physical world. These embedded computers, though invisible to users, are fast approaching the power and complexity of desktop PCs (The US National Research Council, 2001). According to an estimate by Bill Gates (2003) a typical middle-class American already interacts with about 150 embedded systems every day, most of the time without knowing it. With the maturity of ubiquitous computing, these embedded computers—which use up to 90% of the microprocessors produced today—will inevitably perform more PC-like functions. More importantly, advances in wireless networks will make these embedded computers communicate seamlessly with their traditional PC counterparts. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (http://www.sia-online.org/pre_statistics.cfm), the world microchip industry will be producing one billion transistors per person on earth by 2010. Computing is becoming ubiquitous, at least in an increasing number of places in the developed world.
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