Bootstrapping Location-aware Personal Computing

OF THE DISSERTATION Bootstrapping Location-aware Personal Computing by Nishkam Ravi Dissertation Director: Liviu Iftode Pervasive computing is centered around the idea of provisioning computing services to the user anywhere anytime. If realized, pervasive computing can have a significant impact on our daily lives, ranging from the the way we dress to the way we work and travel. Two key hurdles prohibit the widescale adoption of pervasive computing. First, human cognitive bandwidth is a limited resource; the burden of interacting with pervasive computing applications may outweigh the functionality obtained. Second, pervasive computing applications often assume a smart environment which does not exist today; dependency on a ubiquitous computing infrastructure hampers deployment. In this dissertation, we propose location-aware personal computing as a way of getting close to the pervasive computing vision with minimal overhead. Central to locationaware personal computing is the use of smart phones and location information. Smart phones personify a ubiquitous personal device that can execute client frontends, and connect wirelessly to backend services. Location information serves as a proxy for the user. Smart phones and location information can minimize both user involvement and dependency on a ubiquitous computing infrastructure. We investigate the challenges in bootstrapping location-aware personal computing, namely ad-hoc service provisioning, infrastructureless location determination, power management and location privacy. We present solutions for each and comment on how