IEEE Pervasive Computing

Virtual Senses

by Maria Ebling

In this issue, I focus on products so new that they aren't actually products yet. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by them, and I think you will be too. I examine two products-to-be that support people with visual impairments—a device to help color-blind individuals and another to assist with navigation. I also look at a device that reduces eyestrain and an augmented-reality game that tricks the user into seeing something that isn't really there. Finally, I move on to another of the five senses—smell. I discuss a sensor that might help us better identify fruit at the peak of ripeness.

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The Use of Mobile Social Presence

by Frank Bentley and Crysta J. Metcalf

Telecommunication innovations have provided people increasingly richer means to share their experiences with each other. For most of recent history, this communication was tied to a particular place—phones were fixed in homes or offices, and people sent letters to a specific location. Now mobile phones connect to people no matter their location, which has brought new possibilities to share live experiences instantly across great distances. As mobile phones become sensing and media capture devices, they can ambiently share a user's environment with others. This mobile context sharing creates new, rich experiences that can increase feelings of social presence as well as enhance and inspire future communications.

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Special issue: Environmental Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability

by Allison Woodruff and Jennifer Mankoff

In this special issue, we turn our attention to the complex relationship between pervasive computing and environmental sustainability. Due to widespread media coverage, word of mouth, and other means, concerns about issues such as global warming, natural resource depletion, and environmental toxins have permeated the public consciousness. The academic community has attended closely to these issues as well, and research relating to sustainability has ramped up in many areas. Pervasive computing is no exception. The Ubicomp and Pervasive conferences have both recently held workshops on sustainability, and related fields such as human-computer interaction (HCI) are also forming communities around this topic.

How Green Is Green?

by Roy Want

In a world that has become acutely aware of the environmental impact of energy consumption resulting in global warming, and the increasing financial burden of oil after the price spiked this past July to US$145 per barrel, energy conservation has become a hot topic. This is an opportunity for pervasive computing to play an important role in conserving our planetary resources and moving us toward environmental sustainability. Pervasive computing's primary green contribution is its ability to turn dumb technologies into smart power-aware technologies. By adding computing in combination with sensing and actuation, we can make systems automatically respond and adapt to their environment. Context-aware computing has long been applied to mobile systems, and has clear application in the design of smart power-aware systems that can respond to users' needs. In practice, adding a modest amount of embedded computation to a system, such as a home's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, can optimize the use of energy and still achieve the intended goal.

However, the addition of embedded computation and control systems isn't necessarily a free energy lunch. The question then becomes, "How much energy did it really take to manufacture the complex components to help us conserve?" Although the operation of these technologies might save energy, when considering the big picture, which includes manufacturing and transportation costs, the net saving might not be positive unless their operational life is sustained beyond the energy breakeven point. Most consumer devices are made from a variety of materials including plastics, metals, glass, wood, and electronic components such as capacitors, resistors, and semiconductors. When you consider that these materials require manufacturing processes that are nontrivial in themselves, an interesting picture arises.