Odysseus

In Isaac Asimov's novel "Foundation", the protagonist is given a ticket that glows when he is walking in the right direction. Moved out of science fiction, such a device is representative of a broad class of special-purpose devices that utilise pervasive computing infrastructure to perform one dedicated user-centred function. Such demonstrators are vital in developing the usability of complex pervasive infrastructures without requiring users to carry expensive, heavy and complex general-purpose devices.

The project will develop a prototype "glow tag" leveraging UCD's multi-modal positioning infrastructure. The tag will accept a path as an itinerary of beacons, and will "glow" in the direction the user needs to go. Successfully achieving this will require integrating multiple location systems with physical-world maps in a convenient package.

This project would suit someone with an interest in pervasive computing, low-level programming and simple hardware development.

Relevance of Project to the Host Laboratories:

UCD is making significant financial and intellectual investment in advanced pervasive and location-based services, and especially in utilising multiple systems to improve the accuracy and robustness of service delivery. This is essential to the broad delivery of location-based services, and is currently not well-studied by any other research group. The project will provide a concrete demonstration platform for this technology, and will act as a seed for the development of further devices in a similar class.

Supervisors:

Dr Simon Dobson, Dr. Lorcan Coyle, Prof Paddy Nixon

Keywords:

Pervasive computing, location-based services, mobile computing.