21-09-2008, 10:33 AM
Definition
Pervasive computing refers to embedding computers and communication in our environment. Pervasive computing provides an attractive vision for the future of computing. The idea behind the pervasive computing is to make the computing power disappear in the environment, but will always be there whenever needed or in other words it means availability and invisibility. These invisible computers won't have keyboards or screens, but will watch us, listen to us and interact with us. Pervasive computing makes the computer operate in the messy and unstructured world of real people and real objects. Distributed devices in this environment must have the ability to dynamically discover and integrate other devices.
The prime goal of this technology is to make human life more simple, safe and efficient by using the ambient intelligence of computers. Pervasive computing environments involve the interaction, coordination, and cooperation of numerous, casually accessible, and often invisible computing devices. These devices will connect via wired and wireless links to one another as well as to the global networking infrastructure to provide more relevant information and integrated services. Existing approaches to building distributed applications, including client/server computing, are ill suited to meet this challenge. They are targeted at smaller and less dynamic computing environments and lack sufficient facilities to manage changes in the network configurations.
Networked computing devices will proliferate in the user's landscape, being embedded in objects ranging from home appliances to clothing. Applications will have greater awareness of context, and thus will be able to provide more intelligent services that reduce the burden on users to direct and interact with applications. Many applications will resemble agents that carry out tasks on behalf of users by exploiting the rich sets of services available within computing environments.
Mobile computing and communication is one of the major parts of the pervasive computing system. Here data and computing resources are shared among the various devices. The coordination between these devices is maintained through communication, which may be wired or wireless. With the advent of Bluetooth and Ad hoc networking technologies the wireless communication has overtaken the wired counter part.The reduction in size and cost of processor chips made it possible to implement it in every field of life. Nowadays about 99% of processors made are for embedded devices compared to the PC applications. Voice and Gesture recognition along with steerable interface will make the interactions and use of these devices more user friendly. Efficient security and privacy policies along with power management can enhance the performance of such systems.
Current Embedded Technology
Embedded technology is the process of introducing computing power to various appliances. These devices are intended to perform certain specific jobs and processors giving the computing power are designed in an application oriented way.
Computers are hidden in numerous information appliances which we use in our day-to- day life. These devices find there application in every segment of life such as consumer electronics, avionics, biomedical engineering, manufacturing, process control, industrial, communication, defence etc?
Embedded systems, based on there functionality and performance requirement are basically categorized as:
i. Stand alone systems
ii. Real time systems
iii. Networked systems
iv. Mobile devicesz
