Gaia: a middleware platform for active spaces

ABSTRACT

We envision a future where people's living spaces are interactive and programmable. Users interact with their offices, homes, cars, malls and airports to request information, benefit from the resources available, and configure the habitat's behavior. Data and tasks are always accessible and are mapped dynamically to convenient resources present in the current location. Users may extend the habitat with personal devices that seamlessly integrate with the environment. Such user-oriented interactive environments may require a novel software infrastructure to operate their resources, sense context properties, and assist in the development and execution of applications. In this article, we present an experimental middleware infrastructure called Gaia that we have used to prototype the resource management of and provide the user-oriented interfaces for such physical spaces populated with network-enabled computing resources.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.5 COMPUTER SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
      C.5.3 Microcomputers
          Subjects: Portable devices (e.g., laptops, personal digital assistants)

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.1 PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURES
      C.1.4 Parallel Architectures
          Subjects: Mobile processors
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Wireless communication

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.2 Social Issues

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors