smart office deepika
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Bis term paper
Ubiquitous computing
Smart office
By Deepika agrawal
B1ooo7
Pgp-1
SMART OFFICE
Abstract
Ubiquitous computing is exploring quite different from a single computer to Personal Digital Assistants
but the physical and mental hindrance comes in all sizes and shapes With the personal and
professional information being collected transmitted and stored in the office computer in greater
volume the opportunities for the data interception theft and be it official and unofficial will be
discriminating To make any office a smart one too much of technical know-how is needed for which
the requirement of technical personnel is high and less number of them is at present
What Is Smart office
Smart office is a concept of Ubiquitous Computing where office works will be carried out in a simple
communicative and information processing way to gain fast information in less time productivity
communication and value Unlike traditional office where there are problems related to security of
data information processing forgery delay of tasks the ubiquitous computing environment in smart
office will support solutions in such challenges Designed specifically for competitive markets and
modern era Smart Office brings together utilities customer information external demographic data
and business intelligence to allow utilities better target their customers
In the Smart Office computers will be embedded in the environment to provide autonomous learn
and cooperate features And this is only possible through the use of agents for a specific task and
then collaborate it into one to develop a reliable and secure environment
Rational and benefits
Smart workspaces assist in the seamless integration of people with computers within a physical
environment Basically furnished with networked computing devices and sensors these rooms are
designed to assist people in pursuit of everyday work goals such as finding information collaboration
with colleagues and so on Smart work spaces are a subject of much research around the world and
a key enabler of smart rooms is the use of context awareness to link pervasive computing devices
with users within their physical environment
In most mobile wearable and ubiquitous computing application knowing the user‟s location
absolutely or relative to other parts of the environment is important for the seamless integration of
people with computing devices within the physical environment thus the work of intelligence comes
into effect
In its ultimate form ubiquitous computing means any computing device while moving with us can
build incrementally dynamic and intelligent models of its various environments and configure its
services accordingly
The major characteristics of this Smart Office is the fusion of RFID technology database
management data mining real-time information visualization and interactive web application
technologies into an operational integrated system deployed in an office The developed system
tracks client or staff attendees analyses the tracking data in real time and provides various services
to the attendees such as a real time snapshot of the daily attendees such as a real time snapshot of
the daily attendees the ability to locate peers and clients in the office centre and the ability to search
for events of unconditional circumstances The results were revealing in terms of both the potential of
the developed technology and the dynamic environment of the office
The various schedulers networked computer systems projectors walls etc would be interacting with
the person and providing and assisting him in his appointments presentations based on the gained
knowledge or learning from the context
Smart Office is a new flexible matching set of services built from the ground up on a fully scalable
business grade network It covers the entire spectrum of modern business services be it from internet
e-mail and security through to PC backup and voice and since it modular you can tailor the precise
solution to meet your needs right now and then grow the solution as and when you need to over time
How ubiquitous computing fit in the scenario
Office is a place where the more efficient the work is done the more the productivity of the company
or organization increases Organization have faced a lot of hurdles to improve the scenarios already
present in the office environments since it would lead to lesser manpower and more efficient work
performance This is always regretted by a worker
But the application of ubiquitous computing would help to evolve the system from that of a boring
cumbersome task to one of the most interesting and fun to work with places
The main application areas of ubiquitous computing which have removed the loopholes in the office
environment are numerous but speaking of the most relevant ones here
In a very general sense the technology facilitate groups of people to gain new forms of social power
ways to organize and coordinate their interactions and exchanges just in time and just in place
Especially the advantages in the area of interface technology will lead to considerable benefits on
user level Today office workers usually work with single user devices which require manual user
input via standardized interfaces With the emergence of ubiquitous computing those explicit and
static interaction paradigms will be enhanced through new input and output concepts like tangible
user interface or ambient displays Sensor-enhanced environments will enable implicit interaction
mechanisms which are unknown in existing work environments with traditional computational
devices By automating routine task and thereby releasing office workers from vacuous work
activities smart office environments bear the potential to increase job satisfaction
On company level the most important benefits gained by the introduction of Ubiquitous Computing
technologies are probably the optimization of existing processes as well as the ability to implement
new and even more efficient business processes The ability of professionals to communicate with
their peers either in the same office or on the other side of the world and to have an infinite world of
information and intelligence to facilitate decision-making will greatly expand with the emergence of
Ubiquitous Computing In addition smart office through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasing remote and geographically distributed world will significantly contribute
to effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new ways of
dynamic resource planning and context- adaptor time scheduling based on real-time information from
various digital and non-digital sources While tangible user interfaces provide a variety of direct
benefits for employees such new forms of interaction are likely to increase the efficiency of office
workers and thereby indirectly generate additional financial benefits for companies Intuitive
interaction mechanisms are not only reducing the everyday processing times they also decrease the
initial period of vocational adjustment to new office applications
Current and future manifestation
Current manifestation
There‟s one thing that we all can agree upon we all want safe high quality professional life which
delivers the hard work of ours at timely and efficient manner The employee wants to be treated by
competent and knowledgeable office providers using the best and most cost-effective procedures and
techniques that result in the best possible outcomes for the least cost A normal person who is
working in a multinational company (MNC) spends 10-12 hours of his precious time working hard and
what does he get in return If on a personal note we see this issue then indeed the answer would be
ldquonothingrdquo A balanced life is really very important in our daily life There is no fun in driving a car if your
back hurts or shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions just because you have been
constantly working for long stretched hours with a thought of non-security in your professional life A
primary problem with the current working culture of any office is the system‟s failure to make the
continuous improvement of quality and efficiency a top priority It is widely accepted that information
technology is an essential part of the solution There isn‟t any kind of security at the door step of the
office building where anyone can step into it and take the advantage of Besides that you are actually
not sure of the files which is being transferred by you is safe enough There are very small things
which actually enclose many reasons for an unsatisfied person working day night in the MNC just to
make his family and himself happy
Future manifestation
Nowadays computing technology research is focused on the development of smart environments
Following that line of thought server smart office projects has been developed and their appliances
are much diversified The appliances include projects in the context of workplace or everyday living
entertainment play and education Such ldquointelligentrdquo or ldquosmartrdquo environments and systems interact
with human beings in a helpful adaptive and unobtrusive way It is indeed vital to design and make
effective use of physical components such as sensors controllers and smart devices which tracks
each and every at the work place easy and undemanding The moment a person enters in the
building automatically his attendance of that day has been updated and with the help of the
biometrics that individual can enter into the respective cabin and automatically he will be intimated
about the meetings and all in short life doesn‟t remain the same as it used to be working in a normal
office In addition to these organizational benefits everyone is being offered a variety of possibilities
for facilitating business activities with different companies Potential benefits include the support of
communication and awareness in virtual teams as well as of planning and coordinating activities in
cross-company projects or the exchange of real-time data among companies in a supply chain
Recommended prototype
Execution the smart prototype 1 explains the start of the smart office environment where the
employee stands at the office entrance and authenticates himself at the biometric sensor The sensor
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
SMART OFFICE
Abstract
Ubiquitous computing is exploring quite different from a single computer to Personal Digital Assistants
but the physical and mental hindrance comes in all sizes and shapes With the personal and
professional information being collected transmitted and stored in the office computer in greater
volume the opportunities for the data interception theft and be it official and unofficial will be
discriminating To make any office a smart one too much of technical know-how is needed for which
the requirement of technical personnel is high and less number of them is at present
What Is Smart office
Smart office is a concept of Ubiquitous Computing where office works will be carried out in a simple
communicative and information processing way to gain fast information in less time productivity
communication and value Unlike traditional office where there are problems related to security of
data information processing forgery delay of tasks the ubiquitous computing environment in smart
office will support solutions in such challenges Designed specifically for competitive markets and
modern era Smart Office brings together utilities customer information external demographic data
and business intelligence to allow utilities better target their customers
In the Smart Office computers will be embedded in the environment to provide autonomous learn
and cooperate features And this is only possible through the use of agents for a specific task and
then collaborate it into one to develop a reliable and secure environment
Rational and benefits
Smart workspaces assist in the seamless integration of people with computers within a physical
environment Basically furnished with networked computing devices and sensors these rooms are
designed to assist people in pursuit of everyday work goals such as finding information collaboration
with colleagues and so on Smart work spaces are a subject of much research around the world and
a key enabler of smart rooms is the use of context awareness to link pervasive computing devices
with users within their physical environment
In most mobile wearable and ubiquitous computing application knowing the user‟s location
absolutely or relative to other parts of the environment is important for the seamless integration of
people with computing devices within the physical environment thus the work of intelligence comes
into effect
In its ultimate form ubiquitous computing means any computing device while moving with us can
build incrementally dynamic and intelligent models of its various environments and configure its
services accordingly
The major characteristics of this Smart Office is the fusion of RFID technology database
management data mining real-time information visualization and interactive web application
technologies into an operational integrated system deployed in an office The developed system
tracks client or staff attendees analyses the tracking data in real time and provides various services
to the attendees such as a real time snapshot of the daily attendees such as a real time snapshot of
the daily attendees the ability to locate peers and clients in the office centre and the ability to search
for events of unconditional circumstances The results were revealing in terms of both the potential of
the developed technology and the dynamic environment of the office
The various schedulers networked computer systems projectors walls etc would be interacting with
the person and providing and assisting him in his appointments presentations based on the gained
knowledge or learning from the context
Smart Office is a new flexible matching set of services built from the ground up on a fully scalable
business grade network It covers the entire spectrum of modern business services be it from internet
e-mail and security through to PC backup and voice and since it modular you can tailor the precise
solution to meet your needs right now and then grow the solution as and when you need to over time
How ubiquitous computing fit in the scenario
Office is a place where the more efficient the work is done the more the productivity of the company
or organization increases Organization have faced a lot of hurdles to improve the scenarios already
present in the office environments since it would lead to lesser manpower and more efficient work
performance This is always regretted by a worker
But the application of ubiquitous computing would help to evolve the system from that of a boring
cumbersome task to one of the most interesting and fun to work with places
The main application areas of ubiquitous computing which have removed the loopholes in the office
environment are numerous but speaking of the most relevant ones here
In a very general sense the technology facilitate groups of people to gain new forms of social power
ways to organize and coordinate their interactions and exchanges just in time and just in place
Especially the advantages in the area of interface technology will lead to considerable benefits on
user level Today office workers usually work with single user devices which require manual user
input via standardized interfaces With the emergence of ubiquitous computing those explicit and
static interaction paradigms will be enhanced through new input and output concepts like tangible
user interface or ambient displays Sensor-enhanced environments will enable implicit interaction
mechanisms which are unknown in existing work environments with traditional computational
devices By automating routine task and thereby releasing office workers from vacuous work
activities smart office environments bear the potential to increase job satisfaction
On company level the most important benefits gained by the introduction of Ubiquitous Computing
technologies are probably the optimization of existing processes as well as the ability to implement
new and even more efficient business processes The ability of professionals to communicate with
their peers either in the same office or on the other side of the world and to have an infinite world of
information and intelligence to facilitate decision-making will greatly expand with the emergence of
Ubiquitous Computing In addition smart office through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasing remote and geographically distributed world will significantly contribute
to effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new ways of
dynamic resource planning and context- adaptor time scheduling based on real-time information from
various digital and non-digital sources While tangible user interfaces provide a variety of direct
benefits for employees such new forms of interaction are likely to increase the efficiency of office
workers and thereby indirectly generate additional financial benefits for companies Intuitive
interaction mechanisms are not only reducing the everyday processing times they also decrease the
initial period of vocational adjustment to new office applications
Current and future manifestation
Current manifestation
There‟s one thing that we all can agree upon we all want safe high quality professional life which
delivers the hard work of ours at timely and efficient manner The employee wants to be treated by
competent and knowledgeable office providers using the best and most cost-effective procedures and
techniques that result in the best possible outcomes for the least cost A normal person who is
working in a multinational company (MNC) spends 10-12 hours of his precious time working hard and
what does he get in return If on a personal note we see this issue then indeed the answer would be
ldquonothingrdquo A balanced life is really very important in our daily life There is no fun in driving a car if your
back hurts or shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions just because you have been
constantly working for long stretched hours with a thought of non-security in your professional life A
primary problem with the current working culture of any office is the system‟s failure to make the
continuous improvement of quality and efficiency a top priority It is widely accepted that information
technology is an essential part of the solution There isn‟t any kind of security at the door step of the
office building where anyone can step into it and take the advantage of Besides that you are actually
not sure of the files which is being transferred by you is safe enough There are very small things
which actually enclose many reasons for an unsatisfied person working day night in the MNC just to
make his family and himself happy
Future manifestation
Nowadays computing technology research is focused on the development of smart environments
Following that line of thought server smart office projects has been developed and their appliances
are much diversified The appliances include projects in the context of workplace or everyday living
entertainment play and education Such ldquointelligentrdquo or ldquosmartrdquo environments and systems interact
with human beings in a helpful adaptive and unobtrusive way It is indeed vital to design and make
effective use of physical components such as sensors controllers and smart devices which tracks
each and every at the work place easy and undemanding The moment a person enters in the
building automatically his attendance of that day has been updated and with the help of the
biometrics that individual can enter into the respective cabin and automatically he will be intimated
about the meetings and all in short life doesn‟t remain the same as it used to be working in a normal
office In addition to these organizational benefits everyone is being offered a variety of possibilities
for facilitating business activities with different companies Potential benefits include the support of
communication and awareness in virtual teams as well as of planning and coordinating activities in
cross-company projects or the exchange of real-time data among companies in a supply chain
Recommended prototype
Execution the smart prototype 1 explains the start of the smart office environment where the
employee stands at the office entrance and authenticates himself at the biometric sensor The sensor
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
In its ultimate form ubiquitous computing means any computing device while moving with us can
build incrementally dynamic and intelligent models of its various environments and configure its
services accordingly
The major characteristics of this Smart Office is the fusion of RFID technology database
management data mining real-time information visualization and interactive web application
technologies into an operational integrated system deployed in an office The developed system
tracks client or staff attendees analyses the tracking data in real time and provides various services
to the attendees such as a real time snapshot of the daily attendees such as a real time snapshot of
the daily attendees the ability to locate peers and clients in the office centre and the ability to search
for events of unconditional circumstances The results were revealing in terms of both the potential of
the developed technology and the dynamic environment of the office
The various schedulers networked computer systems projectors walls etc would be interacting with
the person and providing and assisting him in his appointments presentations based on the gained
knowledge or learning from the context
Smart Office is a new flexible matching set of services built from the ground up on a fully scalable
business grade network It covers the entire spectrum of modern business services be it from internet
e-mail and security through to PC backup and voice and since it modular you can tailor the precise
solution to meet your needs right now and then grow the solution as and when you need to over time
How ubiquitous computing fit in the scenario
Office is a place where the more efficient the work is done the more the productivity of the company
or organization increases Organization have faced a lot of hurdles to improve the scenarios already
present in the office environments since it would lead to lesser manpower and more efficient work
performance This is always regretted by a worker
But the application of ubiquitous computing would help to evolve the system from that of a boring
cumbersome task to one of the most interesting and fun to work with places
The main application areas of ubiquitous computing which have removed the loopholes in the office
environment are numerous but speaking of the most relevant ones here
In a very general sense the technology facilitate groups of people to gain new forms of social power
ways to organize and coordinate their interactions and exchanges just in time and just in place
Especially the advantages in the area of interface technology will lead to considerable benefits on
user level Today office workers usually work with single user devices which require manual user
input via standardized interfaces With the emergence of ubiquitous computing those explicit and
static interaction paradigms will be enhanced through new input and output concepts like tangible
user interface or ambient displays Sensor-enhanced environments will enable implicit interaction
mechanisms which are unknown in existing work environments with traditional computational
devices By automating routine task and thereby releasing office workers from vacuous work
activities smart office environments bear the potential to increase job satisfaction
On company level the most important benefits gained by the introduction of Ubiquitous Computing
technologies are probably the optimization of existing processes as well as the ability to implement
new and even more efficient business processes The ability of professionals to communicate with
their peers either in the same office or on the other side of the world and to have an infinite world of
information and intelligence to facilitate decision-making will greatly expand with the emergence of
Ubiquitous Computing In addition smart office through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasing remote and geographically distributed world will significantly contribute
to effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new ways of
dynamic resource planning and context- adaptor time scheduling based on real-time information from
various digital and non-digital sources While tangible user interfaces provide a variety of direct
benefits for employees such new forms of interaction are likely to increase the efficiency of office
workers and thereby indirectly generate additional financial benefits for companies Intuitive
interaction mechanisms are not only reducing the everyday processing times they also decrease the
initial period of vocational adjustment to new office applications
Current and future manifestation
Current manifestation
There‟s one thing that we all can agree upon we all want safe high quality professional life which
delivers the hard work of ours at timely and efficient manner The employee wants to be treated by
competent and knowledgeable office providers using the best and most cost-effective procedures and
techniques that result in the best possible outcomes for the least cost A normal person who is
working in a multinational company (MNC) spends 10-12 hours of his precious time working hard and
what does he get in return If on a personal note we see this issue then indeed the answer would be
ldquonothingrdquo A balanced life is really very important in our daily life There is no fun in driving a car if your
back hurts or shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions just because you have been
constantly working for long stretched hours with a thought of non-security in your professional life A
primary problem with the current working culture of any office is the system‟s failure to make the
continuous improvement of quality and efficiency a top priority It is widely accepted that information
technology is an essential part of the solution There isn‟t any kind of security at the door step of the
office building where anyone can step into it and take the advantage of Besides that you are actually
not sure of the files which is being transferred by you is safe enough There are very small things
which actually enclose many reasons for an unsatisfied person working day night in the MNC just to
make his family and himself happy
Future manifestation
Nowadays computing technology research is focused on the development of smart environments
Following that line of thought server smart office projects has been developed and their appliances
are much diversified The appliances include projects in the context of workplace or everyday living
entertainment play and education Such ldquointelligentrdquo or ldquosmartrdquo environments and systems interact
with human beings in a helpful adaptive and unobtrusive way It is indeed vital to design and make
effective use of physical components such as sensors controllers and smart devices which tracks
each and every at the work place easy and undemanding The moment a person enters in the
building automatically his attendance of that day has been updated and with the help of the
biometrics that individual can enter into the respective cabin and automatically he will be intimated
about the meetings and all in short life doesn‟t remain the same as it used to be working in a normal
office In addition to these organizational benefits everyone is being offered a variety of possibilities
for facilitating business activities with different companies Potential benefits include the support of
communication and awareness in virtual teams as well as of planning and coordinating activities in
cross-company projects or the exchange of real-time data among companies in a supply chain
Recommended prototype
Execution the smart prototype 1 explains the start of the smart office environment where the
employee stands at the office entrance and authenticates himself at the biometric sensor The sensor
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
devices By automating routine task and thereby releasing office workers from vacuous work
activities smart office environments bear the potential to increase job satisfaction
On company level the most important benefits gained by the introduction of Ubiquitous Computing
technologies are probably the optimization of existing processes as well as the ability to implement
new and even more efficient business processes The ability of professionals to communicate with
their peers either in the same office or on the other side of the world and to have an infinite world of
information and intelligence to facilitate decision-making will greatly expand with the emergence of
Ubiquitous Computing In addition smart office through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasing remote and geographically distributed world will significantly contribute
to effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new ways of
dynamic resource planning and context- adaptor time scheduling based on real-time information from
various digital and non-digital sources While tangible user interfaces provide a variety of direct
benefits for employees such new forms of interaction are likely to increase the efficiency of office
workers and thereby indirectly generate additional financial benefits for companies Intuitive
interaction mechanisms are not only reducing the everyday processing times they also decrease the
initial period of vocational adjustment to new office applications
Current and future manifestation
Current manifestation
There‟s one thing that we all can agree upon we all want safe high quality professional life which
delivers the hard work of ours at timely and efficient manner The employee wants to be treated by
competent and knowledgeable office providers using the best and most cost-effective procedures and
techniques that result in the best possible outcomes for the least cost A normal person who is
working in a multinational company (MNC) spends 10-12 hours of his precious time working hard and
what does he get in return If on a personal note we see this issue then indeed the answer would be
ldquonothingrdquo A balanced life is really very important in our daily life There is no fun in driving a car if your
back hurts or shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions just because you have been
constantly working for long stretched hours with a thought of non-security in your professional life A
primary problem with the current working culture of any office is the system‟s failure to make the
continuous improvement of quality and efficiency a top priority It is widely accepted that information
technology is an essential part of the solution There isn‟t any kind of security at the door step of the
office building where anyone can step into it and take the advantage of Besides that you are actually
not sure of the files which is being transferred by you is safe enough There are very small things
which actually enclose many reasons for an unsatisfied person working day night in the MNC just to
make his family and himself happy
Future manifestation
Nowadays computing technology research is focused on the development of smart environments
Following that line of thought server smart office projects has been developed and their appliances
are much diversified The appliances include projects in the context of workplace or everyday living
entertainment play and education Such ldquointelligentrdquo or ldquosmartrdquo environments and systems interact
with human beings in a helpful adaptive and unobtrusive way It is indeed vital to design and make
effective use of physical components such as sensors controllers and smart devices which tracks
each and every at the work place easy and undemanding The moment a person enters in the
building automatically his attendance of that day has been updated and with the help of the
biometrics that individual can enter into the respective cabin and automatically he will be intimated
about the meetings and all in short life doesn‟t remain the same as it used to be working in a normal
office In addition to these organizational benefits everyone is being offered a variety of possibilities
for facilitating business activities with different companies Potential benefits include the support of
communication and awareness in virtual teams as well as of planning and coordinating activities in
cross-company projects or the exchange of real-time data among companies in a supply chain
Recommended prototype
Execution the smart prototype 1 explains the start of the smart office environment where the
employee stands at the office entrance and authenticates himself at the biometric sensor The sensor
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
Future manifestation
Nowadays computing technology research is focused on the development of smart environments
Following that line of thought server smart office projects has been developed and their appliances
are much diversified The appliances include projects in the context of workplace or everyday living
entertainment play and education Such ldquointelligentrdquo or ldquosmartrdquo environments and systems interact
with human beings in a helpful adaptive and unobtrusive way It is indeed vital to design and make
effective use of physical components such as sensors controllers and smart devices which tracks
each and every at the work place easy and undemanding The moment a person enters in the
building automatically his attendance of that day has been updated and with the help of the
biometrics that individual can enter into the respective cabin and automatically he will be intimated
about the meetings and all in short life doesn‟t remain the same as it used to be working in a normal
office In addition to these organizational benefits everyone is being offered a variety of possibilities
for facilitating business activities with different companies Potential benefits include the support of
communication and awareness in virtual teams as well as of planning and coordinating activities in
cross-company projects or the exchange of real-time data among companies in a supply chain
Recommended prototype
Execution the smart prototype 1 explains the start of the smart office environment where the
employee stands at the office entrance and authenticates himself at the biometric sensor The sensor
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
or the agent authenticates him if he is office person else denies him the entry in the office The data to
authenticate is fetched from the central database server of the office which contains the information
about each member An entry for the day is also made in the database with the timing and date
Secondly when the person wants to enter his cabin RFID identification authenticates him for the
same When the user indentifies the right person it makes an entry in the database for the same The
office sensors or agents working in the cabin such as those of temperature control brightness level
customize themselves as per the intelligence level This has been feed through the daily context
awareness of the system and personal choices The interactive screen automatically displays the
recent files and presentations which the user had been working
Execution proceeding from the prototype 1 the interactive screen in the office cabin displays
employee official information The screen is just not a simple screen but is highly interactive voice
guided posture guided one The screen is also a personal scheduler which manages all the meetings
of the employee as directed to it The screen keeps the employee alert and informed about the
scheduled meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the meeting When meeting time
arrives and employee does schedule meeting prior to it It also manages all the data required in the
meeting When the meeting time arrives and employee does not need to copy the data from the office
cabin to the meeting room the interactive screen itself sends the information the particular meeting in
which the meeting is schedules If the meeting is with any of the clients the data goes to the meeting
room 1 and for the meeting with the project team members to the meeting room 2
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
The door on the meeting rooms displays the agenda of the meeting and checks in the employees as
they enter When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room door
lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy hallway
outside The embedded systems loads all the files needed for the meeting and as discussions goes it
works in the background fetching the discussion related files from previous files or internet After the
meeting is over it saves the file and sends it to the personal information database of the employee
Execution proceeding from the previous prototype if the meeting is scheduled for the conference
room the way must be an important one So the scheduler alerts the employee in quiet advance The
conference room has the meeting agenda meeting members and the screen has the information
related to the meeting topics The room has the best communication devices and the sensors ranging
from the interactive table to the virtual conference facility The lighting temperature sitting
arrangement predetermined The discussion and file arrangement is done both on the table and the
screen
Final prototype explaining the employee‟s smart working environment and interaction with it
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
Relation with ubiquitous agents
The era of ubiquitous computing is marking its presence over the traditional pc from which is likely to
get replaced by the former However the use of ubiquitous computing would not have mattered much
if there had not been the concept of agents that showed the simple way to bring out a new era of
technology Agents do exist of different types be it intelligence autonomous proactive reactive
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
persistent and each of these collaborate with others to form a multi agent systems Obviously the
advantage of multi agent systems is clear in smart systems Let‟s look what are the agents that make
the smart office that has a learning collaborative learning and autonomous features
Agents to be used are described below-
1) Motion tracking agent this agent is responsible for identifying and verifying each person the
office The agent checks if the person entering the office is an employee or staff of the office
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method relying on storing
and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders So the RFID is
a wireless identification This assigns a unique card number for each employeestaff An
employeestaff places the RFID card within 5cm distance from the RFID reader The RFID
reader writes down the time data and type of departurearrival The type of arrivaldeparture
is indicated on LCD display The display also indicates the current time The interface
software which is available with this system is responsible for attendance report in the
customer preferred format Attendance processing (Interface) software can also be integrated
with the payroll software for salary calculation and employee tracking The employee or staff
is then expected to move to his designated cabincounter If the employee or staff moves out
of his cabincounter this agent connects to the connected client agent (to be followed later) to
display that the employeestaff is offline The environment that exists is dynamic Such an
agent is of autonomous type as this regularly tracks the position of the respected person
2) Cabin manager agent while motional agent tracks employeestaff position wrt office centre
the cabin manager agent is responsible for allowing employeestaff to their designated
countercabin Here a biometric device is used to authenticate the person and on verification
the person gets access to the resources or the agents deployed in hisher cabin The
biometric device used is Hand Palm vein where the person gets his resources ready to be
activated and taken control The agent regards the person as the manager of the room Such
agent is of type Proactive
3) Electrical and information technology agent as soon as the person gets recognized by the
cabin manager agent the person is allowed to enter the cabin All electrical and
computational devices and appliances take to soothe the environment as set by the person to
the agent Examples include such as setting the temperature of the cabin according to the
weather of the day computational devices and appliances take no time to soothe the
environment as set by the person to the agent Examples include such as setting the
temperature of the cabin according to the weather of the day computational devices showing
time left in number of seconds or even scheduling the hardwaresoftware configuration of the
agents Such an agent is of type intelligence
4) Routine ant task agent after the motion tracking agent had done its job it‟s time for this agent
to take place As soon as an employeestaff takes seat in the cabincounter of the office
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
heshe is informed of the appointments that he had to do and the task to be performed in this
and the coming days Any specialemergency notice information is displayed as very
important The tasks to be performed are shown in terms of time and resources available
along with various options of solutions to complete it After the end of the day the pay is
calculated by the agent based on the work done Such an agent is of type intelligence It can
also be said to be an interface agent as it must has both autonomous and learning features
5) Communication agent this agent connects offices spread through multiple location and
creates a network The head of the smart office can monitor and examine what employees of
other department in this office as well as offices located at multiple locations are working For
communication among heads of different offices a request has to be made and so
communication will take place if the request has been accepted Such an agent is of type
social The environment that exists is dynamic
6) Maintenance agent this agent is responsible for performing tasks related to the maintenance
of office infrastructure and equipments When a defect has been detected by the agent it will
alert the respective employees staff informing the resources required to correct that Suchan
agent is of type intelligence The environment that exists is deterministic
7) Client agent this agent is responsible for performing one of the most important tasks of the
office Unlike traditional offices where clients have to come to get their job done the smart
office provides a special way of connecting to clients to get their work done Clients don‟t
need to come to office Instead they can contact the employees of the office through the use
of client agent over internet Clients can get the appointment booked with employees and put
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
forward their problemstasks The employees on the other hand can give solutions on the
basis of the best possible choices available the agent informs the client that the person is
offline Such an agent is a combination of type adaptive and reactive ie a heterogeneous
agent The environment that prevails is continuous
Importance of security and ethics
The past few years witnessed the emergence of Ubiquitous Computing systems as the most
promising technology to take advantage of the portable and embedded devices This concise glance
into the morning routine of an office going reveals just a few aspects of daily life that can be enhanced
by technologies which do not look much different from those with which are already familiar in the
desktop computing world However there are many technologies which are being used but they are
invisible operating in the background of the environment providing essential safety and
communication support to individuals in day to day work and which in results makes the work more
easy and convenient The possible effects of Anything Anytime Anywhere computing on the
productivity of an important part of the work force known as knowledge workers are a significant area
of speculation and a subject of worth explanation Security and Ethics in Ubiquitous Computing is a
field of study that is concerned with privacy of the user and with distinguishing right from wrong and
good from bad It analyzes the morality of human behaviours policies laws and social structures A
significant exception to this is found in the area of awareness where a complete integrated network
of sensors is built into the office or we can say edifice to create a ldquoSMART OFFICErdquo environment
controlled centrally and usually focused upon the office‟s a smart one or those undergoing major
remodelling building in the elements required for a smart office is done quite effectively with wiring
added prior to completion of walls requires the use of RF (Radio Frequency) technologies which
have advanced dramatically in the past decades as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in the
contribution of the researches in the Ubiquitous Computing The technology which makes the office a
smart one is the use of Biometrics devices It is used in security and access control applications to
mean measurable physical characteristics of a person that can be checked on an automated basis
RF Identification
Automated identification technologies like RFID have valuable uses especially in connection with the
ongoing works in office RFID particularly useful where it can be embedded within an object such as
any important documentary of the office or any files of the same RFID tags communicate information
by radio wave through antennae on small computer chips attached to objects so that such objects
may be identified located and tracked The fundamental architecture of RFID technology involves a
tag a reader (or scanning device) and a database which stores the information
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
A portable RFID can be pointed-into offices or wherever files are located and when the RFID reader
detects the missing file the RFID reader will beep to alert staff that the file has been found This
allows staff to find missing files in minutes Portable RFID Readers include a drop-down list of office
locations so that files in circulation can be periodically inventoried to identify files that have been
transferred from person to place or place to place In office the use of RFID is intended to achieve a
number of different goals Facilities managers use identification to control access to sensitive
infrastructures that may be damaged or used to harm any individual They use to control access to
facilitate where sensitive information about other important files or documents may be kept
People entering the office
The major use of RFID in this part is that the moment the people enters the office with the help Radio
Frequency Identification automatically every individual‟s attendance of that particular day has been
updated because of which it can be easily judged who among those passerby are not related to the
office or isn‟t the workers of the office Some of the benefits of using are listed below
Ensure that only authorized readers can read the tags and that only authorized
personnel have access to the readers
Maintain the integrity of the data on the chip and stored in the database
Ensure that the critical data is fully available when necessary
Avoid electronic collisions when multiple tags and or readers are present
RFID cameras on doors of every office
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
The use of Radio Frequency Identification at every door office makes the work of identifying any
person who is not related to the office much more easy With the help of having RFID cameras at
every door of the office the personnel sitting at the CCTV camera can easily make out who is the odd
one out of the working professionals
Use of RFID in detecting documents
It takes some time to check a traditional identification document The process typically includes
handling the document to a verifier who much review the information on the card and authorize the
bearer to pass record the bearer‟s passing or if appropriate detain the bearer The verifier must
also compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer to ensure that the bearer is the person
identified by the card The use of RFID could dispense with one of these steps by elimination the
hand-over of the card The other two steps are not affected by RFID The verifier must still review
authorizing information and compare the identifiers on the card with the bearer
Along with that encryptions allow information to be encoded in such a way that it is hidden from
casual view and any attempt at alteration of forgery can be reliably detected Communication
information from an identification card via RFID allows encryption to be used suppressing potential
attacks on the integrity of the identification system through forgery and alteration
Biometrics
Biometrics is automated methods of recognizing a person base on physiological or
behavioural characteristics Among the features measured are face fingerprints hand
geometry handwriting iris retinal vein and voice Biometric technologies are becoming the
foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification
solutions As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases the need for
highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent
In office biometric-based solutions are able to provide for confidential financial transactions
and personal data privacy Biometric-based authentication applications include workstation
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
network and domain access single sign-on application logon data protection remote
access to resources transaction security and web security
Use of biometrics in office for time attendance
access control
In many of the offices there is vast use of palm-vein recognition for the security point of view The
moment an individual puts the palm on the system the system relies on an infrared image of the palm
of a user‟s hand It reveals the pattern of veins present under the skin and form this algorithm can
confirm identity of the user It takes into account identifying features such as the number of veins
their position and the points at which they cross and offers a higher level of security than competing
technologies including voice print facial recognition fingerprint recognition and iris scan so only the
person related to office building can renter to the restricted areas because he or she has to pass
through the palm-vein recognition
Interaction with ubiquitous environment
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
smart office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborate and work in new and
more efficient ways The theoretical advantages range from increased work productivity through time-
saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive environments In the
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
context of knowledge-based enterprises the usage of Ambient Intelligence technologies can lead to
considerable benefits in a variety of areas and on different organizational levels
Proposed office environment
Here a scenario is presented integrating the major components of intelligence and meaning in an
office environment making it a smart one
It‟s the beginning of the day and x has a major presentation to work on for a sales call Two weeks
ago when the meeting was set up she instructed her calendar to schedule two additional meetings
with her team to prepare for the presentation The calendar here depicts an example of media
management and handling It is about time for the second meeting and checks off attendees as ther
enter The concepts of natural integration and sensor technology are working in a duo The giant
ldquowork boardrdquo on one wall of the room has preloaded all the documents related to the presentation and
is waiting for input When everybody has arrived for the meeting the display on the conference room
door lists the meeting as ldquoin progressrdquo and dims the window to minimize distraction from the busy
hallway outside applying the component of computational intelligence The team reviews the
presentation X spots a section that flows poorly after discussing it with the team she calls the work
board and tells it to move the section on product features to just before the section on optional
services using the ubiquitous communication features The meeting covers several additional topics
and then disbands The embedded system in the work board automatically saves the updated files as
the attendees exit the room
On the way back to her desk x stops by her friend y‟s desk to ask him a question The natural
interaction component senses her approach y‟s computer works in the background to load
documents that the two of them have worked in the past weeks should any of them be required X is
greeted by y which is going for a meeting of his own ldquoWe need input on pricing for this servicerdquo says
y ldquocan you join usrdquo x can spare some time so she elects to participate in the meeting When x
enters the conference room her calendar automatically updates to include the new meeting depicting
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
the concepts of adaptive software and context awareness After y introduces the topic x says ldquomy
team came up with a template to determine pricing for a slightly different services Maybe we can use
it as a starting pointrdquo X approaches the work board and a list of her public files appears The files are
sorted in alphabetical order with the files whose contents are related to the topic of the meeting
highlighted as per the adaptive software concept x touches the template file and the document
opens After some discussions the template is modified and is ready for testing Meeting attendees
and processes with the final price displayed Here the component of computational intelligence
works After everyone is satisfied with the revised template the meeting ends After the meeting x
goes to check her video mail As she approaches a nearby public communications portal the screen
shows the four new video mails waiting for her One video mail is from a longstanding client She
touches the message and watches as the client by recounts a story of superior service received from
team headed by x X tells the video mail system to add the message to her file on the topic and
records a thank-you message to the client The sensor technology and embedded systems performs
this task
Issues faced
One of the problems is security and privacy threat According to the statistics there is a continuous
increase in the number of reported incidents of computer security breaches and vulnerabilities These
incidents are mainly reported in case of access to restricted regions and areas Moreover sometimes
the problem of authorization also occurs in office environment where sometimes unwontedly the
wrong data is been misplaced by the right data The mobility of device is also highly affected by this
problem of authentication as with the increase in mobility the security vulnerability of devices also
increases Another issue is of ethics Computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions
and norms are tested applied stretched negotiated and broken in the realm of computer
technology Another issue faced was that of agents interactivity and selection in the ubiquitous smart
office environment The interactivity and interoperability of various devices is an area of extreme
importance The data to be processed and interpreted properly needs to be communicated in the
correct form by interactive devices that assist each other in fulfilling the demands of the overall
communicative and easy to feel environment Though there are a number of issues faced in getting
agents implemented in the smart office scenario the issues related to ldquointelligence and meaning in
ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in ubiquitous computingrdquo too had a number of
challenges in the ubiquitous computing environment It‟s time to take a look at these two challenges
with respect to issues that encountered in smart office
There are a number of issues faced by agents to get implemented in smart office
Issues like how they individually perform their tasks do exist Even after performing tasks
there are issues that need to be solved to get them work in collaboration
Problems existed what hardware and software configuration would provide compatibility
features in the smart office environment
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
Budget is one of the main issues faced for implementation of these agents and mobility or
scalability follows these down the list
Issues in terms of ldquointelligence and meaning of ubiquitous computingrdquo and ldquosecurity and ethics in
ubiquitous computingrdquo are stated below-
1) Ubiquitous computing is quite an emerging computational technology and its scope is set to
be the 3rd
wave of computing now-a-days While there has been a debate behind the power of
ubiquitous computing like whether there is any intelligence or meaning associated with it The
biggest problems were in terms of research gap that laid the mystery behind it
2) Security is one of the main reasons to consider for any computational appliance And
ubiquitous computing which is set to provide anytime and anywhere service the risk of data
theft and ethical policies too stand at a critical stage The set of ethical guidelines to be
considered needs to be highlighted
new learningrsquos to improve
With the amount of information technology constantly increasing and getting more and more ambient
future work environments are supposed to be intelligent adaptive intuitive and interactive Such
office environments will enable office workers to communicate collaborative and work in new and
more efficient ways Introducing Ubiquitous Environment in office dealt from increased work
productivity through time-saving operations to higher work satisfaction through attentive and reactive
environments Studying more about Ubiquitous Agents we came to know that there are many types
of agents as of that intelligent Autonomous active proactive and many more When we work with
multiple agents then there are three types cooperative social and adaptive While working on the
issues faced learnt about some facts about collaborative agents which is as follows
Cooperate + learn= collaborative learning agent
Learn + autonomous= interface
Cooperate + autonomous= collaborative
This theory gave us a relief from the issues which we faced as far as compatibility issues
were concerned In addition smart environments through which office workers could connect
themselves with an increasingly remote and geographically distributed world will significantly
contribute to the effective team work Such sensor-enhanced work environments will also enable new
ways of dynamic resources planning and context-adapted time scheduling based on real-time
information from various digital and non-digital sources
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf
References
Weiser Mark (1991) bdquoThe Computer for the 21st Century‟ Retrieved 2010-07-07
Weiser Gold Brown (1999-05-11) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-08-07
Schemer BW software agents surveillance and the right to privacy A legislative framework for
agent-enabled surveillance Leiden University Press 2007 p140
MWooldridge and NR Jennings ldquoIntelligent agents theory and practicerdquo Knowledge Eng Rev
vol10 (2) pp 115-152 1995
W09 ndash CASEMANS The 4th ACM International Workshop on Context-Awareness for Self Managing
Systems
httpwwwubicomporgworkshopW9[Accessed 020910 at 233PM]
Poslad Stefan (2009) Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices Smart Environment and Smart
Interaction Wiley Nwana HS 1996 Software Agents An Overview Knowledge Engineering
Review Vol 11 No3 205-244 Cambridge University Press
Weiser Mark (1996-03-17) ldquoUbiquitous computingrdquo Retrieved 2010-09-09
ldquoMIT Media Lab ndash Things That Think Consortiumrdquo MIT Retrieved 2010-09-09
Weiss RJason (2002) Ubiquitous Computing Retrieved on 20092010 from
httpwwwsioporgtipbackissuesTIPApr02pdf394_044to052pdf
Rocker Carsten (2009) Toward Smart Office Environments ndash Benefits and Drawbacks of Using
Ambient Intelligence technologies in Knowledge- Based Enterprises Retrieved on 20092010 from
wwwhumtecrwth-aachendefilesebmm_roecker_with_referencepdf