Prof Paddy Nixon, Dr Aaron Quigley, Tom Kitt TD, Minister of State at the Dept of the Taoiseach and UCD Registrar Dr Philip Nolan, at the 4th International Conference on Pervasive Computing
“ Pervasive computing is about making technology disappear into the background and bringing the task at hand to the forefront”, said Dr Aaron Quigley of UCD’s Systems Research Group and Conference Chair of the recent international Pervasive Computing Conference.
Recognised worldwide as the premier annual conference in this domain, PERVASIVE which took place in Dublin from May 7 – 10 th is an international conference that highlights significant research contributions in the area of pervasive computing technologies, systems and applications.
“The unique conference is designed to bring together industry and academia to progress the vision of “human centric computing”, said Professor Paddy Nixon, Head of the Systems Research Group in the UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics, and General Chair of the conference. “Winning the bid to host the conference is a recognition of the quality of research in Ireland in this speciality .”
With all major corporations pursuing research in pervasive computing, it is widely credited by industry analysts as driving the next phase of product development in the computer industry, and sensor networks are key technologies in this arena. This was evident in the breadth of presentations, workshops and demonstrations. A perfect example of innovation in pervasive computing was the ‘Smart Helmet’ from the Centre for Adaptive Wireless systems in Cork Institute of Technology. The wireless sensor helmet gathers motion, impact and physiological data from the hurler during play, monitoring impacts and head movements, pulse and temperature.
‘Interaction of Mobile Camera Devices with physical maps’ was another innovation from Muenster, Germany . This devise utilises Google Earth to find any location in the world – from a country, to a town or a street – by zooming in or out with your finger. The camera on the phone then translates the movements into commands.
A series of dedicated workshops prior to the main conference offered a unique opportunity for participants to experience a personal, focused session with industry experts and peers.
Supported by SFI, key conference sponsors also included Intel Ireland, Microsoft Research, Mitsubishi and IBM Ireland. Enterprise Ireland ran a technology roadmap in conjunction with the conference, raising the profile of location-based computing as an area of potential in Ireland. Keynote speakers included Joe Marks, Director of Research Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) and David L. Tennenhouse, Director of Research for Intel Corporation.
The significance of UCD hosting PERVASIVE in Ireland is important. “The Irish government is proactively investing in pervasive computing across all the agencies – Enterprise Ireland, IDA, and SFI - and Irish excellence in this area is central to attracting inward investment in digital health and adaptive information technologies”, said Professor Nixon.
Smart Helmet from Cork Institute of Technology
