User interaction with machines on the move: location aware computing

The aim of current mobile computing systems is to hide the network as far as possible from applications. This paper introduces location aware computing which makes details of the networked computing environment explicitly available to applications. Depending upon where a user is located, and the capabilities of the machines around a user, applications will alter their behaviour. This will automate tasks such as logging-on, screen-locking and telephone re-routing and applications will automatically modify themselves to make best use of a user's computing environment. It is argued that a location aware computing system must address the three main issues of information gathering, data structure and querying and access control. Ideas within these areas are introduced and explained and the concepts of co-location and spheres of influence suggested as paradigms of person-machine interaction.