Ubiquitous computing: Applications and research opportunities

About 25 years ago, Mark Weiser introduced the concept of Ubiquitous Computing. Ten years later, Mahadev Satyanarayanan revisited and reinforced the concept by publishing studies focused on components and architectures to achieve the Pervasive Computing (synonym of ubiquitous computing). Since then, this computational paradigm has received increasing attention from researchers. Significantly, recent years have witnessed the proliferation of various technologies that enable the implementation of ubiquitous systems such as Location Systems and Location-based Services (LBSs). Furthermore, the application of ubiquitous computing in different knowledge areas has increasingly been studied, covering areas such as health (u-health), accessibility (u-accessibility), learning (u-learning), commerce (u-commerce) and games (u-games). This broad interest shows the relevance of this emergent technology and allows us to predict that the adoption of ubiquitous computing will generate a similar impact that the adoption of Internet has generated in various application areas (for example, e-commerce and e-learning). This article summarizes the evolution of ubiquitous computing and discusses emerging uses in some application areas. Additionally, the text discusses issues currently addressed by researchers that are considered challenges and consequently research opportunities. For example, studies related to Contexts Histories (also called Trails) and their use to support Profile Management and Context Prediction have been considered strategic. Finally, the article concludes by outlining trends in ubiquitous computing research.