Technological and business challenges in pervasive computing

Pervasive computing deals with environments where computing and communication capabilities are embedded in everyday objects and gracefully integrated with human users. At the front end of a pervasive environment, devices are installed to collect information from the physical world and react to actions from human users or other devices. Behind the front layer, information is continuously received, digested, organized and synthesized in order for the system to respond to the real world. Finally, actions are taken that physically impact the real world. Soft actions may take place by merely providing information to users for them to initiate the physical actions. Hard actions, on the other hand, are taken by the devices directly (e.g., switching off lights). Having framed the problem it is not difficult to see that the construction of such an environment is technically challenging but yet remains an achievable goal, thanks to the advances in wired and wireless communication technologies, micro-mechanics and the ever increasing power and shrinking size of computing devices.