Ubiquitous recommendation systems

In many popular visions of ubiquitous computing, the environment proactively responds to individuals who inhabit the space. For example, a display magically presents a personalized advertisement, the most relevant video feed, or the desired page from a secret government document. Such capability requires more than an abundance of networked displays, devices, and sensors; it relies implicitly on recommendation systems that either directly serve the end user or provide critical services to some other application. As recommendation systems evolve to exploit new advances in ubiquitous computing technology, researchers and practitioners from technical and social science disciplines must collaborate to address the challenges to their effective implementation. Although it may be impossible to perfectly anticipate each individual's needs at any place or time, ubiquitous computing will enable such systems to help people cope with an expanding array of choices.