Ubiquitous computing in the real world: lessons learnt from large scale RFID deployments

Konomi, S., and Roussos, G. Ubiquitous computing in the real world: lessons learnt from large scale rfid deployments. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (2006).

This article takes part of the train of thoughts on the inherent antagonisms of ubiquitous computing reality and the seamless calm computing vision advocated by some academic research. It does so by examining two fully operational Radio Frequency Identification-based systems: the Oyster card ticketing system used at the London Underground in the UK, and retail applications deployed at the Mitsukoshi departmental stores in Tokyo, Japan. Each case study is analyzed through the terms of technologies, user interactions, and their business and organizational context. As a result, the authors highlight that the real world has concerns that are rarely dealt with in research.

Ubiquitous computing in the real world has concerns that are rarely dealt with in research. Lengthy and costly preparation or upgrade of existing infrastructures; training of employees and users in the new ways of working; controlled introduction of new functionality; features and services to manage risk; unexpected behaviors due to the wider variety of possible real world situations; incremental approach to systems development so as to better identify successful aspects; regard for the economics of systems as a core requirement; and selection of open or closed systems, are all issues that are mostly outside the scope of current ubiquitous computing research, but seem to play a critical role in both case studies we consider here.

As a consequence, so far, the ubicomp of the present is made of isolated islands of functionality rather than a seamlessly connect whole. That brings the authors to define the challenges for ubicomp research around taking into consideration of the constraints of the real world but also in bringing a more user-oriented approach to research practices:

Therein lies the challenge for ubiquitous computing research: how not only to learn about the concerns of those developing systems in the real world but more importantly, how to translate principles, guidelines and models discovered in the context of research into useful tools for building ubiquitous computing systems in the real world. Bringing the two communities closer together and communicating lessons learnt in ubiquitous computing research so as to inform practical system design and development can have profound implications for the success or the failure of the ubiquitous computing vision.

Relation to my thesis: My research on spatial uncertainty revolves around the gap between practice and the state of the art in research. (That is in other words understanding both the concerns of the real world and the expectations of the users to build useful location aware application). This gap is well described by papers such as this one. I also ground my approach on the critique of researchers and technologies that absolve themselves for responsibilities for the present.