Expert Talk: Mark Weiser and Pervasive u0026amp; Ubiquitous computing

In our ongoing research on the internet of things, me and Sander are now writing a piece on a new relationship between humans and technology due to a increase in highly personal and intelligent devices and services. This vision is not as new as it might sound and was actually envisioned in a pretty concrete way by Mark Weiser and others at Xerox PARC where they coined the term pervasive and ubiquitous computing: “Coined by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center’s (PARC) Computer Science Laboratory (CSL), [Ubiquitous Computing] describes a vision of the future. Just as electric motors have disappeared into the background of everyday life, PARC scientists envision a future where mobile computational devices will be similarly transparent. Potentially numbering the 100s per person these devices are nothing like those you use today. They are mobile. They know their location, and they communicate with their environment.” The made a complete movie about ubiquitous computing at Xerox PARC. Here’s one scene from the movie that sets out the idea and how such a environment might work. The rest of the files can be found here.