Abstract - Technical Program - ES 99
Discourse with Disposable Computers: How and Why You Will Talk to Your Tomatoes
David Arnold, Bill Segall, Julian Boot, Andy Bond, Melfyn Lloyd, and Simon Kaplan, Distributed Systems Technology Centre
Abstract
Beyond ubiquitous computing, is the advent of disposable
computing, occurring when the price of an embedded computer
becomes insignificant compared to the cost of goods. Current software
and network architectures and their associated programming paradigms
will not scale to this new world. The necessity of catering for the
constant change in number and type of devices of interest to a user,
as well as their sheer quantity, dictates new approaches to
construction of software systems based on more flexible models.
We propose that distributed event notification forms a fundamental
requirement for systems of this scale, and discuss the advantages of
undirected communication over current interaction models. Our
experience with Elvin, a prototype notification system motivates the
discussion and serves as illustration of its possibilities.
|