Pervasive Systems and Ubiquitous Computing

Alessandro GENCO is an Associate Professor at DINFO (Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica - Department of Computer Science and Engineering) at the University of Palermo, Italy Salvatore SORCE (sorce@unipa.it) is a Post-Doc Fellow at DINFO.

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2 Augmented Reality and Virtual World From virtual reality to augmented reality;Virtual reality and virtual world; Augmented reality; AR technologies; HMD (head-mounted display); Optical HMD; Video HMD; RSD (retinal scanning display); HHD (handheld display); SAR (spatially augmented reality); SID (spatially immersive display); Augmented tools; AR and VW projects; MediaCups; ActiveSpaces; Access Grid Chapter 3 Human-computer interaction HCI and ubiquitous computing; Classic HCI; Modern HCI; Implicit and explicit HCI; Implicit and explicit HCI: a comparison; Implicit HCI; What is 'context'? Context representations; Explicit HCI; Adaptive and intelligent HCI technologies and methodologies; Perceptive processing; Limbs' movements; Facial data elaboration; Visual perception; Voice perception; Behavioural processing; Cognitive comprehension; Input/output devices; Input devices; Keyboards; Pointing devices; Cameras; Audio input devices; 3D input devices; Output devices; Visual outputs; Aural outputs; Haptic outputs; Usability; Relevance for ubiquitous computing technologies; Usability issues and technology changes; Portability; Why 'information portability'?; Some issues about portability; Chapter 4 Disappearing hardware Invisibility, a key paradigm for ubiquitous systems; User-centric versus desktop-centric systems; Environment-distributed systems; Evolving hardware; Wireless networks; Bluetooth; IrDA; HomeRF; Wi-Fi; Increasing computing power; Increasing memory capacity; High-resolution displays; Building ubiquitous systems; Infrastructure-based systems; Personal systems; Invisibility: problems and limits; Size and power consumption; Control loss and lack of feedback; Breaking the traditional mental model Chapter 5 Wireless technologies for pervasive systems Wireless data transmission; Bluetooth; Piconets; Establishing a Bluetooth connection; Scatternets; The Bluetooth stack; Bluetooth profiles; Wi-Fi; Technical details; IrDA; HomeRF; Wireless technologies comparison; RFID; Passive tags; Active tags; Readers/writers; RFID systems; RFID for pervasive systems Chapter 6 Positioning in pervasive systems Position detection techniques; Triangulation; Lateration; Angulation; Scene analysis; Proximity; Properties and features of positioning systems; Physical vs. symbolic position; Absolute versus relative position; Accuracy versus precision; The range; Identification; Positioning systems; GPS; Active Bat; RADAR; MotionStar magnetic tracker Chapter 7 Security in ubiquitous computing One single word: Security!; Security in information systems; Transient secure association; Security protocols; Guarantees of a security protocol; Confidentiality; Integrity; Non-repudiatebility; Protocols developed for the security of wireless communications; Encryption with static WEP keys; WEP/EAP authentication; Current status: the WPA, the best solution; Encryption; Terminology; Cryptography algorithms; Private key algorithms; Public key algorithms; The technique adopted in practice; Digital signature; Hashing algorithms; Certification; Conclusions on cryptography; Bluetooth architecture; Security levels; Security manager; Ad Hoc networks; Authentication systems; RADIUS; Configuring the RADIUS; Exchanging messages; Kerberos; Other secure authentication systems; Biometrics: definition and fundamental components; Hardware keys; Smarts cards; Proximity tools; WAP/UMTS communication as a system of authentication; WTLS; Weaknesses and attack methods; Deliberate attacks; Sniffing; Denial of service attack; Distributed denial of service; Sleep deprivation torture; MAC address spoofing; Attacks on Smart Cards; Security on wireless channels; Bluetooth; Eavesdropping and impersonation; Location attacks; WLANs; Breaking WEP keys; AirSnort; WEPCrack Chapter 8 Service discovery Data transmission in ubiquitous systems; Objectives; Model of ubiquitous node server; Disk and server scheduling algorithms; The ADoRe algorithm; The Flush algorithm; The OWeiST algorithm; The RxW/S algorithm; Cache memory in a server node; LF-LRU algorithm; LRU-K algorithm; Considerations on the use of a finite speed transmission channel; Context-awareness; What is context-awareness?; Possible applications