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Semi-Ah-Moo

University of Washington/Microsoft Research Summer Institute
Technologies of Invisible Computing

 

This week-long institute-which will be held July 19-23, 1999 in the Seattle area-is the fourth in an annual series of summer workshops jointly sponsored by the University of Washington and Microsoft Research. This institute will focus on emerging technologies to enable a new class of information and computing devices that will be highly ubiquitous and highly invisible. The objective of the meeting is to understand the interplay of the various technologies that need to be brought to bear ranging from new user interface paradigms and sensors to network-based services and network infrastructure. The workshop will bring together outstanding researchers and industrial practitioners from these disparate areas. These individuals may rarely meet, if ever, in the usual discipline-oriented forums. It is our hope that this unique collection of people in an inter-disciplinary forum will provide insights into the real-world problems encountered in the design of these types of products.

The workshop will offer an opportunity for focused presentations and intense discussions-in an informal and pleasant setting-about the state-of-the-art in and applicability of integrated sensors, wireless networking, ad hoc networks, web-based services, and data security.

The agenda of the institute will be organized around four major goals:

1. Understanding the types of information that can be integrated to help devices determine user intent rather than rely on explicit commands. This may involve everything from force/motion sensors to network to distributed relational databases.

2. Understanding how different type of wireless technology blend together to provide a rich networking fabric that will support a wide-range of intermittently connected devices with various limitations on their bandwidth and power consumption. Particularly interesting may be how wireless technologies optimized for different ranges and modes of use can be blended together.

3. Determining the changes required to the greater networking infrastructure in terms of both basic protocols as well as the organization of services. Business models are central to this question as they will determine how customers are charged for use and companies make their profits.

4. Developing the new paradigms for the user interfaces of various classes of ubiquitous devices and how their task specificity can lead to streamlined and simplified use. New sensor technologies will be a fundamental part of the discussion in this area.

The program will consist of presentations, panel discussions, breakout group sessions, and side trips in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. The first two days of the meeting will be in Seattle, in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. On Wednesday, we will move to the Inn at Semi-Ah-Moo, a lovely resort near the US-Canada border.