Research themes
Mobile and ubiquitous computing
Work in this area includes research into
- Infrastructures and middleware for mobile computing
- Mobile and ubiquitous computing applications
- Sensor and position technologies for ubiquitous and pervasive systems
Infrastructures and middleware for mobile computing
Mobile computing research focuses on the development of advanced mobile applications and their supporting infrastructure such as Mobile Ipv6. Such applications typically involve peer-to- peer and group communication of distributed multimedia and time/safety critical information and make significant demands on their communication subsystems, stretching many wireless networks to their limits. Lancaster is now widely recognised as the UK's premier centre for mobile computing research and much of the pioneering research into adaptive, context-aware systems that can react to changes in their communications environment has been conducted at Lancaster. We have developed adaptive systems to support the utilities industries, the emergency services and, most recently, tourists to the city of Lancaster.
Mobile and ubiquitous computing applications
Work on ubiquitous computing brings together this expertise in mobile computing with advanced interaction technologies and the Lancaster group is one of the world’s leading ubicom research groups. Projects in the ubiquitous computing area are concerned with issues such as systems that adapt to their environment, the wireless technologies required for ubiquitous computing, awareness systems, innovative computing devices where computers are embedded in everyday artefacts and public interaction with dynamic, wall-sized displays.
Sensor and positioning technologies for ubiquitous and pervasive systems
Current projects in mobile and ubiquitous computing include Equator, an inter-disciplinary research collaboration with 7 other institutions that is investigating the merging of the digital and physical worlds, projects concerned with middleware support for mobility and digital devices such as PDAs, wearable computing projects and several projects concerned with using positioning technologies and advances sensors to infer user actions and the context of operation of the system.