"...a must-read text that provides a historical lens to see how ubicomp has matured into a multidisciplinary endeavor. It will be an essential reference to researchers and those who want to learn more about this evolving field." -From the Foreword, Professor Gregory D. Abowd, Georgia Institute of Technology First introduced two decades ago, the term ubiquitous computing is now part of the common vernacular. Ubicomp, as it is commonly called, has grown not just quickly but broadly so as to encompass a wealth of concepts and technology that serves any number of purposes across all of human endeavor. While such growth is positive, the newest generation of ubicomp practitioners and researchers, isolated to specific tasks, are in danger of losing their sense of history and the broader perspective that has been so essential to the field’s creativity and brilliance. Under the guidance of John Krumm, an original ubicomp pioneer, Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals brings together eleven ubiquitous computing trailblazers who each report on his or her area of expertise. Starting with a historical introduction, the book moves on to summarize a number of self-contained topics. Taking a decidedly human perspective, the book includes discussion on how to observe people in their natural environments and evaluate the critical points where ubiquitous computing technologies can improve their lives. Among a range of topics this book examines: How to build an infrastructure that supports ubiquitous computing applications Privacy protection in systems that connect personal devices and personal information Moving from the graphical to the ubiquitous computing user interface Techniques that are revolutionizing the way we determine a person’s location and understand other sensor measurements While we needn’t become expert in every sub-discipline of ubicomp, it is necessary that we appreciate all the perspectives that make up the field and understand how our work can influence and be influenced by those perspectives. This is important, if we are to encourage future generations to be as successfully innovative as the field’s originators.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2007. It covers all current issues in ubiquitous, pervasive and handheld computing systems and their applications, including tools and techniques for designing, implementing, and evaluating ubiquitous computing systems; mobile, wireless, and ad hoc networking infrastructures for ubiquitous computing; privacy, security, and trust in ubiquitous and pervasive systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2004, held in Nottingham, UK in September 2004. The 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 145 submissions. The papers address all current issues in ubiquitous computing ranging from algorithmic and systems design and analysis issues to applications in various contexts.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, PERVASIVE 2008, held in Sydney, Australia, in May 2008. The 18 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers are organized in topical sections on sensing and activity recognition, applications for mobile devices, location in pervasive systems, platforms for pervasive computing, lessons learned from displays, games and health applications, as well as privacy and security.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, PERVASIVE 2007, held in Toronto, Canada in May 2007. The 21 revised full papers are organized in topical sections on reaching out, context and its application, security and privacy, understanding use, sensing, as well as finding and positioning.

Clemens Holzmann investigates the role of spatial contexts for autonomous embedded systems. The author presents concepts for recognizing, representing, and reasoning about qualitative spatial relations and their changes over time, as well as an appropriate architecture which has prototypically been implemented in a flexible software framework. His results show that the proposed concepts are suitable for developing spatially aware applications and that qualitatively abstracted relations can constitute an adequate basis for this purpose.

As communication and leadership skills are both essential for personal and organizational success, new approaches and management styles are continuously being sought. Emerging technologies, automation opportunities, and a diverse workforce are just a few of the challenges business professionals must be prepared for in today’s workplace environment. The Handbook of Research on Strategic Communication, Leadership, and Conflict Management in Modern Organizations provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of managing and solving conflicts, and introduces updated approaches for refining communication and leadership skills. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as emotional intelligence, organizational crises, and virtual team management, this book is ideally designed for professionals, leaders, managers, and human resource specialists seeking current research on developing the skills and consciousness needed to effectively communicate, negotiate, and collaborate in diverse organizations.

As information systems become ever more pervasive in an increasing number of fields and professions, workers in healthcare and medicine must take into consideration new advances in technologies and infrastructure that will better enable them to treat their patients and serve their communities. Healthcare Administration: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications brings together recent research and case studies in the medical field to explore topics such as hospital management, delivery of patient care, and telemedicine, among others. With a focus on some of the most groundbreaking new developments as well as future trends and critical concerns, this three-volume reference source will be a significant tool for medical practitioners, hospital managers, IT administrators, and others actively engaged in the healthcare field.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 5th International Conference, CPC 2010, held in Hualien, Taiwan in May 2010. The 67 full papers are carefully selected from 184 submissions and focus on topics such as cloud and Grid computing, peer-to-peer and pervasive computing, sensor and moile networks, service-oriented computing, resource management and scheduling, Grid and pervasive applications, semantic Grid and ontologies, mobile commerce and services.

A foreword for the present workshop proceedings cannot be provided without first looking at the larger context of the AMI conference in which the workshops were organized. The AMI 2007 conference has roots in preceding events, but in many respects, AMI can be called a novel conference format and hence a premiere. Among the several aims that inspired and shaped this new conference format, the following two are particularly worth considering: (1) to provide a forum for the ambient intel- gence flavor of research on the Post-PC era of computer science, complementing the ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing flavors emphasized by alrea- existing conferences; (2) to offer an event that attracts contributions from all over the globe yet emphasizes European strengths – with particular reference to the Infor- tion Society Technologies (IST) branch of the EU research framework programs (FPs), which carry the same label as the conference. The workshop organization chairs reflected these unique characteristics of the new AMI conference series in the call for workshop proposals using two corresponding measures: (1) by particularly soliciting workshops on in-depth topics corresponding to the above-mentioned ambient intelligence flavor of Post-PC research; (2) by offering two different workshop threads: one ‘usual’ thread for advanced topics (called “SW workshops”) and one thread for workshops related to concrete EU FP6 and FP7 p- jects (called “EU workshops”).