If the mainframe represents the era of "many people, one computer", and the PC is the era of "one person, one computer", then ubiquitous computing can be thought of as the era of "one person, many computers". Right now, we work in a time where computers are important, but highly demanding of our attention. We require months (or years) or training to use them properly, we tinker with them constantly in order to make them work properly and to get the best performance out of them, and we still think of their use as a separate, distinct task. What will eventually happen is that computers will fade into the background and become invisible, much in the same way that electricity has, or the way that electrical motors have. When a person goes through their typical day, then encounter, literally, dozens of basic uses of electricity: The alarm clock that wakes them up, the light bul

Small chips that are deliberately tilled into the soil on a farm, so that each chip can "report back" about the temperature and humidity at its location.

One of the most interesting ideas in ubiquitous computing is the concept of "smart matter", sometimes known by its more formal name, Microelectromechanical Systems. The idea is nothing less than to make the World itself programmable, so that the fundamental properties of materials, that are usually taken for granted (such as color, shape, elasticity, and texture), can be changed on demand. Matter itself becomes dynamic, such that computing then becomes something that no longer just resides in distinct computing devices, but becomes a permeating part of almost every manufactured products. Such a vision is, of course, far off in the future, but the research for such possibilities is being done today.

There are still components that have not dropped significantly in price as time has gone by. Specifically, standard computer monitors and LCD screens have not dropped enough in price to allow for "throwaway" computer devices. In order for ubiquitous computing devices to have a small enough cost, they will need to be produced in the same volume of scale that, for example, electric motors have. Ubiquitous computing will be feasible onnly when the cost of computing devices has dropped so low that individual computers with display capabilities, can be literally thrown away without the consideration of cost. As a comparison, hand-held calculators were once expensive devices, but are now so inexpensive that they are commonly given away as promotional products.

Even beyond the issue of building a high-bandwidth network that is capable of communicating with the mobile terminals, there are many issues related to the current state of the system. For example, establishing the locations of the mobile terminals, making the best use of the frequencies available, maintaining the quality of service for the network, converting between protocols as necessary, encrypting data as necessary, and eliminating network latency.

One of the requirements needed for ubiquitous computing to become commonplace is enough network bandwidth to allow the hundreds of devices needed to be able to communicate with each other. We are still in the early stages of networking, but as time goes by, more and more of the World's voiced based networks is being replaced by fiber optic and wireless networks. As an example of the network requirements that the World will face, a recent study by MCI estimated that the worldwide amount of data traffic will overtake the amount of existing voice traffic within three years, with the percentage only increasing in the future.

Building materials that are capable of strengthening or weakening their flexability in response to weather conditions.

As an example of the sort of interation made possible by this technology, a reactive environment could record all of the elements of a meeting, so that separate note-taking is no longer necessary. Microphone take care of recording speech, and cameras record the activities in the room, using motion sensors as a guideline on what to record. Our own Classroom 2000 setup is a good example of such an environment. Also, when the activities of the meeting are recorded in realtime, it allows outside users to remotely participate in the meeting.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2885
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)