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Ubiquitous Computing — The Invisible Assistant
ChelleChelle writes "Rather than focusing so much on an explanation of ubiquitous computing and its history, this article presents an actual experimental system designed to operate within a cell biology lab. The application, known as Labscape, was intended to function as an 'invisible assistant,' using context to organize and record information and predicting what would be needed by the researchers as any point in time. The author nicely sums up the article at the end by providing several important lessons about building proactive applications."
"So honey, this is where I work, and here is the automated assistant bot"
"*beep* Here is some monkey-on-chimp pornography which you appear to read alone every tuesday at 10.00. I hope I was able to assist"
"er..."
Warhammer forums
Such an assistant would recognise you were falling behind on certain projects and proactively send compatible excuses to the project manager, blaming someone else. The advanced version would recognise problems ahead and kick the problem 'upstairs' for resolution, together with a suggested approach that pushes responsibility elsewhere.
It would recognise key phrases in emails from named individuals, 'losing' those which would cause trouble with a bounce message.
It would generate excuses as to why you couldn't attend meetings, workshops or other timewasting activities.
It would automatically blow your own trumpet if you managed to do something useful, simultaneous storing reference away for review time.
from Microsoft's damned paperclip?
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
I tend to be a lazy lab notebook updater, so can certainly see the benefit of something like this. But a system that continuously monitors proximity tags to track your activity sounds like it might make grad school or postdocs even more excruciating than they already are. Nowadays, as long as you get in before or stay later than the PI, you're mostly OK...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
This reply was generated by CoderScape 1.0 software in order to save my user's time:
...
I for one welcome our new "Ubiquitous Computing -- The Invisible Assistant " overlords.
1. Ubiquitous Computing -- The Invisible Assistant
2.
3. Profit
[index unknown? error]st post!!!11
This article is not meant to be a troll so don't mod me down, but I don't agree with Ubiquitous Computing -- The Invisible Assistant because [select from: dupe, FUD, advert, grammar].
I know a song. I'll sing it for you...
[no carrier]
No doubt it will need refinement and customization for individual labs and researchers, but having taken two (comparatively very simple) Chemistry classes in which we kept detailed research notebooks, this would be very handy. If it is to be used for data collection, a closed system that recorded to CDROM or similar write-only media might become acceptable as a replacement for the classical notebook. I had a hard time swallowing the requirement to print out charts and tape them into our notebooks, signing our initials underneath the tape (to validate that the data were original). Something which could automate the process and provide nonrepudiation and confirmation of results would be very welcome.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
This system could be useful in other situations, if everyone involved has full access to the data. The question is whether it'll be used that way, or just as a one-way mirror.
Revive the Constitution.