Ubiquitous Sensing: A Prerequisite for Mobile Information Services

Abstract. Fundamental to the attainment of the ubiquitous computing vision is the capture, interpretation and intelligent use of diverse sensed data. This data may be dispersed throughout the environment, conform to different standards and, crucially, may be compromised in its availability and accuracy. Thus, obtaining a picture of the prevailing situation, or context, at a given time may prove problematic. To address this problem, the ubiquitous sensing concept is reconsidered. In particular, the potential of intelligent agents as an enabling technology for realizing distributed effective ubiquitous sensing applications is examined