Ubiquitous Computing

         The Ubiquitous Computing group had their presentation during class and a lot of new information was shared with us. They started by explaining that ubiquitous computing is about interconnected processors everywhere around us. My understanding is that it’s the connection of technology. But this was only half of the definition. They explained that the human element is very important, because we found the way to bridge the digital world to the physical world. “Information technology that will have a presence n different contexts, have multiple form and it will affect everyone.” They gave us this quote, saying that to find Ubiquitous Computing we don’t have to specifically look for it, because we can find it everywhere. A great example of this is the Apple products, because the Apple watch is connected to the iPhone, which is connected to the MacBook and so on. My favorite part of the presentation were the examples, because I was not sure about the definition of the topic, so the examples made it very clear. One of them was about a solar panel build in the roofs, and I don’t think I would ever think of that as Ubiquitous Computing, but in fact, almost everything surrounding us can be included in this topic.

They talked about examples of positives and in my opinion those are the ones driving the progress in technology. But it’s much more than what we can imagine. Medical, healthcare, educational help, are just examples of other positives. Ubiquitous Computing also helps collaboration in long distances, and also helps organization and management of time. But as everything, it has negative effects too. We rely on devices much more than what we should, virus and hacking can create multiple issues on personal or society level. They also reminded us of things that can sound “part of the future” but in fact are already happening. Now we talk to machines, like Siri, and we can communicate and interact with them as real people.

They showed a video that amazed me, where the future reality was presented, and in fact, some companies had mentioned that this is what it is going to be in five or ten years. My opinion is that, if the positives are going to increase this much, then the negatives are going too, and that is something to be concerned about. “Biohacking” is the term that scared me the most, because people are already planting technological devices in their bodies, and that is way past the limits of technology, because, in my opinion, is not natural anymore.