Ubicom applications and technologies

The motivation for working up this report was to provide the parties involved or interested in Ubicom activities with information about opportunities and enablers in the area, and to contribute Tekes in defining research topics for the current and future research programs dealing with Ubicom. The main approach in the report is from the application system viewpoint. The main emphasis of the technical enablers is in short-range wireless communication technologies. The report deals with the evolution and different approaches to the Ubicom concept around the world, possible application areas and scenarios with general requirements concerning them, key technical enablers with an estimation of their applicability and development during the next few years, aspects for the planning and evaluation of the business models of application systems, and recommendations for the future research activities and leading commercial applications. The main suggestions of this report for the Ubicom research are: The research should be interdisciplanary, that is, it should combine human sciences, usability studies, business and economic research as well as legislation and ethical issues with the technology research, which is the basic enabler of the advancements in this area. Furthermore, both the application and the technology viewpoints must be combined. The core technology research should address short-range wireless communication, middleware, reasoning and smart algorithms, usability issues, as well as sensors and actuator technologies.