Madrid Technical University makes computers omnipresent

Researchers at four European universities are collaborating to develop software that will help encourage the take-up of so called pervasive computing.

The team from the Madrid Technical University, Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf, Roskilde University in Denmark and University of Bristol are now seeking for about half a million euros from the private sector to make the technology more widely available.

The idea is to develop software that is easy to programme and can run on the limited hardware and power resources of pervasive computing devices - computers are integrated in everyday objects and environments.

The 3.5 year project has resulted in an open-source programming, analysis and optimisation toolkit for pervasive computing systems using Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) languages.

Before this project the use of high-level CLP languages, which simplifies programming and makes software more portable across different platforms, had not been considered a feasible solution for pervasive systems. This is because the convenience they provide to programmers comes at a cost: the code is generally less efficient and more resource-hungry, according to Germán Puebla from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the coordinator of the project.

As a result researchers have traditionally used low-level languages such as C, which tend to be more efficient in terms of how they use computing resources, but also are more complicated to code and require programmes to be rewritten for different hardware platforms.

Of its nature, pervasive computing requires many different distributed platforms to communicate. This means the software needs to be interoperable, but, because of the limited processing and power resources of pervasive devices, most of which are battery operated, the software must also be as efficient as possible. The toolkit offers a solution by using the high-level declarative language Ciao in a way that is optimised to reduce resource consumption.

“If you really want embedded systems with intelligence they need to have reason capability,” explained Puebla. “For example if you want to go around with a PDA that actually helps you make decisions it is very useful to use language like a high level logic.
It could be used for desktop computers, or small devices. Basically the technology is a development environment that allows more complicated programming of all different kinds of computers, for example, wearable computers.”

There are many potential applications for pervasive computers. In industry, pervasive systems that monitor hazardous materials or the protective clothing of workers would improve safety and security. In healthcare, ubiquitous devices could keep check on patients' health remotely. And in the home, tiny computers embedded in everyday appliances could turn on the heating, dim the lights or even let you know when you are running low on milk.

“We will be looking for some funding to push this technology into production. If we have full-time team to work on this maybe it would take one to two years to achieve that,” said Puebla. “It would also be good to have companies involved. They would provide us more case studies and give us some inputs from potential from users”