Enabling ubiquitous applications using existing infrastructure

Abstract

A key factor limiting the wide adoption of ubiquitous computing enabling systems is the need for deployment of expensive sensors and hardware to provide contextual information. These sensors deployments are not commonly used. Moreover extra effort and costs in maintenance is required in these deployments. In this work we explore use of techniques through which to obtain contextual information using existing infrastructure. WiFi networks and hubs have become common in public places, shopping malls, campuses, corporate o ces and other industries. In this work, we try to exploit the presence of these networks to provide location information of a WiFi device. This enables many opportunities and applications. We rst present our system, which collects, stores and exposes this information in real-time. Next we present deployed ubiquitous applications built using this system and also explore potential ubiquitous applications which may be enabled using this system.