ere is a chart, taken from the web, illustrating a timeline for the three fundamental approaches to computing (Mainframe, Personal, and Ubiquitous):
             This is a quick overview of a few examples of where the state of ubiquitous computing is today, and where it is headed.
             A good example of the current research in ubiquitous computing is InfoPad, a project to allow realtime access of multimedia data through the use of inexpensive, portable devices, where the data is access over high-speed networks. An ideal use of this kind of technology would be within a building, thus allowing users to share information and data without the need for desktop computers. This technology would allow applications such as realtime playback of video and audio files (despite the fact that the data was not currently in the hand-held device), realtime collaboration on projects, and realtime sharing of database data, scheduling, and other types of information. This is being conducted as an ongoing research project by the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments at Berkeley.
             In order for the project to achieve its goals, it is performing research in the following areas:
             The primary issues for the mobile terminals is how to keep the create a device with a good display quality and responsiveness to user input, even while keeping the costs of the device low. Another issue is how to make sure the terminals have low power requirements, even when being used in a high-bandwidth network environment.
             Even beyond the issue of building a high-bandwidth network that is capable of communicating with the mobile terminals, there are many issues related to the current state of the system. For example, establishing the locations of the mobile terminals, making the best use of the frequencies available, maintaining the quality of service for the network, converting between protocols as necessary, encrypting data as necessary, and eliminating network latenc...