The document discusses the evolution of connected systems from the late 1990s to the present. It describes three phases: 1) Connectedness in the late 90s-early 2000s, driven by ubiquitous connectivity and miniaturization. This enabled omnipresent sensor and actuator systems. 2) Awareness in the early-mid 2000s, with the rise of context-aware, self-aware and autonomic systems able to interpret sensor data and share knowledge. 3) Smartness from the mid 2000s onward, where systems can extract meaning from sensor data and relate it to human cognitive capabilities like intent and experience. This allows for more meaningful interaction within complex systems. The

1. From Awareness to Adaptation
Large Scale Recognition and Opportunistic Configuration
Alois Ferscha
AWARENESS Workshop
Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna
viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna
January 23, 2012
(supported by the EC under the FP7 FET grant AWARENESS)
Univ. Prof. Dr. Alois Ferscha
Universität Linz, Institut für Pervasive Computing
Altenberger Straße 69, A-4040 Linz
ferscha@soft.uni-linz.ac.at

2. Connectedness: Late 90s – Early 2000s
Connecting literally every-“thing” to every-“thing”
driven by the availability of “technology to connect” >> Networks of ICT systems
(Internet, Mobile Data, Wireless Communications)
• clouds of communicating, miniaturized, cheap, fast, powerful, wirelessly
IEEE Pervasive Computing:
connected, “always on” systems (omnipresent / total connectivity)
Weiser’s Vision 20 Years
Later, Vol. 11, No. 1, January-
• enabled by the massive availability of miniaturized computing, storage,
March 2012.
communication, and embedded systems technologies
• sensors collect data, passive interaction with environment; actuators control devices,
can modify environment
• sensor-actuator systems invert role of interaction from human to machine
(implicit interaction)
• special purpose computing and information appliances, spontaneously communicating
• organism like capabilities (self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimizing, self-
protecting)
Weiser, M.: The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American. September, 1991, 94-104.
IEEE Pervasive Computing: Weiser’s Vision 20 Years Later, Vol. 11, No. 1, January-March 2012.
Awareness >> Adaptation // AWARENESS Workshop, Bologna // January 23, 2012 // 2 Alois Ferscha

3. Awareness: Early – Mid 2000s
Aware interaction among every-“thing”s
driven by upcoming context recognition and knowledge processing technologies
>> Ecologies of ICT systems
• situation aware, self-aware, context-aware, energy-aware, etc.
IEEE Pervasive Computing:
• reframing autonomy to be based on “knowledge”, extracted from low level sensor
Weiser’s Vision 20 Years
Later, Vol. 11, No. 1, January-
data captured in a particular situation or over long periods of time
March 2012.
• “autonomic elements” able to capture, interpret, predict, context (from sensors)
• to build up, represent, carry and share knowledge
• to self-describe, -manage, and –organize with respect to the environment
• behaviour >> “knowledge based” monitoring, analyzing, planning and executing
• interaction in spontaneous spatial/temporal contexts, based on proximity, priority,
privileges, capabilities, interests, offerings, environmental conditions, etc.
Schilit, B., Adams, N. and Want, R.: Context-Aware Computing Applications, Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, 1994. WMCSA 1994, Vol.,
No., pp.85-90, 8-9 Dec. 1994.
Dey, A. K.: Understanding and Using Context. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 2001. Vol. 5, No 1, 4-7.
Kephart, J.O. and Chess, D.M.: The vision of autonomic computing, IEEE Computer, Vol. 36, No.1, pp. 41- 50, Jan 2003.
Awareness >> Adaptation // AWARENESS Workshop, Bologna // January 23, 2012 // 3 Alois Ferscha

4. Smartness: Mid 2000s - Present
“Meaningful” interaction of every-“thing”s within a complex system
build upon connectedness and awareness, but give meaning to situations / actions
>> “Smartness”
• use technical sensors (aligned with 5 human senses) for
IEEE Pervasive Computing:
vision, audition, gustation, olfaction, tactition to give meaning to situations
Weiser’s Vision 20 Years
Later, Vol. 11, No. 1, January-
• computational perception > to extract meaning ...
March 2012.
• understanding patterns (activity, mobility, „life style“) > to extract meaning ...
• formalization of human cognitive capabilities: attention, intent, emotions,
experience, ...
• relate meaning to building up belief, acting, expectation, memorizing, learning,
developing behaviour, building up knowledge
Castellani B, Hafferty FW. Sociology and complexity science: A new field of science. New York, NY: Springer; 2009.
Pentland, A.S.: Socially Aware Computation and Communication. IEEE Computer Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2005.
Awareness >> Adaptation // AWARENESS Workshop, Bologna // January 23, 2012 // 4 Alois Ferscha

5. Pervasive Adaptation Research Agenda (www.perada.eu)
Request a Printed Copy: http://www.pervasive.jku.at/rab/order/
See fet11 Presentation Videos: http://www.pervasive.jku.at/fet11
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6. ”Socio-Technical Fabric”
Highly complex, orchestrated, cooperative and coordinated systems
• “Ensembles of Digital Artefacts” (FP7 FET), “the power of crowds”
• Rephrased in Weiser-words: “Pervasive ICT will be weaving social and
technological phenomena into the ‘fabric of everyday life of societies. ”
• "... dynamic network of many … acting in parallel …”
“… constantly acting and reacting to what the other are doing …”
“… where the control tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized …”
“… if there is to be any coherent behavior, it has to arise from competition / cooperation.“
“… overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every
moment by many individuals …" (Castellani, B., Haerty, F.W., 2009).
• deployment of pervasive computing systems at massive scale
poses challenges both in the technological as well as in the societal dimension!
1012 -1013 “things” or “goods” traded in markets
109 humans; 109 nodes on the internet, mobile phones, cars, digital cameras, etc. on planet
107 citizens in megacities, 108 users on Facebook, 108 videos on YouTube, 107 titles on last.fm, ...
A. Ferscha, N. Davies, A. Schmidt, N. Streitz: Pervasive Socio-Technical Fabric. Procedia Computer Science. Elsevier, Vol. 7, pp. 88-91, Dec. 2011.
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7. A Critique on “Non-Social” ICT
“working in the small”, severe deficiencies “in the large”
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8. A Critique on “Non-Social” ICT
“working in the small”, severe deficiencies “in the large”
Personal Communication (email, social network software, …) >> ??
Personal ICT (smartphones, appliances, gadgets, … ) >> ??
Individual Mobility (automotive vehicles, airplanes, public transp., … ) >> ??
Logistics (transportation of goods, energy, … ) >> ??
Mass Media (print, TV, e-paper, digital video, … ) >> ??
Common: None has been designed on “Social Grounds” !
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9. What is Socially „Capable“ ICT?
What are the
Social Capabilities
of your
Car ?
Espresso Machine ?
Shoes ?
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10. What is Socially „Capable“ ICT?
“We need to understand that traffic is not just a line of are the a web of
What cars: It is
connections. A real solution will look at relationships across the entire road
network and all the other systems that are touched by it: our supply chains, our
Social Capabilities
environment, our companies, the way people and communities live and work…“
IBM Global Commuter Pain Study, 2010
of your
“The possibility is quite high, that if a lot of people power off all lights at the same
Car ?
time and back on 5 minutes later, pumped hydro storage wont be enough to
satisfy the enormous spike, resulting in substations taking their last breath.”
Is Brazil’s Mega-Blackout A Harbinger Of Energy Grid Disasters to Come?
Io9-com, 2009
Espresso Machine ?
Mass Panic
Jan 2006, Mekka
Shoes ?
Sep 2005, Bagdad
May 2001, Accra
Apr 2001, Johannesburg
Jun 2000, Roskilde
Dec 1999, Innsbruck
Jul 1990, Mekka
Apr 1989, Sheffield
Duisburg Loveparade, 2010
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11. Socio-Inspired ICT
Context Context
Aware ICT “… is any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An
entity is a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to the interaction
between a user and an application, including the user and application
themselves.” [1]
Seminal work on context modeling, context recognition, context awareness by A. Dey
Socially Social Context
Aware ICT „... is the additional non-verbal information (e.g. signals from the body language,
facial expression, and tone of voice, etc.) transmitted among communicating people,
and which is the main determinant of a successful social interaction and
engagement.” [2]
Seminal work on cognitive and social analysis of human communication by A. Pentland
Socially “ .. all social relations, social interactions and social situations which are directly
Interactive ICT related to or confined to small time-intervals and space-regions around the present
time or present location of a person”. [3]
Socio- Socially Aware Computing
Inspired ICT „... instead of considering each device for itself, look at them as a socially
collaborating collective ...” [4]
[1] Dey, A. K.: Understanding and Using Context. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 2001. Vol. 5, No 1, 4-7.
[2] Pentland, A.: Socially Aware Computation and Communication. IEEE Computer Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2005, 33–40.
[3] Groh, G., et.al.: . Applications for social situation models. In Proc. of the IADIS Int. Conf. on Wireless Applications and Computing. 2010.
[4] Lukowicz, P., Pentland, A. and Ferscha, A..: From Context Awareness to Socially Interactive Computing, IEEE Pervasive, Vol. 11, No 1. 2012.
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12. Socio-Inspired ICT
Understanding the hidden laws and processes of society
Inspire the development of a new wave of robust, trustworthy and
adaptive ICT based on the principles of social interactions.
!
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13. Example Socio-Inspired ICT :: Social Cars (SOCIONICAL)
Sensor/Tactor Seat: Supporting Lane Change Safety by Extending the Perception Range
MAIN ROAD
outermost/upper lane
middle lane
innermost lane
45)
LANE (PM
LOWER ROAD MERGING
innermost lane
middle lane
outermost lane
Sensor/Tactor Seat 1,000m Madrid M30 Motorway
500m
100m
Perception range for early lane changes
M30 Motorway Traffic Patterns Merging Flow Optimization
A. Riener, K. Zia, A. Ferscha, C. Beltran Ruiz, J. Minguez Rubio: AmI technology helps to sustain speed while merging – A data driven simulation study on Madrid
motorway ring M30. 14th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2010), Fairfax, VA USA, IEEE Computer
Society Press, pp. 10, October 2010.

14. Example Socio-Inspired ICT :: Social Sense App (SOCIONICAL)
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15. Example Socio-Inspired ICT :: Social Displays (SAPERE)
Scale m displays : n users
Content
User-profiles
Presentation Service
LSAs Scheduling Service
Steering Service
Destination Field
DIFFUSE
BOND-TARGET
BOND-MATCH
CREATE-STUB
EXPORT-STUB
Eco-Laws MERGE-STUB
EXPORT-SKEL
MERGE-SKEL
SHORTEST
YOUNGEST
Content ! User profile
Scheduling Service ! Content
Scheduling Service ! Pres. Service
Matcher Presentation Service ! Content
Steering Service ! Scheduling Service
Steering Service ! Destination Field
Both public and private displays are SAPERE
nodes that advertise their presence by pumping
a computational field throughout the
Nodes ecosystem. This fields are used by the steering
service for path computation.
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16. Socio-Inspired ICT Research Challenges
Social Values: Novel ICT:
Ethics
Moral Norm
Socio-Inspired ICT Microelectronics
Sensors / Effectors
Smart Material
Social Awareness
Social Behaviour Social Media
Social Interaction Participatory Platforms.
Value Based Design
Cognitive Capabilities Big Data
(Respect, Dignity, Trust) Reality Mining
Recommender Systems
ICT with Social Capabilities ICT w. Cognitive Capabilities
(Needs Fundamental Research)
Formal / (Needs Fundamental Research)
Computational Models
Social Adaptiveness, Self- of Attention, Perception, Meaning
Organization
Cooperation, Competition Belief, Trust
Conflict Resolution “Social Context” Experience
Negotiation, Decision Making Expectation
Reputation “Social Awareness”
“Principles of Social Interaction” Empathy
Collective Awareness Narration
“Social Sense”
Attraction/Repulsion
Flocking/Foraging “Social Norm” Goal Oriented Behavior
Morphogenesis/Chemotaxis
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17. Socio-Inspired ICT Vision
(1) New ICT could contribute to gather (2) New ICT could be designed to gain
direct, accurate and intelligible from “socially inspired” system
information on how an individual architectures and operation principles
experiences social relations
>> foundational character of a >> foundational character of
“Social Sense” “Socially Capable/Adaptive ICT”
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