An Open Architecture for Palpable Computing Some Thoughts on Object Technology, Palpable Computing, and Architectures for Ambient Computing

Ambient intelligence and ambient computing is concerned with providing people with information, means of communication, and entertainment at any time and at any place. This vision is implemented by distributed populations of devices capable of adapting their characteristics according to the extant and anticipated needs of users. Palpable Computing (PalCom) complements and extends the tenets of ambient computing by focusing on the user experience through control, understandability, de-construction of systems and variable visibility of underlying computational process. This paper first presents an Open Architecture proposed to support the challenges and requirements of palpable computing infrastructures. It then moves on to discuss the implications of PalCom to object technology.