Intel lab pushes 'ubiquitous computing'

Sensor technologies will play a central role in the future of computing, if the projects under way at Intel Research's Seattle lab are an accurate indication.

That means a robot that can detect if a water bottle is full, a mobile phone that knows if you're sticking to your exercise routine and a hand-held computer with an on-screen map that changes orientation depending on which direction you're facing.

It also means knowing whether your grandpa in another town took his daily pills -- without actually having to ask.

Those were among the projects on display Wednesday during an event at the company's Seattle research lab. The 20-person facility has close ties to the University of Washington. The lab's current director is David Wetherall, a UW computer science associate professor, and many UW students work and intern there.

The lab focuses on "ubiquitous computing," the idea of further incorporating devices and software into everyday life.

In many cases, the Intel researchers have found, that requires technologies for sensing motion, elevation, direction, proximity and other elements of the physical and natural world.

"As devices get smaller and more personal, and you take them with you, it's increasingly important that they're context aware -- that they actually know where you are, who you are and what you're doing in order to enhance the computing experience," said Anthony LaMarca, the associate director of the lab. "This context really comes primarily from sensing."

The lab focuses primarily on technologies years away from commercial release. In other words, don't look for this stuff in the electronics store next month. But these were among the projects shown during the event.

A project called Technology for Long-Term Care, using motion-sensing devices and radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology to detect which objects someone picks up or touches throughout the day -- such as a toothbrush, pill bottle or refrigerator door. The data are collected, transmitted over the Internet and presented on a screen to give relatives of elderly people -- with their permission -- a sense for how and what they are doing.

The project is scheduled for a three-month test with 20 elderly people in the Seattle area starting next month, in conjunction with a variety of health care companies and programs. It's the most mature of the research projects in Intel's Seattle lab.

A robotic arm that uses electric fields to sense three different water bottles and determine which one is empty. It's part of a broader effort by Intel Research to develop a robot that can recognize and retrieve specific objects in the home.

A mobile-phone application called UbiFit Garden, which works in conjunction with a wearable sensing device to determine how much a person is exercising. Different flowers appear on the cell phone background depending on the types of exercise the person has accomplished. A butterfly shows up when weekly goals are met.

A hand-held computer that uses sensors including a three-dimensional compass, an accelerometer and a gyroscope. One application is an adaptation of the Google Earth mapping program that changes orientation as the person holding the device faces different directions.

That means someone standing on a street corner could look at a building and then look down at the computer to see a virtual version of it -- complete with any related information that might be overlaid on the screen.