Design Principles For
Resource Management Systems For Intelligent Spaces -- Abstract
The idea of ubiquitous computing and smart environments is no longer a
dream and has long become a serious area of research and soon this
technology will start entering our every day lives. There are two
major obstacles that prevent this technology from spreading. First,
different smart spaces are equipped with very different kinds of
devices (e.g. a projector vs. a computer monitor, vs. a TV
set). Second, multiple applications running in a space at the same
time inevitably contend for those devices and other scarce
resources. The underlying software in a smart space needs to provide
tools for self-adaptivity in that it shields the rest of the software
from the physical constraints of the space, and that it dynamically
adjusts the allocation of scarce resources as the number and
priorities of active tasks change.
We argue that a resource manager can provide the necessary
functionality. This paper presents a set of guiding principles for
building high-level resource management tools for smart spaces. We present
conclusions we arrived at after two years of exploring the topic in
the Intelligent Room Project at the MIT AI Lab. The paper is based on
a number of implemented and tested tools.
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