Pervasive Computing Has Pervasive Problems

Computerworld - WASHINGTON—The promise of pervasive computing is alluring for Lyle Meier, a systems architect at ChevronTexaco Corp. in San Francisco. Processors are turning up in large numbers in everything from automobiles to aircraft engines. And someday, smart wireless sensors may be widely deployed in oil fields—if wilderness wireless service ever becomes available.

"Oil has an annoying habit," said Meier. "It occurs where there are no people."

Meier's point is indicative of the problems inherent in pervasive computing—the concept of tying together embedded, handheld, desktop and networked systems into a single fabric with ubiquitous reach. Those problems include standards and security issues, interoperability and the lack of IP addresses to handle millions of connected devices.

A federal agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is working to address those problems by developing the standards and measurements needed to stitch together hardware and software components and communications protocols.

NIST is also developing a business case for users to demand pervasive computing systems from vendors.

Last week, NIST held its third pervasive computing conference, this time focusing on health care—a paper-mired industry that NIST officials believe can see substantial business benefits from ubiquitously deployed and connected technology.

"Although the health care industry is one of the major industries in the U.S., it has been one of the slowest to embrace information technologies," said NIST Director Arden Bement.

Indeed, NIST officials stress that broad use of electronic records and wireless networking could reduce health care's administrative cost. But the lack of standards is a tremendous hurdle.

For example, health care workers are beginning to use personal digital assistants (PDA) to access and log information as they move from patient to patient, but XML support isn't available on all PDAs. The manufacturers need to be aware of the standards needed, and the standards have to be fine-tuned for portable devices, according to Mark Skall, chief of the software diagnostics and conformance testing division of the NIST.

Another problem is developing applications that can automatically adapt to different networking environments with different bandwidths, said Mike Wehrs, director of technology and standards, Mobility Planning Group, at Microsoft Corp.

Health Care Uses

In health care, pervasive computing could make it possible to create a single electronic patient record that physicians could access regardless of what device they use, said Dixie Baker, vice president for technology at Science Applications International Corp., a systems integration firm in San Diego.

But many health care systems are proprietary and stymie interoperability.

"Anything NIST can do that can crack that conundrum can help," said Jeff Sutherland, chief technology officer at PatientKeeper Inc., a health care systems developer in Brighton, Mass.