Contextual intelligence: PARC segment in Justin Rattner’s research keynote: “Context: How it will really change everything”

Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp) is an interaction paradigm for constructing information technologies embedded throughout our everyday work, home and school environments that are designed to fit into natural practices of humans. The vision was first described by Mark Weiser, then head of the Computer Science Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) in 1988, where Ubicomp technologies and businesses continue to be created. Today, were seeing these ideas achieve commercial success in the form of Location-Based Services for tracking assets like trucks, freight and hospital equipment; finding nearby restaurants, stores and other services; and also just for socializing by finding friends and location-based games. Research has moved beyond context awareness to what PARC is working on today and calls contextual intelligence. Contextually Intelligent systems can do better than just be triggered by current context. They can combine information from calendar, email, location about the current situation along with statistical models of behavior observed in the past to proactively predict future locations, accurately target information to personal preferences, interests and activities; that help people reach each other at convenient times to talk; conserve energy resources; remember meetings and other things we encounter in our lives; and coach us about healthy life choices.