Special issue on computer and information technology in pervasive environments

Citation

Wei, D. (2007), "Special issue on computer and information technology in pervasive environments", International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, Vol. 3 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpcc.2007.36103baa.001

Special issue on computer and information technology in pervasive environments

Daming Wei Graduated from Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China 1970. He received the M. Eng. degree in Computer Engineering from Shanghai Institute of Technology (Shanghai University) in 1981, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China 1985. He was a deputy director of the Biomedical Engineering Section in Zhejiang University before joined Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1986. Since then, he has been with industry and universities in Japan. He is currently professor at faculty of Computer Science and Engineering and director of Information Systems and Technology Center (ISTC), University of Aizu, Japan. He served as Director of Software Department and Chair of Graduate Department of Information system in the past years. Professor Wei is well known for research and development of state-of-the-art computer heart model and simulation of electrocardiogram. Recent directions in his group include biomedical modeling and computer simulation, information technology in biomedicine. He serves as a council member of the International Society of Bioelectromagnetism, and an editor of the International Journal of Bioelectromegnetism. He is a council member of Japan Biomedical Engineering Society Tohoku Branch. He is founder and co-chair of IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (IEEE CIT). He is leader of several large-scale research projects supported by Central or prefecture government funds focused on information technology on healthcare. He is a guest professor at several universities in Japan and China.

Special issue on computer and information technology in pervasive environments

With the emergence and convergence of advanced network technologies and electronic devices, the trend from personal computer computing towards pervasive computing is continuing. Pervasive computing devices are either mobile or embedded in any type of object through interconnected networks. Pervasive computing environments are characterized as dynamic, mobile, reconfigurable, and personalized because the pervasive applications should be aware of variation of location, time, device, and user.

Developing the dynamics and context-awareness of services and applications is extremely complex and heterogeneous since current computing, networking, and information technology are far from providing a perfect solution to any user at any time, any location on any device. CIT'05, the fifth International Conference on Computer and Information Technology, provides a premier venue to bring together researchers working in all foundational and applied research areas of pervasive and ubiquitous computing. This special issue on computer and information technology in pervasive environments contains extended versions of papers selected after a second round review from the CIT'05.

It is more challenging to develop resource management methods for mobile ad hoc networks compared with the infrastructure networks since the mobile hosts are connected by wireless network with a frequently changing topology. Shi et al. proposes a novel resource management strategy in their paper, which can be used in many current routing protocols. The QoS issue is also considered for resource discovery algorithm and broadcasting method.

To use services from other devices, a mobile device must be able to comprehend their descriptions. Ontologies can aid in this comprehension, but ontologies designed independently for each device would have heterogeneous semantics. Huang et al. present an automated schema-based approach to align the ontologies from interacting devices as a basis for mobile service invocation. When the ontologies are ambiguous about the services provided, it introduces compatibility vectors as a means of maintaining ontology quality and deciding which service to choose to reduce the ambiguity.

Lu et al. present a so-called WonGoo system, which provides strong anonymity and high efficiency with layered encryption and random forwarding. This paper focuses on measuring the performance of WonGoo system, and the results shows that WonGoo can protect against (n1) attack and provide variable anonymity, as well as how confident the collaborators can be that their immediate predecessor is in fact the path initiator.

The paper by Shi et al. proposes a new approach for integrated business-process-driven modeling and implementation for service-oriented enterprise applications. There are three phases in this approach: business environment modeling, business process modeling, and compiling. The approach is implemented on the open platform Eclipse V3.1 so that it can be integrated with other

SOA tools to provide a total solution for building enterprise applications.

The paper by Tay et al. demonstrates an integrated distributed computing platform, Java distributed code generating and computing (JDGC), which allows standard, single machine-oriented Java programs to be transparently executed in a distributed system. The functions of JDGC include distributed code generation, host recruitment, code distribution, runtime monitoring and control, and error recovering. The architecture of JDGC is fully decentralized in that every participating host is identical in function.

Lv et al. propose a new technique called k-PCA (principal component analysis) and applies it to image compression. k-PCA is a combination of vector quantization and PCA. Although a k-PCA encoder is more complex than a single PCA encoder, the compression ratio can be much higher.

As the guest editor-in-chief, I would like to thank the editorial board for their supporting this special issue, as well as the CIT. I appreciate contributions of all reviewers for their excellent work in reviewing the submitted papers. I wish this issue helpful and valuable for all readers.

Congratulations to all authors in this issue!

Daming WeiUniversity of Aizu, Japan

Guest referees

Phillip G. Bradford, University of Alabama, USAChin-Chen Chang, Feng Chia University, TaiwanXiaoyan Hong, University of Alabama, USAChun-Hsi Huang, University of Connecticut, USAHai Jin, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, ChinaQun Jin, Waseda University, JapanMengchi Liu, Carleton University, CanadaBhanu Prasad, Florida A&M University, USAHui Wang, University of Aizu, JapanYan Wang, Macquarie University, AustraliaHaibin Zhu, Nipissing University, CanadaYing Zhu, Georgia State University, USA