Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic – and particularly, wireless - technologies and the Internet. Pervasive computing devices are not personal computers but very tiny - even invisible - devices, either mobile or embedded in almost any type of object imaginable, including cars, tools, appliances, clothing and various consumer goods – all communicating through increasingly interconnected networks. In the future these smart devices will maintain current information about their locations, the contexts in which they are being used, and relevant data about the users. The goal of researchers is to create a system that is pervasively and unobtrusively embedded in the environment, completely connected, intuitive, effortlessly portable, and constantly available. Among the emerging technologies expected to prevail in the pervasive computing environment of the future are wearable computers, smart homes and smart buildings. Among the myriad of tools expected to support these are: application-specific integrated circuitry (ASIC); speech recognition; gesture recognition; system on a chip (SoC); perceptive interfaces; smart matter; flexible transistors; reconfigurable processors; field programmable logic gates (FPLG); and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS).
Integrating Micro-Photonic Systems and MOEMS into Standard Silicon CMOS Integrated Circuitry
