"Inspired by the social scientists, philosophers, and anthropologists at PARC, we have been trying to take a radical look at what computing and networking ought to be like. We believe that people live through their practices and tacit knowledge so that the most powerful things are those that are effectively invisible in use. This is a challenge that affects all of computer science. Our preliminary approach: Activate the world. Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office, of all scales (from 1" displays to wall sized). This has required new work in operating systems, user interfaces, networks, wireless, displays, and many other areas. We call our work "ubiquitous computing". This is different from PDAs, dynabooks, or information at your fingertips. It is invisible, everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any sort, but is in the woodwork everywhere."
(M. Weiser 1988[15]) (our emphasis)

Another related characterization can be found in another quote from Mark Weiser [14]:
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."

Ubiquitous or pervasive computing assumes there will be large numbers of 'invisible' small computers embedded into the environment and interacting with mobile users. Users will experience this world through a wide variety of devices, some they will wear (e.g., medical monitoring systems), some they will carry (e.g., personal communicators that integrate mobile phones and PDAs), some that are implanted in the vehicles they use (e.g., car information systems), and some that are integrated in the architectural environment and furniture (e.g., interactive walls and tables) This heterogeneous collection of devices will interact with intelligent sensors and actuators embedded in our homes, offices, transportation systems to form a mobile ubiquitous computing environment which aids normal activities related to work, education, entertainment or healthcare. There is a need for wireless communication to support mobile interaction but the environment will also provide access to wired backbone networks connected to the internet.

Although these intelligent communicators will be far more sophisticated than current mobile phones, they will always have limited storage, processing, display capabilities and battery power compared to fixed PCs. Thus, there is a need to adapt information and applications so that they are compatible with the limited capabilities of the devices but also to provide information or adapt services that are relevant to the current context of the user. Sensors in the environment, possibly in collaboration with personal devices, would determine user's current activity - driving a car, walking down a street, in the cinema, in a meeting, running for a bus, about to watch television. The ubiquitous computing environment would thus support users in common day-to-day activities by adjusting lights, switching on the television for favourite programmes, record the programme when unable to watch it, monitor health and alert emergency services in case of problems, warn drivers about potential component failures in their car etc [1]. It is time to address this multitude of perspectives and their relationships and the challenges of a resulting convergent research domain.

Participation in this workshop was by invitation only. The workshop was attended by a total of 21 international researchers and key actors from both Europe and the US. One important result of this workshop will be a scientific report identifying research challenges in the domain. Each participant at the workshop will be required to produce a position paper on a selected topic, which will be the basis of the discussions held at the workshop. The target date for publicaiton of this report is 30th September 2004.