Intelligence@Lab: A smart space for researchers based on sensor networks in pervasive computing environment

With the rapid progress on the Internet Technology, many projects have been proposed in terms of remote education system such as WBT (Web-Based Training) and E-learning. Such systems can help learners for studying by themselves based on their own learning history in a virtual world. However, learners usually spend time in the real world during studying, exercising, and the other activities. It seems the systems do not give enough support to learners in the real world. Ubiquitous technologies make it possible to provide services to learners anytime and anywhere in the real world. It means learners can receive more meticulous, individually-targeted support in ubiquitous environments. In this paper, we propose a ubiquitous environment to support college students, professors, and visitors in a laboratory to encourage positive research activities. Actions of people in the Ubiquitous Laboratory (U-Lab) are individually recorded by sensor networks and analyzed to provide suitable supports. Based on these collected information, U-Lab provides services such as to grasp a precise research progress and share research information among students and professors. We also propose a method to advise students to improve their research activities. As a case study, we implemented a ubiquitous corner (U-Corner) in order to prove our proposal is useful and practical.