Orwellian Ubiquitous Computing May Build Ultimate Surveillance Society*

Old-Thinker News | May 26, 2008

By Daniel Taylor

"...just by walking down the street you could be subject to a personal
biometric system, you could be scanned by the gateway of the transit
system, there could be something embedded in the street or in the
flooring beneath you... you could be touching other tangible interfaces
in the environment around you... the lamp posts and the other features
of the streetscape could have informational services... and last but not
least there's the surveillance element, there's a UAV, a robotic
helicopter which is also surveying the cityscape and communicating with
all of these devices... This is really what I mean by a transformation
of the relationship between user and device. This person is not a user
anymore in any real sense of the English world, they are a subject."

It may seem like a vision of a distant science fiction world, but this
scenario laid out by Adam Greenfield, author of "Everyware: The Dawning
Age of Ubiquitous Computing", could be just around the corner. In fact,
at this very moment in South Korea an entire city, a "U-city", is being
built that utilizes ubiquitous technology. It had it's first test run in
March of last year. Several other countries are currently planning, or
are currently building cities modeled around South Korea's U-city.

What exactly is Ubiquitous Computing?

An "Everyware" world, as Adam Greenfield calls it, is a world in which
computers are embedded and merged seamlessly everywhere in the
environment. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags communicate
their position and other information constantly in a vast network.
Everyday objects become "searchable" as if they were part of the
interconnected world wide web. Surveillance in an "Everyware" world is
perfected to a degree that is unimaginable. Scientific management of
people and the environment we inhabit becomes possible, and marketers'
ultimate dreams come true.

Watch this clip as Adam Greenfield explains ubiquitous computing (skip
ahead to 1:30 to hear his explanation)

As computer chips become smaller and their processing power increases
exponentially, ubiquitous computing has become a practical reality. As
Wired News reports, ubiquitous systems are to be rolled out in New York
City next year,

"The Architectural League of New York invites architects, artists,
designers, technologists, engineers, urbanists, or teams thereof, to
submit qualifications for an exhibition that will critically explore the
evolving relationship between ubiquitous/pervasive computing and urban
architecture.

The League will commission five to seven teams to develop urban
interventions–to be installed in and around New York City in spring
2009–that will imagine alternative trajectories for how various mobile,
embedded, networked, and distributed forms of media, information and
communication systems might inform the architecture of urban space
and/or influence our behavior within it."

Consumer convenience is a central selling point for ubiquitous computing
technology. The well established consumer base for mobile devices was
discussed at the March 2008 International Conference on the Internet of
Things in Zurich, Switzerland (sponsored by Google, IBM and others) as
serving as a means of acclimating individuals to the presence and use of
ubiquitous technology. Possible marketing plans were discussed to
introduce "self scanning" through the use of mobile devices to "scan"
physical products and browse the items on digital mobile screens in a
manner similar to internet shopping. Andreas Schaller, a senior engineer
for Motorola, presented information to the Zurich conference. Schaller's
presentation is outlined in the conference proceedings,

"The next step is to Internetenable physical objects — connecting people
with things and even things with things. The Internet of Things will
enable connectivity not just between people and their computing devices,
but between actual, everyday things. By enabling connectivity for
virtually any physical object that can potentially offer a message, the
Internet of Things will affect every aspect of life and business in ways
that used to be the realm of fantasy — or even beyond fantasy.

To ensure a fast adoption rate it is necessary to start with low hanging
fruit technologies like barcode scanning by camera, which will become a
“free” feature for mobile devices morphing into high end camera phones."

Ubiquitous Surveillance

On top of the consumer layer of ubiquitous computing - which will likely
be its most visible and emphasized aspect - sits the incredible
surveillance capability of this technology. With video surveillance
cameras protruding from every building it isn't very hard to figure out
that you are being watched, but with the internet of things the
surveillance grid is merged seamlessly and invisibly into the entire
environment. In an internet of things, every object, as well as people
who are wearing RFID tagged clothes or are using electronic devices,
would be "readable" by a computer or wireless network. The object's (or
person's) details, exact location and other information could be
obtained electronically by invisible sensors in sidewalks, roads, or
doorways.

In a document dated February 2000, Hewlett Packard's Internet and Mobile
Systems Laboratory announced that, "We want to make people, places, and
things web-present." The document details the infrastructure of the
"internet of things",

"The convergence of Web technology, wireless networks and portable
client devices provide new opportunities for computer communications
systems designs. At HP Labs we have been exploring these opportunities
through an infrastructure to support “web presence” for people, places
and things. Our goal is a bridge between the World Wide Web and the
physical world we inhabit. This bridge includes the ability to interact
with devices such as printers from a browser using standard HTTP
communication. It also includes the ability to provide people, places
and things – electronic or otherwise – with a web resource that is used
to store information about them and which is automatically correlated
with their physical presence. We aim to provide users, particularly
mobile users, with support for their everyday activities, which mostly
concern physical objects other than PC’s." [emphasis added]

Marketers also see the rise of ubiquitous computing as opening the
doorway to scientifically crafted advertising. Web history is already
used to target computer users with ads based on their browsing behavior,
and it is quite easy to see how that model could be applied to the
"internet of things". Google is currently developing ad technology which
uses your computer's microphone to listen to key words being spoken by
you or your nearby television which triggers relevant ads on your
computer screen. Mobile devices are already being tracked and monitored
through stores and other public places in the U.K. for marketing
purposes. According to the report,

"Foot traffic monitoring firm Path Intelligence, based in the city, is
testing patent-pending surveillance technology that continuously tracks
mobile phone signals to understand the movement of shoppers as they flow
through retail centres or public amenities.

Through this technique, it is possible to gather data on how many people
are in a store at a specific time, how many customers visit specific
stores, and how shoppers group stores together. In addition, the firm
says that the system can also help organisations optimize the layout of
their space and improve their retail tenancy mix."

South Korea's U-City: A Model of the Future?

South Korea is at the forefront in implementing ubiquitous technology.
An entire city, New Songdo, is being built in South Korea that fully
utilizes the technology. Ubiquitous computing proponents in the United
States admit that while a large portion of the technology is being
developed in the U.S., it is being tested in South Korea where there are
less traditional, ethical and social blockades to prevent its acceptance
and use. As the New York Times reports,

"Imagine public recycling bins that use radio-frequency identification
technology to credit recyclers every time they toss in a bottle;
pressure-sensitive floors in the homes of older people that can detect
the impact of a fall and immediately contact help; cellphones that store
health records and can be used to pay for prescriptions.

These are among the services dreamed up by industrial-design students at
California State University, Long Beach, for possible use in New Songdo
City, a large "ubiquitous city" being built in South Korea.

Much of this technology was developed in U.S. research labs, but there
are fewer social and regulatory obstacles to implementing them in
Korea," said Mr. Townsend [a research director at the Institute for the
Future in Palo Alto, California], who consulted on Seoul's own U-city
plan, known as Digital Media City. "There is an historical expectation
of less privacy. Korea is willing to put off the hard questions to take
the early lead and set standards." [emphasis added]

A smaller U-city in South Korea, Hwaseong Dongtan, has already been
partially completed and tested. A promotional video for the Hwaseong
Dongtan U-City can be seen here. The heavily invested in U-City model of
South Korea is currently being exported worldwide.

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, Bill Gates' Microsoft
Corporation is involved with the technological development of South
Korea's U-Cities. A Microsoft press release on May 9th of this year
reported that,

"Microsoft Corp. will play a key role in creating a ubiquitous computing
environment for future citizens and businesses of Songdo International
Business District (IBD). The city of the future is currently under
construction in Incheon just 40 miles southwest of Seoul, South Korea.
Songdo will be the first “new” city in the world designed and planned as
an international business district."

What will happen to traditional notions of privacy in an "Everyware"
world? Could individuals and dissidents potentially be electronically
blacklisted and denied access to cashless payment systems and transit
systems as if they were a banned web page in the "internet of things"?
It remains to be seen whether the ubiquitous computing infrastructure
can be fully realized, but it is a technological trend with vastly
important implications that is worth keeping an eye on.