Designing a ubiquitous computing development kit

In this paper the development of ubiquitous computing applications is investigated, from initial micro-controller based prototypes to application specific FPGA based systems. The aim of this work is to add additional capabilities to every-day objects, allowing them to sense their environment and interact with the people and objects within it, to enhance their existing functionality. To achieve this we have developed a micro-controller based, ubiquitous computing development kit (UcDK), allowing researchers to rapidly construct and evaluate different ubiquitous computing applications. In addition to this, we are developing component technologies for future pervasive computing environments. This has lead to the construction of an application specific processor and other IP cores to meet these needs.