Beyond Desktop Management: Scaling Task Management in Space and Time

Abstract

Computers support more and more daily activities for common users, and users increasingly take their activities to different locations. Rather than being bound to a specific device, users would like to take full advantage of the computer systems accessible to them, much like they take advantage of the furniture in each physical space. However, user attention takes a heavy toll when scaling the use of computers to tasks that are constantly interrupted and resumed, and that span many locations and long periods. In this report we describe an infrastructure that provides users with easy access to their tasks as a logical unit, across multiple devices, and over time spans of years. The infrastructure handles platform and application heterogeneity, as well as dynamic adaptation to resource variations. We validate that the infrastructure's overhead is small compared to normal application startup, and that the approach scales.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA457874

Entities

People

  • David Garlan
  • Joao P. Sousa

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Application Software
  • Authentication
  • Automated Speech Recognition
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Control Knobs
  • Directories
  • Infrastructure
  • Mobile Devices
  • Operating Systems
  • Recognition
  • Reliability
  • Software Design
  • Ubiquitous Computing
  • Web Browsers

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space