Accessing information on demand at any location. Mobile information access

Abstract

As users become more dependent on the ability to access information on demand at any location, the span of access of data repositories will have to grow. The increasing social acceptance of the home or any other location as a place of work is a further impetus to the development of mechanisms for mobile information access. These considerations imply that data from shared file systems, relational databases, object-oriented databases, and other repositories must be accessible to programs running on mobile computers. For example, a technician servicing a jet engine on a parked aircraft needs access to engineering details of that model of engine as well as past repair records of that specific engine. Similarly, a businessman who is continuing his work on the train home from Manhattan needs access to his business records. Yet another example involves emergency medical response to a case of poisoning: the responding personnel will need rapid access to medical databases describing poison symptoms and antidotes, as well as access to the specific patient's medical records to determine drug sensitivity. This article is a status report on the work being done toward meeting such challenges. It begins by describing a scenario that offers a tantalizing glimpse of the power of mobile information access. The major obstacles on the path toward this vision are then examined. It also includes a summary of research on overcoming these obstacles in the context of the Coda and Odyssey systems.