New directions for pervasive computing in logistics

This paper investigates the new trends in the field of "pervasive" or "ubiquitous" computing in logistics. Over the past two decades, research challenges in pervasive computing have evolved following the rapid progress of information and communication technology. Researchers are working to create an "Internet of Things" that globally interconnects smart devices and sensor networks. Technologies such as wireless communication, ubiquitous sensors, and passive or semi-passive RFID, are essential to monitor the transport chain. "Pervasive adaptation" is a new research challenge that has been recently introduced to describe system's ability to autonomously recognize the situation and adapt to situational changes. For example, it is expected that intelligent parcels that can observe and evaluate current environmental conditions including traffic information, velocity, new orders, temperature, or storage conditions, and decide adaptations such as changing transport route or destination and swapping vehicle. In order modern ubiquitous computing devices to become fully functional they need to overcome compatibility and security problems; these issues as well as potential solutions are explored in this paper. On the other hand, as new technology such as Ultra High Frequency RFID becomes more mature, it is launching into ubiquitous status in commerce and society. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of The 2nd International Conference on Integrated Information.