Traditional frameworks for ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing aim at supporting the highly dynamic computing environment where mobile and stationary devices connect and coordinate with means to do so seamlessly and automatically. This is fine in many situations, but if the user is unable to understand and control the system(s) problematic scenarios are likely to occur. That is why we claim that systems should support palpability: We do not want to make the computer ``invisible'', unless we are also able to make it visible if the need for inspecting it arises.
The PalCom Toolbox is a framework for developing computing applications supporting palpability. The PalCom Java packages allow the application developer to address support for palpability in the application in various ways, such as:
The PalCom toolbox contains PalCom services and PalCom Components to help developers build palpable applications, but it does not ensure this goal on its own. Palpability happens in use of systems allowing the user to obtain understanding and control of the system. Therefore, we find it important for future developers of palpable computing not only to get acquainted to the open source toolbox described as presented via the Java packages, but also to the theoretical, methodological and conceptual foundations of palpable computing described elsewhere.
For more information on the PalCom project and Palpable Computing, please see: