Abstract—Invention of wheel was perhaps the most significant invention in the evolution of mankind. From the earliest carts to the present day automobiles, industry has witnessed dramatic changes and innovations. But even today, automobiles are equipped with mechanical, electrical and electronic devices that are not smart enough to take decisions on behalf of the user. The way mobile computing devices and applications are developed, deployed and used in automobiles today falls short of the potential for pervasive computing. This paper attempts to build a model of an automobile that uses pervasive computing to maximize user convenience and safety. The concept used is that of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). The major concern in a VANET is to provide reliable and efficient packet delivery mechanism taking into consideration the limited battery back-up of the mobile devices and also the available bandwidth. Moreover, data communication between vehicular mobile devices can minimize head-on collisions by proper auto-break mechanism implementation using Ultra Sound Generators and sensors. The implementation issues are also addressed in this paper. Ultimately, this paper presents ideas that could make driving simpler and safer as compared to the present day.

Index Terms—Pervasive Computing, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Mobile Computing, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), User System Interaction (USI), Sonar Vision, Ultra Sound Generator(USG)

Sini Shibu and Sanjeev Jain are with the Department Computer Science and Engineering Lakshmi Narain College of Technology Bhopal, India

Cite: Sini Shibu and Sanjeev Jain, "Pervasive Computing for Automobiles: An Approach to Maximize User Convenience and Safety Using VANETs," International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 1053-1058, 2010.