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Now you can turn your palmtop computer into a sophisticated “alarm clock”
that’s triggered by space rather than time. Or so says a team of computer
scientists led by Jason Pascoe at the University of Kent in Canterbury, whose
software links the palmtop to a portable Global Positioning System receiver. It
monitors where you are, and as you approach a familiar place, say home or the
railway station, it will remind you of the note you made the last time you were
there—something which needs to be done at that location such as pruning
the roses or buying a season ticket. The Kent team sees the system as part of a
broader approach to what’s being termed “context-aware computers”. The
technology should become easier to use when palmtops with integral GPS receivers
come on the market.