Roy Want

E-mail: roywant AT acm. org, roywant AT google.com
Google Inc., Mail-Stop: US-MTV-CL4
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
INDEX PAGE

CV
Last Updated: January, 2026
Click here for a printable version

Research Interests

Mobile & ubiquitous computing, location & context systems, indoor positioning and navigation, electronic tagging (RFID/NFC/BLE), hardware design, electronic commerce, smart cards, distributed systems, multimedia systems, cellular automata, novel user interfaces, MEMS.

Professional Awards

ACM SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contribution Award (OCA) 2019 - "For Hardware and Software Contributions to the Conception and Practice of Context-Aware Mobile Computing"
ACM SIGMOBILE: Test-of-Time Award for "The Active Badge Location System" (June 2016)
ACM Ubicomp 2012: Ten-year Impact Award: "The Personal Server: Changing the Way We Think about Ubiquitous Computing." Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Gunner Danneels, Muthu Kumar, Murali Sundar, John Light, Ubicomp 2002
ACM Fellow 2005 - "Contributions to Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing"
IEEE Fellow 2005 - "Contributions to Ubiquitous Computing"
National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Lillian Gilbreth Lectureship, Lecture on the "Personal Server (Intel Research), Washington DC, Oct 12th, 2003.

Education

Ph.D. Cambridge University UK, Churchill College, Computer Science, Advisor: Roger Needham, 1983-88
- Thesis title: "Reliable Management of Voice in a Distributed System"
BA hons. Cambridge University UK, Churchill College, Natural Science/Computer Science, Tutor: Frank King, 1980-83
- Dissertation title: "A Local Area Network (LAN) based on the Domestic Mains Supply"
High School: William Ellis Grammar School, London UK, 1972-79

Experience

Google Inc (2011-Present)
- Principal Scientist: Google Research and Android Location & Context Team
Intel Corporation (2000-2011)
- Senior Principal Engineer (SPE) 2008-2011
  -Assoc. Director: ILSC (2009-10) & Director (NPL) 2010-11
- Principal Engineer (PE) 2000-2007
Xerox - Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Computer Science Laboratory (CSL). 1991 - 2001
(reporting to Mark Weiser, Laboratory Manager for CSL and later CTO )
- Principal Scientist 2000-2001
- Area Manager for Embedded Systems Area 1998-1999
- Area Manager for Hardware Systems Area 1992-1997
- Member of Research Staff II 1991-1992.
Olivetti Research Ltd (ORL) 1988-1991, member of research staff, Cambridge, UK
(reporting to lab director, Dr. Andy Hopper)
Cambridge University - Research Assistant 1987-1988
IBM Zurich (internship) summer 1986 (supervisor Dr. Robin Williamson)
Cambridge University PhD program 1983-88 (advisor Prof. Roger Needham)
Notting Dale Technology Center, development engineer, London, UK Summers 1981-83
(reporting to Anthony Hoskyns)
Cambridge University BA degree 1980-83 (Director of Studies Dr. Frank King)
Notting Dale Microprocessor Training Centre, instructor, London 1980 (reporting to John Severn)

Skill Set

Vision & Technical Leadership
Standards Development
- Indoor Positioning: WiFi 802.11az, and 802.11bk
System Design
- Mobile and Wireless Systems - (e.g. Positioning and Navigation, Eddystone, DCC, Personal Server, ParcTab, Minder and Hikari Projects)
- Automatic identification and location (e.g. BLE Beacons, Active Badge, RFID/NFC)
- Multimedia Networking- (e.g. Pandora Audio, Island PABX)
- Network Reliability - (e.g. Island Project)
Management
- Project management: various assignments (25 years)
- General management of a research area (budgets, appraisals, reports, presentations) (20 years)
Presentations: at various levels (key customers, senior management, invited speaker, conference keynote, locknote, etc.)
Patents: 35 years of experience filing over 110 patents
Embedded System Skills
- System Level and Firmware
- Analog design, digital design, signal processing
- CAD: Cadence(various) Allegro, Viewlogic, Futurenet, Orcad, Hypersignal
- (RT)OS: ATI Nucleus, Windriver Vxworks, Unix, Tripos, Mayflower
- Processors: main experience with ATMEL AVR32, XScale PXA271&255& SA1110, 68000, 68010, Dragonball 68EZ328, 68EN302, Transputer T4/8, 8051, 87524, 6502, 6809
- Programmable devices and gate-arrays: HDLs (HCPL, Verilog and PALASM), PLDs and FPGAs
- Low-power systems
Languages: Java, C, Python, Concurrent CLU, Occam, LISP, Postscript, TCL, awk, various shells, BCPL, Algols (various), Fortran, COBOL
MEMS: L-Edit, Memcad
Industrial Design
- Mold design, plastic materials: Urethane, ABS
- Collaborations with Sonos Models, Lunar, PrototypesPlus, Royston Models

Projects (Click Here for Photo Archive that involve prototype devices)

Indoor Position/Location based on Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT) for Android (802.11mc and 802.11az/bk protocols)
Bluetooth LE Beacons and the Physical Web
Interactive Digital Signage
Multi-device frameworks for mobile computing and computer infrastructure
Dynamic Composable Computing (DCC)
Mobile Always-on Sensor Hub
The Personal Server model for mobile computing
Hikari (Japanese: light)- a true palm computer with physical and gestural user interface
Micro-webservers and applications
Optical tagging using spatial multiplexing
Bridging real and virtual worlds with electronic tags
Novel displays using MEMS pixels
Smart matter control using cellular automata
AudioAura: using location to provide serendipitous information through wireless communication
PDR - Manipulative User Interfaces
The Minder system (Xerox PARC)
Microtransactions and ecommerce (Xerox PARC)
The Xerox PARCTab system (Xerox PARC) and the Ubiquitous Computing Program at PARC
The Active Badge location system (Olivetti Research Ltd) - Product literature (click here)
Automating the telephone from the desktop PC
Pandora: a multimedia distributed terminal - audio interface (Olivetti Research Ltd))
ISLAND: an Integrated Services Local Area Network Development (Cambridge University)
Hardware support for OSI protocols (IBM Zurich)
A local area network based on the domestic mains supply (Cambridge University)
ISIS: a computer controlled interface for experimenting with the physical world (NDTC) [70]

Publications

IEEE 802.11 Standards

IEEE 802.11bk (320MHz Positioning) "IEEE Standard for Information Technology--Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems - Local and Metropolitan Area Networks--Specific Requirements - Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications Amendment 3: 320MHz Positioning", published 5th September, 2025 (Technical Editor)

IEEE 802.11az (Next Generation Positioning (NGP)), "IEEE Standard for Information Technology--Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems Local and Metropolitan Area Networks--Specific Requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications Amendment 4: Enhancements for Positioning", published 3rd March 2023, (Technical Editor)

Conferences

"Wi-Fi One-Sided RTT for Precise Indoor Localization", Ali A. Abdallah, Roy Want, Etienne Le Grand, Google, September 8-12, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Maryland, ION GNSS+, 2025.
"Multi-User Operation in mmWave Wireless Networks" IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Kyoto, Japan 5-9th June 2011. DOI/10.1109/icc.2011.5903192. PDF
"Directional CSMA/CA Protocol with Spatial Resue for mmWave Wireless Networks", Gong, M.X. Akhmetov, D. Want, R. Mao, S., IEEE GLOBECOM 2010, 6-10 December, Miami Florida, DOI/10.1109/GLOCOM.2010.5684226. PDF

CSMA/CA MAC Protocol for Multi-User MIMO Wireless LANsIEEE GLOBECOM 2010, Miami, Florida, 6-10th December, 2010, DOI: 10.1109/GLOCOM.2010.5684351. PDF

"What Do You Bring To the Table? Investigations of a Collaborative Workspace", Trevor Pering, Kent Lyons, Roy Want, Mary Murphy-Hoye,(Intel), Mark Baloga, Paul Noll, Joe Branc, Nicolas De Benoist, (Steelcase), ACM Ubicomp 2010, 26-29^th September, Copenhagen, Denmark. PDF

"Training Protocols for Multi-user Wireless LANs", IEEE PIMRC 2010, Michelle Gong, Eldad Perahia, Roy Want and Shiwen Mao, September 2010. Istanbul, Turkey, 26-29th September 2010.PDF

"Multi-Display Composition: Supporting Display Sharing of Collocated Mobile Devices", Kent Lyons, Trevor Pering, Shivani Sud, Barbara Rosario and Roy Want, Interact'09, Uppsala Sweden, August 24th 2009 PDF

"Context-Aware Composition", HotMobile-2009, Kent Lyons, Roy Want, David Munday, Jia Jia Sheng, Shivani Sud, Barbara Rosario & Trevor Pering, ACM Hotmobile 2009, Santa Cruz, CA, Feb, 2009 PDF

"Enabling Pervasive Collaboration with Platform Composition", Pervasive'09, Trevor Pering, Kent Lyons, Shivani Sud, Barbara Rosario, & Roy Want, Nara, Japan, May 2009 PDF

"SwitchR: Managing Low-Power Wireless Connections in a Multi-Radio Environment", Yuvraj Agarwal, Trevor Pering, Rajesh Gupta and Roy Want; IEEE ISWC'08, 1st Oct 2008 PDF

"Enhancing Web Browsing Security on Public Terminals using Mobile Composition", Richard Sharp, Anil Madhavapeddy, Roy Want, and Trevor Pering; Proc. ACM MobiSys 2008. Breacon Ridge Colorado. PDF

"Dynamic Composable Computing", Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Shivani Sud, and Barbara Rosario. ACM HotMobile 2008, February 2008 Napa Valley, California. PDF

"Musicology: Bringing Personal Music into Shared Spaces", Trevor Pering, Kristen Vadas, Lamar Gardere, Evan Welbourne and Roy Want, Mobiquitous 2007 Conference, Philadelphia, Canada. PDF

"The PSI Board: Realizing a Phone-Centric Body Sensor Network", Trevor Pering, Pei Zhang, Rohit Chaudhri, Yaw Anokawa, and Roy Want, Body Sensor Networks (BSN) 2007, March 26-28, 2007, Aachen, Germany. PDF

"Gesture Connect: Facilitating Tangible Interaction With a Flick of the Wrist", Trevor Pering, Yaw Anokawa, and Roy Want, Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI) 2007, February, 15-17th, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. PDF

"CoolSpots: Reducing the Power Consumption of Wireless Mobile Devices Using Multiple Radio Interfaces", Trevor Pering, Yuvraj Agarwal, Rajesh Gupta and Roy Want, Proc. ACM MobiSys 2006, Uppsala, Sweden June 19th, 2006, pp220-232. PDF

"Face-to-Face Media Sharing Using Wireless Mobile Devices", Trevor Pering, David H. Nguyen, John Light and Roy Want. IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia, December 2005. PDF

"Experimental Study on the Effects of Human and Electronic-Mechanical Interaction on RF Signal Strength for a Personal Server", Michael Montero, Trevor Pering, Umair Udaud, Paul Wright and Roy Want, Proc. of InterPACK'05, San Francisco, California. July 17-22^nd, 2005. PDF

"System Challenges for Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing". Want, R. & Pering, T., 18th May 2005, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) 2005, pp9-14, St. Louis, MO. PDF

"Exploiting radio hierarchies for power-efficient wireless discovery and connection setup", Pering, T.; Raghunathan, V.; Want, R. In Proc. of the 18^th International Conference on VLSI Design; January 2005. PDF

"Experience with a low-power wireless mobile computing platform", V. Raghunathan, T. Pering, R. Want, A. Nguyen, and P. Jensen, Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED) 2004, Newport Beach, CA, pp363-368, August 9-11, 2004. PDF

"New Horizons for Mobile Computing", Roy Want and Trevor Pering, PerCom'03, First IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication. Dallas--Fort Worth, Texas 23-26^th March 2003, IEEE Computer Society, pp3-8. PDF

"Tilttype: Accelerometer-Supported Text Entry for Very Small Devices", Kurt Partridge, Saurav Chatterjee, Vibha Sazawal, Gaetano Borriello and Roy Want. Proceedings of the 15th annual ACM symposium on. User interface software and technology (UIST), ISBN 1-58113-488-6, Nov. 2002, pp201-204, Paris, France PDF

"The Personal Server: changing the way we think about ubiquitous computing", Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Gunner Danneels, Muthu Kumar, Murali Sundar and John Light. Proceedings of Ubicomp 2002: 4th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Springer LNCS 2498, Goteborg, Sweden, Sept 30th-Oct 2nd, 2002, pp194-209. PDF

"The Unigesture Approach: One Handed Text Entry for Mobile Devices ", Vibha Sazawal, Roy Want and Gaetano Borriello, Proceedings of Mobile HCI 2002, Pisa, Italy 18-20 September 2002 PDF

"Making Everyday Life Easier Using Dense Sensor Networks", Steven Conner, Lakshman Krishnamurthy and Roy Want, Proceedings of ACM Ubicomp, Atlanta Georgia, Oct 2001. PDF

"Implementing Phicons: Combining Computer Vision with InfraRed Technology for Interactive Physical Icons", Darnell J. Moore, Roy Want et al. Proceedings of ACM UIST'99, Ashville, N.C., November 8th-10th 1999. pp67-68. PDF

"Bridging Real and Virtual Worlds with Electronic Tags", Roy Want, Ken Fishkin, Beverly Harrison, Anuj Gujar. Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI. May 1999, Pittsburgh, pp370-377 (supporting video available). PDF

"Squeeze Me, Hold Me, Tilt Me! An Exploration of Manipulative User Interfaces". Beverly L. Harrison, Kenneth P. Fishkin, Anuj Gujar, Carlos Mochon, and Roy Want - ACM SIGCHI '98, Los Angeles, CA, April 1998 (supporting video available). PDF

"Designing Audio Aura". Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Maribeth Back, Roy Want, Michael Baer and Jason Ellis. Published in the Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI'98, Los Angeles, CA, April 1998 PDF

"An Infrared Network for Mobile Computers", Norman Adams, Rich Gold, Bill Schilit, Mike Tso and Roy Want. Usenix Symposium on Mobile Computing, April 93 Boston. PDF

"The LAN as an Integrated Communications Environment", Roy Want & Andy Hopper, Proceedings of Networks '89, (9th event) Birmingham, UK, May 1989. PDF

"Protocols for Real Time Voice Communication on a Packet Local Network", Stephen Ades, Roy Want, Roger Calnan. Proceedings of IEEE ICC86 Conf. Toronto, Canada. PDF

Journals & Periodicals

"How to achieve 1-meter accuracy in Android", Frank Van Diggelen, Roy Want and Wei Wang, June 3rd, 2018, Vol.29(7), GPS World.
"Bluetooth Low Energy in Dense IoT Environments", Albert F. Harris III; Vansh Khanna; Guliz Tunca ; Roy Want ; Robin Kravets; IEEE Communications Magazine, Volume: 54, Issue: 12, December 2016 , pp 30-36; DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2016.1600546CM. PDF
"Enabling the Internet-of-Things", R. Want, B. N. Schilit, and Scott Jenson, IEEE Computer, Jan 2015, Vol 48. No. 1, pp28-35. PDF
"Ensemble Computing: Opportunities and Challenges", R. Want, E. Schooler, L. Jelinke, J. Jung, D. Dahle, U. Sengupta. Intel Technology Journal (ITJ), October 2010. PDF
"Rapid Wireless Service Composition using Layer-2 Discovery". Shivani Sud, Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Barbara Rosario, and Kent Lyons. IEEE Network Magazine July-Aug 2008, Special Issue on Composition. PDF
"An Introduction to RFID Technology", Roy Want. IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 5, Number 1. pp25-33, Jan-Mar 2006. PDF
"Spontaneous marriages of mobile devices and interactive spaces", Trevor Pering, Raffael Ballagas, and Roy Want, Communications of the ACM, Volume 48 , Issue 9, (Sep. 2005), pp 53 - 59, Special Issue: "RFID - tagging the world". PDF
"The Magic of RFID", Roy Want, ACM Queue Magazine, pp41-48, Vol 2, No.7 Oct 2004. PDF
"RFID: The Key to Automating Everything", Roy Want, Scientific American, Jan 2004, pp56-65 PDF
"Comparing Autonomic and Proactive Computing", Roy Want, Trevor Pering, and David Tennenhouse, IBM Systems Journal Vol. 42 No.1, Jan. 2003. PDF
"Photographic Authentication for Untrusted Terminals", Trevor Pering, Murali Sundar, John Light and Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing, March 2003, Vol 2, No 1, pp30-36 PDF
"Disappearing Hardware", Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Gaetano Borriello & Keith Farkas. IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 1. Issue #1, April 2002 pp36-47 PDF
"Survey on Information Appliances", Roy Want & Gaetano Borriello, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, May/June 2000, pp24-31. Vol 20, No. 3, pp21-23. PDF
"Embedded Computation Meets the World-Wide-Web", Gaetano Borriello and Roy Want, Communications of the ACM, May 2000, Vol. 43 No.5. pp59-66. PDF
"Ubiquitous Electronic Tagging", IEEE Distributed Systems Online, September 2000, Vol. 1, No.2, Roy Want and Dan M. Russell [online link]. PDF
"Embodied User Interfaces for Really Direct Manipulation", Communications of the ACM, Sept. 2000, Vol.43 No.9, pp75-80, Ken Fishkin, Anuj Gujar, Beverly Harrison, Tom Moran and Roy Want. PDF
"An Overview of the Parctab Ubiquitous Computing Experiment", IEEE Personal Communications, December 1995, Vol 2. No.6, pp28-43 Roy Want, Bill Schilit, Norman Adams, Rich Gold, David Goldberg, Karin. Petersen, John Ellis, Mark Weiser. PDF
"Active Badges and Personal Interactive Computing Objects", Roy Want and Andy Hopper. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics. Vol 38. No.1, Feb 92. pp10-20. PDF
"The Active Badge Location System", Roy Want, Andy Hopper, Veronica Falcao & Jon Gibbons, ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems (TOIS) Vol. 10. N0. 1, Jan 1992 Pages 91-102 PDF

Book, Book Chapters & Published Reports

"An Introduction to Ubiquitous Computing" by Roy Want, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis group publishing. Chapter 1 of Book " Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals". ISBN 978-1420093605
"RFID Explained: A primer on Radio Frequency Identification Technologies", Morgan & Claypool Publishers, Synthesis Lectures on Mobile and Pervasive Computing, 15 Oct 2006, [paperback, p1-100], ISBN: 1598291084
"Privacy, Security and Trust Issues Raised by the Personal Server Concept", John Light, Trevor Pering, Murali Sundar and Roy Want pp49-59 in "Privacy, Security and Trust within the Context of Pervasive Computing", 2005, Springer ISBN 0-387-23461-6.
"Pervasive Computing: Third International Conference, PERVASIVE 2005", Munich, Germany, May 8-13, 2005, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science) by Hans W. Gellersen (Editor), Roy Want (Editor), Albrecht Schmidt,. Springer; 1st edition (June 23, 2005), ISBN 978-3540260080
"ACM MobiSys 2004: Proceedings of 2^nd Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services", Editors Roy Want and Doug Terry. Boston, Massachusetts, June 6-9, 2004. ISBN:1-58113-793-1
"SpotON: An Indoor 3D Location Sensing Technology Based on RF Signal Strength", Jeffrey Hightower, Roy Want, and Gaetano Borriello, UW CSE 00-02-02, University of Washington, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Seattle, WA, Feb. 2000. PDF
"The Parctab Ubiquitous Computing Experiment", Roy Want, Bill Schilit, Norman Adams, Rich Gold, David Goldberg, Karin Petersen, John Ellis, Mark Weiser. " Mobile Computing" , Kluwer Publishing, Edited by Tomasz Imielinski, Book Chapter 2, pp 45-101, ISBN 0-7923-9697-9, February 1997. Also available as Xerox B&W, March 1995 P95-00050. PDF
"Reliable Management of Voice in a Distributed System", Roy Want, thesis and Tech. Report #141, 1988. Available through the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Bookshop, UK

Articles & Editorials

"Pervasive Computing at the Edge". Paramvir Victor Bahl, Ramon Caceres, Nigel Davies, and Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Volume 19, Issue 4, Oct.-Dec. 2020, pp 8-9, DOI: 10.1109/MPRV.2020.3032205.
"Accurate Indoor Location for the IoT", Roy Want, Wei Wang, Stan Chesnutt, IEEE Computer, August 2018, pp. 66-70. PDF via Xplore
"How to achieve 1-meter accuracy in Android", Frank van Diggelen, Roy Want and Wei Wang, GPS World, July 2018. [online link]
"Multidevice Interaction", Guest Editor Introduction, Roy Want, Trevor Pering and Yuvraj Agarwal, IEEE Computer, December 2016, pp16-20; PDF
"Activating the Internet of Things", Guest Editor Introduction, Roy Want & Schahram Dustdar, IEEE Computer, Vol 48, No. 9., pp17-20, Sept 2015. PDF
"The Power of Smartphones", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 13-03 (2014), pp. 76-79. PDF
"Bluetooth LE Finds its Niche", Roy Want, Bill Schilit, Dominik Laskowski, IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 12-04 (2013), pp. 12-16. PDF
"Interactive Digital Signage", IEEE Computer, May 2012, Guest Editor Introduction, Roy Want and Bill Schilit, Vol. 45, No. 5. pp21-24. PDF
"Argos: Building a Web-Centric Application Platform on Top of Android", Rich Gossweiler, Colin McDonough, James Lin, and Roy Want; IEEE Pervasive Computing, Smart Phone Dept, Vol. 10, No. 4, Oct-Dec 2011, pp10-14. PDF
"Near Field Communication (NFC)", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Smart Phone Dept, Vol. 10, No. 3, Jul-Sep 2011, pp4-7. PDF

"iPhone: Smarter than the Average Phone", IEEE Pervasive Computing, Smart Phone Dept, Vol. 9, Jul-Sep, 2010, pp6-9. PDF
"Summary of ISWC 2008", Roy Want, Kent Lyons, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 8, Number 1, Jan-Feb, 2009 PDF
"RFID Technology and Applications", IEEE Pervasive Computing, Guest Editors' Introduction, Badri Nath, Franklin Reynolds & Roy Want, pp22-24, Vol. 5 No1. Jan-Mar 2006. PDF
"Creating and Protecting Digital Worlds". IEEE Computer, Bill Schilit and Roy Want, pp119-121, February 2005. PDF
"Energy Harvesting and Conservation", IEEE Pervasive Computing, Guest Editors' Introduction, Roy Want, Keith I. Farkas, and Chandra Narayamaswami, pp14-17, Jan -- Mar 2005. PDF
"Personal Server: A Radical Computer Design Supporting the Digital Media Revolution", Roy Want and Trevor Pering, Fibre Optic Product News, p10-12, Aug 2004. PDF
"Enabling Ubiquitous Sensing with RFID", Roy Want, IEEE Computer, Apr 2004, Vol 37. No.4. pp84-86 PDF
"Wearable Computing for the Masses", Appliance Design Issue #2 - special issue on wearable appliances, July 2002, pp10-13. PDF
"Expanding the Horizons of Location-Aware Computing", Guest editors' Introduction, Roy Want & Bill Schilit, IEEE Computer, August 2001, pp31-34 PDF
"Information Appliances", Guest editor's Introduction, Roy Want & Gaetano Borriello. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications CG&A, May/June 2000, Vol 20, No. 3, pp21-23. PDF
"Remembering Mark Weiser", IEEE Personal Communication Systems (PCS), February 2000. pp8-10, Roy Want PDF
"The Habits of Highly Successful Portable Document Readers", Roy Want and Beverly L. Harrison, IEEE Computer, January, 1999 pp.70 PDF
"Audio Aura: lightweight Audio Augmented Reality". Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Maribeth Back, Roy Want & Ron Frederick. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Palo Alto, CA, November 1997, pp105-107, html. PDF

Workshop Papers (published)

"Beacon Trains: Blazing a Trail Through Dense BLE Environments"; Robin Kravets, Albert F Harris, II, Roy Want; ACM CHANTS'16, Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM Workshop on Challenged Networks, New York, NY, USA; 3^rd October, 2016; pp 69-74; PDF
"Building an On-ramp for the Internet of Things", S. Jenson, R. Want, B. N. Schilit, R Kravets, IoT-Sys workshop at ACM MobiSys'15 in Proceedings, May 19th-22nd 2015, Florence, Italy. PDF
"The Smart Phone and New Opportunities for Near Field Communication (NFC)", Roy Want IEEE HPCA-18, SoC Hetrogeneous Architectures and Workloads (SHAW-3), 26^th February 2012, New Orleans, Lousiana. PDF
"Smart Phones: Devices, Accelerators and Applications", Roy Want HPCA-16, SoC Accelerators Workshop (SAW), 10th January 2010, Bangalore, India PDF
"The Personal Server: Personal Content for Situated Displays" Trevor Pering, John Light, Murali Sundar, Gillian Hayes, Vijay Raghunathan, Eric Pattison and Roy Want. p97-99, Adjunct Proceedings Ubicomp 2003, Oct 12-15, 2003, Seattle Washington, USA. XPS
"Activating Everyday Objects", Roy Want, Mark Weiser, Beth Mynatt. July 30th & 31st 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 DARPA/NIST Smart Spaces Workshop", NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland, pp7-140 to 7-143. PDF
"Context-Aware Computing Applications", Bill Schilit, Norman Adams, Roy Want, 1^st Annual Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (WMCSA) , Dec 1994, Santa Cruz PDF
"The ParcTab Mobile Computing System", Fourth Workshop on Workstation Operating Systems (WWOS), October 14-15, 1993, Napa California, Bill Schilit, Norman Adams, Rich Gold, Michael M. Tso and Roy Want. PDF

EIC Introductions (IEEE Pervasive Computing)

"So Long and Thanks for all the Fish", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 8, Number 4, Oct-Dec, 2009, pp2-3 PDF
"Through Tinted Eyeglasses", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 8, Number 3, Jul-Sep, 2009, pp2-3 PDF
"When Cell Phones Become Computers", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 8, Number 2, Apr-Jun, 2009, pp2-3 PDF
"How Green is Green?", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 8, Number 1, Jan-Mar, 2009, pp2-3 PDF
"My Digital Shoebox", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 7, Number 4, Oct-Dec, 2008, pp2-3 PDF
"The Seeds of Inspiration", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 7, Number 3, Jul-Sep, 2008, pp2-3 PDF
"You are your Cell Phone", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 7, Number 2, Apr-Jun, 2008, pp4-6 PDF
"The Bionic Man", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 7, Number 1, Jan-Mar, 2008, pp4-6 PDF
"You're not Paranoid; they really are watching you", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 6, Number 4, Oct-Dec, 2007, pp4-6 PDF
"Carry Small, Live Large", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 6, Number 3, Jul-Sep, 2007, pp4-5 PDF
"Sensor Driven Computing Comes of Age", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 6, Number 2, Apr-Jun, 2007, pp4-5 PDF
"People First, Computers Second", IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 6, Number 1, Jan-Mar, 2007, pp4-5 PDF
"Are we there yet?", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 5, Number 4, Oct-Dec, 2006, pp4-5 PDF
"Build what you use", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 5, Number 3, Jul-Sep, 2006, pp4-5 PDF
"Global Perspectives", Roy Want, IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 5, Number 2, Apr-Jun, 2006, pp4-5 PDF
"Grasping the Torch", Roy Want., IEEE Pervasive Computing Vol. 5, Number 1, Jan-Mar, 2006, pp4-6 PDF

For selected publications referencing my work (click here)

Presentations

Invited Speaker, Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC), "Wi-Fi Precise Indoor Positioning in Support of Emergency Services", Highland Village, Texas, USA, April 10th, 2025.
Keynote Speaker, IPIN'25: "The Golden Age of Indoor Positioning", Hong Kong, China, October 2025
Keynote Speaker, ACM HotMobile'24: "Revolutionizing Indoor Location", San Diego, USA, Feb 2024
Invited Panelist: Marconi Society's "Decade of Digital Inclusion" Symposium. The panel, titled "An Internet Built for Personal Safety and Security: Who is Responsible and How Do We Do It?," November 2nd 2022.
Keynote speaker, "Smart Things Know Where They Are", 15th IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC), Guangzhou, China, October 8th-12th 2018.
Invited Speaker, 11th IEEE International Symposium on Service-Oriented System Engineering (SOSE 2017). "Making the Internet of Things Great Again", April 7^th 2017.
Keynote speaker, "Enabling the Internet of Things", MobiCASE Conference; Cambridge, England; Nov 30^{th --}Dec 1^st, 2016
Test of Time Award, "The Active Badge Location System", ACM MobiSys'16, June 29^th, 2016, Singapore
Keynote speaker, "The Web of Things", Intelligent Environments Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 13-14 July 2015.
Keynote speaker, "The Physical Web", IoTSys Workshop at ACM MobiSys, May, 2015, Florence, Italy
Keynote speaker, "Pervasive Computing is the New Black", IEEE CCNC 2014, Las Vegas, January 11^th, 2014
Keynote speaker, "The Golden Age of Pervasive Computing", IEEE PerCom 2013, San Diego, March 19^th, 2013
Keynote speaker, "Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing: Past, Present and Future", IEEE NDT 2012, April 24^th 2012.
Invited plenary speaker IEEE Globcom 2010, "Smart Phones: A Revolution in Mobile Computing", Miami, Florida, December 8^th, 2010.
Invited speaker, DAC Workshop, Mobile & Cloud Computing, "Always-on Considerations for Mobile Systems", June 14^th, 2010
Invited speaker, HPCA, Workshop on Mobile Computing, "Smart Phones: Future Devices, Usages and Applications", Bangalore, Jan 10^th 2010
Invited panelist, MobiSys 2009 "HotPlanet" Workshop, Krakow, Poland
Invited panelist/speaker: "Dynamic Composable Computing", IEEE 125th Media Event Panel, March 10th 2009, New York, NY, USA
Keynote speaker, "Life, the Universe, and The Future of Mobile Computing", ACM Mobisys 2008, June 19th 2008, Colorado, USA
Invited speaker, "Carry Small Live Large", TTI Vanguard "Being Everywhere" Conference, Toronto Canada April 29-30, 2008
Keynote speaker, "The Cell Phone and the Future of Mobile Computing", 25th Annual IEEE International Performance Computing and Communication Conference (IPCCC), Phoenix, Arizona, April 10th, 2006
Invited speaker, State of the Art Session: "System Challenges for Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing", ICSE'05, St. Louis, MO, May 18th 2005
Lillian Gilbreth Lectureship, National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Washington DC, Oct 12th, 2003. "Personal Servers -- Pushing the Limits of Personal Computing"
Panel moderator - Intel Developers Forum Fall 2003 "WiFi: Opportunities and Challenges", 18th Sept 2003, San Jose
Invited speaker - Intel Developers Forum Fall 2003 - R&D Perspective - International Press Conference, 15th Sept 2003, San Jose
Keynote speaker, IEEE PerCom, "New Horizons for Mobile Computing", March 24th, 2003, Dallas Texas.
Invited speaker at National Academy of Engineering (NAE), 2002 Japan/America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, 26th October 2002, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan
Keynote speaker, "Ten Lessons Learned about Ubiquitous Computing", Dagstugl Ubiquitous Computing Conference, 2001
Invited speaker, "The Personal Server - a new approach to Ubiquitous Computing", Pervasive Computing 2001, NIST, Washington DC
Invited panelist, Mobicom 2000, Cmon'sense, moderator Deborah Estrin, Boston, August 9th 2000
Invited panelist - Business Week e.biz live conference, San Jose, July 24th, 2000 keynote closing session, with moderator Scott Shuster and Eric Brewer (Chief Scientist Inktomi).
Invited speaker, "There is an Electronic Tag in your Future!", at Cryptography Symposium: Life in an Era of Cryptographic Abundance, Xerox PARC June 20th 2000.
Invited speaker - 'Mobile Computing', Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop, April 2000.
Invited TV interview C-NET/CNBC "Beyond the PC", TV interview Richard Hart Hosting, Sat 1pm, April 8th 2000.
Invited speaker, UIST'99, "The Design and Use of Electronic Tagging for HCI", November 1999
Lock-note speaker, "Ubiquitous Computing", Wireless'93 Conference, San Jose
Invited panelist, "Nomadic Information Appliances", following Globecom'92. Orlando, December 10th, 1992. Workshop on "Networking of Personal Communications Appliances".
Invited panelist; "Active Badge Panel" Chaired by Ken Pier, Proceedings, Conference on Organizational Computing Systems, November 5-8, Atlanta, Georgia,

Professional Service

Professional Societies, Awards, Standards, and Executive Committees

IEEE 802.11 TGbk (320MHz Positioning) Technical Editor 2023-2025
IEEE 802.11 TGaz (Next Generation Positioning (NGP) Standard), Secretary 2017-19, Technical Editor 2019-23
ACM SIGMOBILE Chair 2009-2013, Executive Committee member 2013-17
Chair ACM TechPack on Mobile Computing 2012
Editorial Boards: IEEE Computer 2015-Present, IEEE Pervasive Computing 2001-Present
Steering Committees (current): ACM HotMobile, ACM MobiSys, IEEE Pervasive Computing
IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers) member since 1991, Fellow 2005
ACM (Association of Computer Machinery) member since 1996, Fellow 2005

Conference Program Chairs

General co-chair ACM PerDis 2013, Mountain View, CA, June 4th 2013.
Technical Program co-chair NSF Pervasive Computing at Scale (PeCS), January 2011
Technical Program chair ACM Hotmobile 2010, Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Technical Program co-chair IEEE ISWC 2008, USA
Technical Program co-chair Pervasive 2005, Munich, Germany
Technical Program co-chair, ACM Mobisys 2004 Conference, Boston, USA
Panel Chair, Mobicom 1999, Seattle, USA

Conference Technical Program Committee Service

Technical Program Committee ACM MobiSys Conference

2017 Niagra Falls, New York, USA
2011 Washington, USA
2009 Krakow, Poland
2008 Breckenridge, Colorado, USA
2007 Puerto Rico
2006 Uppsala Sweden
2005 Seattle, USA
2004 Boston, USA

Technical Program Committee ACM HotMobile Conference

2016 St. Augustine, Florida
2015 Santa Fe, New Mexico
2013 Jekyll Island, Georgia
2012 San Diego, California
2010 Annapolis, Maryland
2008 Napa California

Technical Program Committee IEEE/ACM SEC (Symposium on Edge Computing)

2016 Washington, DC

Technical Program Committee ACM Pervasive Displays (PerDis)

2016 Oulu, Finland
2015 Saarbrucken, Germany
2014 Copenhagen, Denmark

Technical Program Committee for IEEE ISWC Conference
- 2008 Pittsburgh, USA
- 2001 Zurich, Germany
Technical Program Committee Pervasive Conference
- 2005 Conference, Munich Germany
- 2002 Zurich Switzerland
Technical Program Committee IEEE PerCom 2004, Orlando, Florida
Technical Program Committee Ubicomp
- 2003 Seattle , USA
- 2002 Gotenburg, Sweden
Technical Program Committee for ACM MobiCom
- 2001 Rome, Italy
- 2000 Boston, USA

Editorial Posts

Dept. Editor: "The IoT Connection" Dept. IEEE Computer, Jan 2016-Present
Dept. Editor: "Smart Phone" Dept. IEEE Pervasive Computing, April 2010-2014
Editor-in-Chief. IEEE Pervasive Computing. Jan 2006-2009
Associate Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Fall 2001-2005

PhD Thesis Committees

Robert K. Harle, "Maintaining World Models in Context-Aware Environments" , Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge UK, October 2004.
Bill N. Schilit, "A Context-Aware System Architecture for Mobile Distributed Computing", Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, NY, May 1995

Industry Awards

Intel CTG Divisional Recognition Award (DRA) ; UMG customer support Q4 2009
Intel CTG Divisional Recognition Award (DRA) ; Worldmap Q2 2007
Intel CTG Divisional Recognition Award (DRA) ; Mobile Platform Innovation (MPI) Team, Q2 2006
Intel STO Divisional Recognition Award (DRA) ; XScale design-win support, Q1 2005
Intel MG/CHG Group Recognition Award (GRA) ; Contributions leading to the development of the CCF program", Q1 2005
Intel CTG Divisional Recognition Award (DRA) ; Personal Server Project, Q4 2004
Xerox PARC "Excellence in Science and Technology Award",
7th August 2000 for the completion of the Hikari project under contract from FX
Xerox PARC "Excellence in Science and Technology Award",
September 1997 with the EUI group for the PDR manipulative User interface design
Xerox PARC "Excellence in Science and Technology Award",
Jan 1993 for the design and deployment of the ParcTab system at Expo '92, Seville Spain

Nuffield Physics Award

CEB, Nuffield Physics - Cambridge examination board prize: July 1979, "The change in length of a nickel rod in a magnetic field (magnetostriction)"

Government Grants, Industry Committees

NAS Advisory Workshop on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Seattle, Apr 2004: Invited expert & panelist
DARPA contract N66001-99-2-8924, 1999. "Expeditions into the Future", Portolano - Workscapes Project (sub. 993572). Principal Investigator (PI),
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standards meetings 1995-1997: Representative for Xerox/PARC.
DARPA contract DABT63-91-C-0027, 1991, "Ubiquitous Computing Program", Affiliated Researcher.

Patents (click here for latest patent search)

Over 115 patents filed since 1990, the following 110 have issued:

Patent

Issued

Title

110	US011736555	2023-08-22	IOT interaction system
109	US011265363	2022-03-01	IOT interaction system
108	US010635460	2020-04-28	Assisted interaction for mobile products
107	US010257256	2019-04-09	IOT interaction system
106	US010045169	2018-08-07	Systems and methods for personalizing public devices
105	US010024952	2018-07-17	Self-organizing hybrid indoor location system
104	US009911136	2018-03-06	Method and system for providing sign data and sign history
103	US009907008	2018-02-17	Cloud-coordinated location system using ultrasonic pulses and radio signals
102	US009870057	2018-01-16	Gesture detection using an array of short-range communication devices
101	US009817540	2017-11-14	Device, system, and method of composing logical computing platforms
100	US009791540	2017-10-17	Self-organizing hybrid indoor location system
99	US009666013	2017-05-30	Cloud-based vending
98	US009662569	2017-05-30	Sensor fusion to combine sensor input data from multiple devices into one input stream
97	US009621703	2017-04-11	Motion to connect to kiosk
96	US009609482	2017-03-28	Cloud-coordinated location system using ultrasonic pulses and radio signals
95	US009413872	2016-08-09	Motion to connect to kiosk
94	US009282232	2016-03-08	Collaborative Image Control
93	US009215286	2015-12-15	Creating a social network based on an activity
92	US009203476	2015-12-01	System and method for code communication
91	US009143944	2015-09-22	Secure peer-to-peer network setup
90	US009077912	2015-07-07	Motion initiated time synchronization
89	US009071282	2015-06-30	Variable read rates for short-range communication
88	US009002930	2015-04-07	Activity distribution between multiple devices
87	US008928555	2015-01-06	Privacy display
86	US008874594	2014-10-28	Search with my location history
85	US008755785	2014-06-17	Collaborative image control
84	US008705707	2014-04-22	Labeling communication device call logs
83	US008686921	2014-04-01	Dynamic geometry management of virtual frame buffer for appendable logical displays
82	US008638190	2014-01-28	Gesture detection using an array of short-range communication devices
81	US008626135	2014-01-07	Communication redirect via short-range communication for digital item retrieval
80	US008565791	2013-10-22	Computing device interaction with visual media
79	US008560484	2013-10-15	User model creation
78	US008515413	2013-08-20	Controlling a target device using short-range communication
77	US008504008	2013-08-06	Virtual control panels using short-range communication
76	US008456381	2013-06-04	Device, system, and method of providing an extended display with desired relative display orientation
75	US008405572	2013-03-26	Privacy display
74	US008363586	2013-01-29	Social networking and advertisements in a mobile device on a local personal area network
73	US008281123	2012-10-02	Apparatus and method for managing and protecting information during use of semi-trusted interfaces
72	US008254995	2012-08-28	Method and device for communicating data
71	US008170212	2012-05-01	Device, system, and method of establishing secure wireless communication
70	US008117284	2012-02-14	Unsolicited and unconfirmed computing platform service information
69	US008107879	2012-01-31	Device, system, and method of establishing multiple wireless connections
68	US008081612	2011-12-20	Device, system, and method of selectively activating a wireless network connection
67	RE42927	2011-11-15	System and method for obtaining and using location specific information
66	US008041951	2011-10-18	Code-based communication connection management
65	US007831278	2010-11-09	Method and device for communicating data with a personal wireless storage device
64	US007779193	2010-08-17	Method and apparatus for external data transfer in a personal storage device
63	US007707150	2010-04-27	Automatic exchange of information in an ad-hoc computing environment
62	US007664529	2010-02-16	Methods and apparatus for data communication for mobile electronic devices
61	US007483952	2009-01-27	System transmitting unsolicited and unconfirmed computing platform service information to wireless devices
60	US007426403	2008-09-16	Methods and apparatus for data communication for mobile electronic devices
59	US007337466	2008-02-26	Information hiding through time synchronization
58	US007278024	2007-10-02	Session authentication using temporary passwords
57	US007253800	2007-08-07	Manipulative user interface systems and methods
56	US007229017	2007-06-12	Laser locating and tracking system for externally activated tags
55	US007202783	2007-04-10	Method and system for identifying when a first devices is within a physical range of a second device
54	US007200812	2007-04-03	Method, apparatus and system for enabling users to selectively greek documents
53	US007174462	2007-02-06	Method of authentication using familiar photographs
52	US007089288	2006-08-08	Interactive context preserved navigation of graphical data sets using multiple physical tags
51	US007082578	2006-07-25	Computer user interface using a physical manipulatory grammar
50	US006816859	2004-11-09	Rotationally desensitized unistroke handwriting recognition (extended)
49	US006630922	2003-10-07	Handedness detection for a physical manipulatory grammar
48	US006628447	2003-09-30	Array of rotatable solid elements for color display
47	US006611196	2003-08-26	System and method for providing audio augmentation of a physical environment
46	US006608549	2003-08-19	Virtual interface for configuring an audio augmentation system
45	US006573916	2003-06-03	Navigation of rendered virtual environments using physical tags
44	US006542083	2003-04-01	Electronic tag position detection using radio broadcast
43	US006498601	2002-12-24	Method and apparatus for selecting input modes on a palmtop computer
42	US006456273	2002-09-24	Flap array under fluidic and electrical control
41	US006446208	2002-09-03	User interface system based on sequentially read electronic tags
40	US006422474	2002-07-23	N-space indexing of digital data representations using physical tags
39	US006366697	2002-02-04	Rotationally desensitized unistroke handwriting recognition
38	US006342830	2002-01-29	Controlled shielding of electronic tags
37	US006340957	2002-01-22	Dynamically relocatable tileable displays
36	US006340931	2002-01-22	Network printer document interface using electronic tags (extended)
35	US006326946	2001-12-04	Operator icons for information collages
34	US006297838	2001-02-10	Spinning as a morpheme for a physical manipulatory grammar
33	US006297805	2001-02-10	Multiple interacting computers interface-able through a physical manipulatory grammar
32	US006292744	2001-09-12	Infrared beacon positioning system (extended)
31	US006268857	2001-07-31	Computer user interface using a physical manipulatory grammar
30	US006249226	2001-06-19	Network printer document interface using electronic tags
29	US006243075	2001-06-05	Graspable device manipulation for controlling a computer display
28	US006243074	2001-06-05	Handedness detection for a physical manipulatory grammar
27	US006241364	2001-06-05	Light fixture embedded infrared beacon
26	US006216087	2001-04-10	Infrared beacon positioning system
25	US006176425	2001-01-23	Information management system supporting multiple electronic tags
24	US006160540	2000-12-12	Zoomorphic computer user interface
23	US006122520	2000-09-19	System and method for obtaining and using location specific information
22	US006021399	2000-02-01	Space efficient method of verifying electronic payments
21	US006008727	1999-12-28	Selectively enabled electronic tags
20	US006005482	1999-12-21	Surface mounted information collage
19	US005982520	1999-11-09	Personal storage device for application and data transfer
18	US005952638	1999-09-14	Space efficient method of electronic payments
17	US005857023	1999-01-05	Space efficient method of redeeming electronic payments
16	US005825675	1998-10-20	Apparatus and configuration method for a small, hand-held computing device
15	US005818425	1998-10-06	Mapping drawings generated on small mobile pen based electronic devices onto large displays
14	US005812865	1998-09-22	Specifying and establishing communication data paths between particular media devices in multiple media device computing systems based on context of a user or users
13	US005793630	1998-08-11	High precision spatially defined data transfer system
12	US005721725	1998-02-24	Protocol for channel access in wireless or network data communication
11	US005627517	1997-05-06	Decentralized tracking and routing system wherein packages are associated with active tags
10	US005611050	1997-03-11	Method for selectively performing event on computer controlled device whose location and allowable operation is consistent with the contextual and locational attributes of the event
9	US005603054	1997-02-11	Method for triggering selected machine event when the triggering properties of the system are met and the triggering conditions of an identified user are perceived
8	US005564070	1996-10-08	Method and system for maintaining processing continuity to mobile computers in a wireless network
7	US005555376	1996-09-10	Method for granting a user request having locational and contextual attributes consistent with user policies for devices having locational attributes consistent with the user request
6	US005544321	1996-08-06	System for granting ownership of device by user based on requested level of ownership, present state of the device, and the context of the device
5	US005530235	1996-06-25	Interactive contents revealing storage device
4	US005493692	1996-02-20	Selective delivery of electronic messages in a multiple computer system based on context and environment of a user
3	US005493283 GB02230365A	1996-02-20 1989-02-18	Locating and authentication system
2	US005485634	1996-01-16	Method and system for the dynamic selection, allocation and arbitration of control between devices within a region
1	US005402469	1995-03-28	Carrier locating system

Europe: 00124926.7-2206, Virtual Control System Using non-imaging Scanner
Europe: 00124927.5-2210, Patterned Retro-reflective Tags Usable in Laser Scanning Systems

Media: Coverage of Projects & Career

2025

IEEE SA Webinar: Next Generation Wi-Fi Positioning: An Overview of IEEE 802.11az & 802.11bk, October 16th, 2025.
WiFi-Now Global: Improving Public Safety with Indoor Wi-Fi Location Services, October 15th, 2025.
Cisco Unplugged: Episode 63: UWB, Wi-Fi, and Beyond - Cisco and Google's Approach to Indoor Location, July 23rd, 2025.
WiFi-Now Global: Ultra-Wideband (UWB): Ultra-accurate location & asset tracking with Wi-Fi networks, June 17, 2025.

2024

Android 15 Developer updates: Wi-Fi Next Generation Positioning

2023

IEEE SA Webinar: Next Generation Wi-Fi Positioning: An Overview of IEEE 802.11az & 802.11bk, October 16th, 2025
IEEE SA Webinar; "Redefining Wi-Fi Based Location with IEEE 802.11az" A. Raissinia, R. Want, Duration: 1 hour 15mins. November 9th, 2023.
The Signal Podcast (Martha DeGrasse) Wi-Fi Alliance (July 25th, 2023)
EPISODE #43 "A deep dive into Wi-Fi Location" with Jonathan Segev of Intel and Roy Want of Google"
Webinar: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering: "Next Generation Wi-Fi Positioning: An Overview of the IEEE 802.11az Protocol", University of Washington, July 18, 2023
Android Developer PodCast: MP3: June 2023, "Android Location": https://f.io/eiW4srdJ
Wi-Fi World Congress: May 14th, 2023, 802.11az TUTORIAL:
- Slides
- Video (request password)

2022

Wi-Fi RTT enabled in HPE/Aruba Access Points for self location. This capability benefits the 6GHz FCC AFC requirements and indoor location/navigation applications. It's also significant, as it marks a point in time when the first Enterprise Access Point vendor enabled Wi-Fi RTT.

HPE Blog Mar 29th, 2022: Bring the ease and accuracy of GPS to indoor location services
HPE YouTube: Aruba's self-locating indoor access points - YouTube

2021

Android: Wi-Fi RTT Location Application

WifiRttLocator Play Store link active since 21st June 2021:

Launch Coverage (after release on 6/21 2021):

9to5Google: Google releases WifiRttLocator App to demo indoor positioning with Google Wifi
AndroidPolice: 9 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks

Android: Wi-Fi NAN Ranging Application

WifiNanScan Launched on Google Play Store as V1.2 on March 18th, 2021

Launch Coverage (after release on March 18th, 2021):

9to5Google: Google releases WifiNanScan App on Play Store, to measure distance between phones
Tom's Guide, Google just made Wi-Fi way better than Bluetooth -- here's how
MakeUseOf.com, WifiNanScan Helps You Measure the Distance Between Two Phones
ndtv/gadgets, Google Releases WifiNanScan App for Developers to Measure Accurate Distance Between Phones
firstpost.com, Google Releases WifiNanScan App on Playstore for Developers to Measure Precise Distance Between Phones.
News18-Tech, Google's New WifiNanScan App Aims to Improve Tech That Lets Users Share Files Without Internet
Technical Arena, Google Releases WifiNanScan App for Builders to Measure Correct Distance Between Telephones
NewsJuly, Google WifiNanScan App Helps Developers Measure Distance Between Phones
Flipboard, Google's New WifiNanScan App Aims to Improve Tech That Lets Users Share Files Without Internet
BGR, Google just released an exciting new app with wireless tech that's better than Bluetooth
-Featured on Google's Daily Insider
Deccan Herald Google testing new device pairing app via Wi-Fi Aware tech
Tech Times Google Introduces WifiNanScan, an Android App that Allows Phones to Connect at Greater Distances
NewsInfoSeries
1. Google brought awesome app, devices will connect without bluetooth and internet.
2. Google's New WifiNanScan App Aims to Improve Tech That Lets Users Share Files Without Internet.
Techpout.com: Google's WiFiNanScan App to connects nearby device without the Internet or Bluetooth
Trends-Network.blogspot,com: WifiNanScan : Now Connect Devices Without Internet Or Bluetooth
GamersGrade.com: Google Releases WifiNanScan App for Developers to Measure Accurate Distance Between Phones
HotHardware.com: Google's WifiNanScan App Is A Potential Boon For Android Developers, Here's What It Does.
YourTechStory.com: Google launches WifiNanScan on Play Store for developers to measure the distance between phones
GadgetBridge: Google launched the WifiNanScan App to measure distance between devices.
International Business Times: Google Launches Wireless Android Capabilities Exceeding Bluetooth Even Without Internet Connection
TechZimo: Google's New WifiNanScan App: Devices connected without Bluetooth and Internet
TechDato: WifiNanScan: Google's New App For Communicating With Nearby Devices

2020

ACM SIGMOBILE: GetMobile: "Mobile Computing and Communications" magazine: "2019 ACM SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contributions Award: Roy Want" by Sumi Helal, doi.org/10.1145/3400713.3400716, Vol. 23(4). page 3. May 2020

2019

Wi-Fi RTT smartphone to Access Point ranging:

WifiRttScan Launched on Google Play Store in April 10th 2019:

Launch Coverage (after release on 4/10):

9to5Google: Google releases WifiRttScan App for testing 802.11mc indoor positioning

2018

Precise Indoor Location based on Wi-Fi RTT (IEEE 802.11mc)

Coverage by Google:

GooleIO'18 Session: How to get one-meter location-accuracy from Android devices.

video of IO session at the Wi-Fi RTT index

Android P Features (Wi-FI RTT)

GPS World Article on GPS + Wi-Fi RTT based on GoogleIO'18 transcript

Android Wi-Fi RTT Developer Webpage

Android Wi-Fi Aware (NaN) with RTT ranging discovery (P2P). See also how NaN ranging is used..

Wi-Fi RTT in the Android Preview Blog.

Coverage by Tech Media:

Android P and WiFi RTT youtube video by Dan Galpin (RTT time index 3:30)

2017

IEEE 802.11az Task Group - Next Generation Positioning - NGP (Indoor)

2016

ACM SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Awards 2016
MobiCASE Conference: keynote: "Enabling the Internet of Things", R. Want, Dec 1st, 2016, Cambridge, England, UK.

2015

Intelligent Environments Conference: keynote: "The Web of Things", R. Want, 13th July 2015, Prague, Czech Republic
The Android Beacon Developers site: Eddystone BLE Beacons

2014

IEEE CCNC'14: keynote: "Pervasive Computing is the New Black", R. Want, 11th January 2014, Las Vegas, NV.

2013

IEEE PerCom'13: keynote: "The Golden Age of Pervasive Computing", R. Want, 19th March, 2013, San Diego, CA

2012

Research at Google: (Web Blog): Interview with Roy Want about his research career, 7th November, 2012
ACM Ubicomp 2013: Ten Year Impact Award: "The Personal Server: ...", Pittsburgh, 5th September, 2012
AMEinfo: "World's experts gather at Canadian University to discuss advancements in Digital Technology" 23rd April 2012.
IT Connection: An Interview with Roy Want, by Stephen Ibraki, on Mobile Computing 9th January, 2012

2011

ACM: Mobility Tech Pack, SIGMOBILE, December 2011
CNET: Look out! Here comes Apple's killer location-services patent, November 16th, 2011 by Erik Sherman

SLASHDOT: Apple's New Patent Weapon - Location Services, November 17th, 2011 by DaveyJJ

2010

Intel Technology Journal: Essential Computing: Simplifying And Enriching Our Work And Daily Life. ISBN 978-1-934053-28-7.

2009

Intel Web: Research @ Intel: June 2009: Carry Small, Live Large - Mobility Showcase
DCC integration with 1) Steelcase MediaScape 2) EMPC classroom groupware 3) Digital Home (STB)
EETimes: "IEEE highlights technologies that will change the world" by Nicolas Mokhoff 3/16 2009
Reuters: "IEEE Celebrates Its 125th Anniversary Presenting Emerging, World Changing Technologies" - Emily Mason, Rudder Finn, 3/10/2009
Control Engineering: "IEEE: Computing, robotics, education benefit from tighter human-technology interactions" , Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering -- 3/13/2009.
IEEE-125 web: IEEE 125th Anniversary Media Event, New York 10th March 2009,
Facebook IEEE 125th Anniversary "Dynamic Composable Computing", Photo Page
Slashgear: "Intel Multi-client display linking for an impromptu big-screen.", Friday, Mar 6th 2009 by Chris Davies
Engadget: "Intel develops multi-computer display linking, the commercial writes itself", by Ross Miller, posted Mar 6th 2009
Intel Innovation (Web): "Multi-client display linking.",

2008

Intel IDF Fall August 19-21, San Francisco, 2008: Dynamic Composable Computing Demo Booth & Tech Session.
Intel Blog: Carry Small, Live Large, April 9th 2008
Intel IDF Spring March 30-April 2nd 2008, Shanghai, China: Gaming & Dynamic Composition
Intel Blog: Dynamic Composable Computing, March 27th 2008

2007

The Inquirer: "Intel shows-off experimental UI device", press report of the Dynamically Composable Computing (DCC) project, part of the Carry Small, Live Large (CSLL) focus area in Intel/CTG. By Charlie Demerjian Tuesday 26 June 2007..

2006

Intel Web: Beyond the call � Intel and Motorola Explore New Possibilities for the Cell Phone Platform, Dec 5th 2006
Intel Web: The Phone System Interface (PSI), Dec 5th 2006
Intel Web: Spotlight News: "Roy Want Named IEEE and ACM Fellow" Feb 2006.
Intel Web: Personal Media Server, Feb 2006
Ascribe: "ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, Names 34 Fellows for Contributions to Computing and IT; Winners Represent Leading Industries, Research Labs, Universities", Jan 10th 2006

2005

PC Magazine. "Intel's Portable Prototypes", Wireless Personal Media Server, 16th November 2005
Intel Web: "Meet Our Researchers", Roy Want, August 2005
Networked World [Russian], " Calculations and Predictions", Personal Server & Trevor Pering referenced, August 2005
Wired News: "Airline Tests RFID on the Fly", By Ryan Singe, 9th Aug., 2005
Computer Zeitung Magazine, Personal Server, p16, No. 28, July 11, 2005
Technology @ Intel Magazine, "Moving Towards a Future of Ubiquitous Computing", Personal Server p3. , June 2005
DeviceForge.com: "Moving toward a future of ubiquitous computing". May 31st 2005
Intel Web: "Personal Server: Next Generation Mobile Computing", Jan 2005

2004

Slashdot: "A Technical RFID Primer", Hemos, 26th October, 2004
Discovery Channel Canada: Video: "What's the Frequency?" Airdate: 21st October, 2004
Wired News: "American Passports to Get Chipped" by Ryan Singel, 19th October 2004
@monitor: "Personal Server' one of many Intel R&D projects" by James Careless, Vol. 11, Issue 8, August, 2004.
CNET: Video (4m 55s): "It's a small world ahead for serving up documents and media", by James Hilliard, 7th May 2004.
CDNET News: "Intel's next challenge: Mastering physical world", by Michael Kanellow, May 5th 2004.
Speech Technology Magazine: "Technology Trends" by Dr. James Larson, March/April 2004

2003

DocBug - Media Technology Archives: "Breaking the Brick", by DocBug, 23rd Sept 2003
Ars Technica, "IDF Roundup: Fall 2003", by Matt Woodward, 17th Sept, 2003
ZDNet UK, " Personal Server Takes Your Data With You" 16th Sept, 2003
PCProc.com. "IDF Fall 2003: Intel demos Personal Server prototype", 16th Sept, 2003
eWeek, "Intel Foretells 'Personal Server", by Mark Hachman, 16th Sept, 2003
The Register, "Goodbye PC, Hello PS (Personal Server) ", by Tony Smith 16th Sept, 2003
SlashDot, "Everyone Needs a Personal Server", by Michael, 6th Sept, 2003
LinuxDevices.com, "Intel Personal Server research: mobile computing in the palm of your hand", Sept 5th, 2003
CPU Magazine, Interview about the Personal Server Project, Willian Vanwinkle, Sept 2003 issue.
El Pais (Spanish #1 Press) "The Idea of the Personal Server...", by Francis Pisani, July 24th, 2003
Reforma (Mexican #1 Press) "All the Informaiton in a Box", by Francis Pisani,July 21st, 2003
Business 2.0, "The Next Big Thing ... the cell phone" , section "Building the Wireless Brain", July 2003, Michael V Copeland
Geek.com "Intel Touts Wireless Pocket Sever", 5th May 2003
Slashdot, "Intel's Personal Server: The Handheld Killer", Michael and Mark Baard, May 4th 2003
COTS Magazine, "Wearable Computers Blaze Connectivity Path", April 2003, Vol 17. , Jeff Child

2002

Venture Capital Journal (VCJ):Tech Detective: "Want a Personal Server? " by Carolina Braunschweig, pp34--35, Nov 2002
Book: "Star Trek: I'm working on that.", William Shatner with Chip Walter. Part II: The Bitstorm p107- Chapter 8 - "Get Smart", pp118-125, Pocket Books, ISBN: 0-671-04737-X, September, 2002
Intel Research Spotlight: " Interview with Roy Want [about the Ubiquity Project]". May-August 2002
CRN mobile innovations: "The Incredible shrinking Form Factor by Kristen Kenedy. 30th May 2002

2001

MIT Technology Review, October 2001, Vol 104, No. 10, pp24-25 "Intel Revamps R&D", by Bob Buderi (Personal Server)
Wireless Business & Technology, July, 2001, pp36-38 b y Bill Ray (Ubicomp)

The Feature, The Incredible Shrinking Computer Pt. 2: Corporate Smarts.
By Niall McKay in Silicon Valley, Apr 12 2001.

MIT Technology Review, January 2001, Vol 104 No. 1, p52 , "Computing Goes Everywhere", by Bob Buderi (e-tags).

2000

Business Week, 4th December 2000, "Frontier: Forecast 2001 The Wireless Future A unified phone, fax, and browser? Not yet. But loads of improvements will make your life easier", by Kevin Ferguson,
Metropolis, July 2000, "Warm and Fuzzy logic", by Peter Kupfer pp100-p135, (Electronic Tags p134).
Red Herring, July 2000, Hindsight (ParcTab reference in Red Herring 1995 article), p64, by John J. Eilenberg.
ComputorEdge Online- San Diego, "Invisible Computers" by David Ross.
New York Times, Circuits -D5, "As gadgets shrink, they may wind up in surprising places.", by Anne Eisenberg, May 4th 2000. (Embedded Computing).
Red Herring "Handheld Devices - Revolution at Hand", by Niall McKay, May 2000, pp232-235 (Electronic Tags).
C-NET/CNBC "Beyond the PC", TV interview Richard Hart Hosting, Sat 1pm, April 8th 2000.
Info World, "Converging Future", by Eve Epstein, Friday 7th January 2000 (MEMS, IT and the future).
PC World, "The Future PC", by Michelle Campanelli , pp116-130, January 2000, (electronic tagging quotes).
Newsweek, "Future of the Internet", January 2000, by Lois Taylor.

1999

San Jose Mercury News, "The Post-PC Era" , by Deborah Claymon, 29th November 1999, pp10E & 22E (Electronic Tagging)
Worth Magazine, Visions: The Internet in 2002, by Ed Sussman and Lan N. Nguyen, November 1999 pp152-163, E-tags: quote: 22. "You won't have to know a web sites address"
CACM, The Post-PC Era, October 1999 p21-22 (Parctab) by Larry Press
LA Times, The Cutting Edge: Focus on Technology, "Computing's Next Wave: Thinking Toasters", by Ashely Dunn,1C p1. Aug. 23rd 1999, (electronic tagging quotes)
The Financial Post (Toronto, ON) Sowing PARC's next revolution, April 21st 1999, Page C13 - Internet Stock Fountain. by Sentor Avzav.
Tech Week, (Silicon Valley), "PARC Place", by David Becker, March 22nd 1999, Vol 2. No. 6. p1 & p18-p19. (PARC & Internet Fountain)
KRON TV, "Electronic Tagging", Reporter: Anthony Moor, Channel 4, 11pm, 6th May.

1998

San Jose Mercury News, "Here, there and Everywhere", Elizabeth Wasserman, , Jan 6th 1998, pp1F-2F (Minder & ParcTab).
WE magazine, "Life Inside the Lab". by Charles A Riley II. , March 1998, pp67-69 (PARC & ubicomp)
Mobile Computing and Communications, "The Shape of Things to Come" by Elaine C.Y. Chen. ,
June 1998, pp75-86. (Active Badge and ParcTab).

1997

The Times (UK), The Techno-gospel according to Mark. Interface Magazine p10-11 Jan. 1997
"Ruhiger Leben", Profil Extra, p18-20. June 1997 (Active Badge and ParcTab)
SCAN CNBC-TV, "Future on Computers" Network 5.30pm May 10th, 1997, 7mins
Kron TV: Computing futures. 8th Oct '97
Austrian TV: ORF Treffpunkt Kultur, August 9th 1997.
PBS ch.9, Life on the Internet, The Future of Computers. 6.30-7.30pm Sun 26th Oct
ABC News TV "Tonight Cutting Edge" Nov 14th, 1997
ABC Nightline with Forrest Sawyer TV , Nov 17th, 1997
Der Spiegel "Mit meinem Hause reden" Nov '97 p224-225 (Active badge and Parctab)
Chip. "Smarte Helferlein" p290, Nov. 1997. (Active badge and ParcTab)

1996

Soutwest Airlines SPIRIT magazine, Invisible Computers" by Jim Morrison. March 1996 P78--88 [Parctab]
San Francisco Business Times, "Making Computers Sociable" by Daniel S. Levine. . Technology Quarterly Page March 15-21, 1996 [Active Badges]
Blid der Wissenschaft (Tr. The Magazine of Science and Technology), "Die Zukunft Erfinden (Kreative Chaoten denken fur Xerox)" Bruni Kobbe October 1996 P34, [Parctab]
Life on the Internet, "The Disappearing Net", Cochran Entertainment, 1996.

1995

PC Computing, January 95, , "The Office of the Future", 190-196, by Wendy Taylor.
Popular Science, February 95, , "Total Recall", pp 46-48/80-81 by Robert Langreth
WIRED, March 95, "You're Not Paranoid: They Really Are Watching You", pp95--85, by John Whalen.
Oakland Tribune, March 1st , , Cyberia - Excursions in the Digital Domain, Interview by Howard Bryant, D1-4.
Stern Magazine, March 28th, , Interview by Thomas Borchert, Published 19th October 95, pp144--148.
L'Express, March 9th, , Sneaky Chips, Interview by Christophe Agnus photo-shoot 28th March. Issue published on August 8th, pp58--59
Communications Week International, April 11th, , Telecom '95, Interview by Susan Grossman
Southwest Spirit, April 17th , , Southwest Airlines, Interview by Jim Morrison
PBS "Frontline" - High stakes in Cyberspace, June 14th, , with Robert Krulwich, produced by Frank and Martin Koughan. See http://www.PBS.org. Aired Oct on TV 31st (Halloween).
Il Manefesto, June 26th, , Interview by Flamina Denarie @ Berkeley
San Fransisco Examiner, September 15th, , "Playground of Invention", by Susan Moran.
Info Week & Boston Globe, September 30th,, Interview by Emily Kay
Pen Computing Magazine, November 95, , "Pen News - Xerox Partab", p16.

1994

Profiles: Continental Airlines: Oct 94, p 14. - Digital Skeleton Key.
Channel 5 news coverage of Ubiquitous Computing at PARC (28th Apr)
Wired. "PARC IS BACK!", Feb '94. Featuring the Active Badge and ParcTab, pp91-95. by Howard Rheingold.
Smithsonian. Vol 25 No.6 'We're going to have computers coming out of the Woodwork' by Richard Wolkomir. pp82-93 (features Parctab).

1993

Glamour Magazine: Coming: Employee trackers, Susan Vinella, April 1993, p117
BYTE: Track People with Active Badges, Dick Pountain, December 1993, p57-64

1992

West Mag: San Jose Mercury News. March 8th 1992. "The Boss that never Blinks". Tom McNichol
San Jose Mercury News, Thur. March 1992. "A Computer to Wear". Rory J O'Connor
Palo Alto, Weekly. Vol X111, No. 32. May 6th, 1992. "The Office of the 21st Century", Jock Friedly.
Milwaukee Journal: May 19, 1992 Hardwear: Computers move into the world of fashion. A. Pollack
InfoWorld: June 1992. "Active Badges Limit Privacy But Boost Productivity", Bob Metcalfe.
InfoWorld: July 6 1992 page 51 "More on Active Badges and fears about loss of privacy" Bob Metcalfe.
Business Week: Aug 17th, 1992. "Big Brother, Pinned to your chest." Peter Coy
The Times (UK). Thur 27th. August 1992. "Adults Baffled By Complex Gadgets". (ParcTab picture from EP).
The New York Times: Sat Sept 12 1992 "Orwellian Dream Come True: A Badge That Pinpoints You" Leonard Sloane
The Washington Post: 8th October 1992 "Active Badges Play Follow the Worker; Computerised Trackers Spark Worries about 'Big Brother'". J. Burgess.
Mercury News: 8th October 92. "You Can't Hide from the Badge - Computer tracks your every move. John Burgess
Security Management Magazine: Nov. 1992. "The badge that beckons". Lisa Arbetter.
Omni Magazine: Dec 92 Issue STYLE: "Dress Code: The ultimate PCs will be worn." A. J. S. Rayl.
CBS-TV. Banmiller on Business (Ch. 2). "Active Badges in the Office World". Sat. 29th August 92, 10.30pm Staring R.Want, B. Schilit, and Marvin Theimer in a 6 minute documentary.

Sports & Hobbies

Orienteering
Hiking & Camping
Skiing
Cross-country running (3 marathons)
Volleyball
In college: rowing, canoeing, squash