The Institute of Pervasive Computing at Johannes Kepler University Linz is one of the first research institutions worldwide to systematically address, from different perspectives, the research questions arising from embedding AI into objects and environments of everyday life. It has been led by Alois Ferscha since its start at JKU in 2000, working closely with national and international research institutions, global technology leaders and industry.

The research focus of the institute in the area of pervasive computing is on context/awareness (identity management, localization and positioning, tagging, tracking and authentication), attention/cognition and intelligence (machine learning and pattern recognition, reasoning and planning), appliances ("smart things", "smart environments", tangible interaction, wearable computers), natural interfaces (multimodal interaction, gestural interaction, haptics, olfactory interaction) and software architecture (middleware, service management, coordination architectures).