Prognostics is finding an increasingly large and receptive audience who are viewing it as the road to "pervasive health management". As systems become increasingly complex, it also becomes necessary that diagnostics and prognostics be thought of and built into deeper areas of the systems. In fact, this is much of what is happening for vehicle structures, where intelligent sensors become embedded directly into the structure itself.The concept of pervasive computing, also known as ubiquitous computing, began as many of today's inventions have in the Xeros Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the late 1980's. The motivations behind pervasive computing are to put the computing environment back into the background, rather than have it dominate its environment as a focal point. For the home, this means finding ways to interact with computers on terms convenient to the individual, rather than on the computer's terms--that is, on a desk, with a printer and monitor, near an outlet, near an internet connection, with the right lighting, etc. It's easy to see how quickly the computer demands interaction on its terms.
Two of the most important features that emerge from pervasive computing are wireless communication and security. In order to gain freedom for the placement of computation power, wireless communication is essential. With wireless computing also comes the demand for increased security, since typical home computing demands confidentiality (credit card numbers, login information to banks, etc.)
It's obvious that we still have a ways to go before the computer works the way we do, rather than forcing us to work its way. Prognostics might, however, shorten that road by bringing new approaches to the problem, albeit arising from a completely different angle. In fact, pervasive computing will certainly influence and be influenced by developments in prognostics.