29-1 May/Jun 2006; Per-Oddvar Osland, Brynjar Viken, Fredrik Solsvik, Gaute Nygreen, Jan Wedvik, Stein Erik Myklbust

Introduction:
The objective of pervasive computing [Weis92] is to hide technology from the user by seamless integration into everyday life. The focus is on the services that allow the user to solve his tasks while devices and technology fade away into the background. Context-aware systems are a vital part of pervasive computing. Context information gives applications entirely new opportunities to offer new services and adapt their behaviour according to the situation of the mobile user. This increases system usability tremendous by reducing the demands on the end-user and minimizing the need for user attention. Obviously, it is not desirable that every application implements a context engine to gather and process specific context information; rather a generic context platform/infrastructure that supports applications by gathering, processing and managing context information is needed. Such a generic context infrastructure is an essential component of pervasive computing. In this paper we present a basic context model and an infrastructure for context management. Based on this, we implement a Context Manager for experimental purposes. The applicability such a component is vast, and it may serve as an enabler for a wide range of context-aware applications. This work is carried out within the Akogrimo project. The Context Manager is a part of the Mobile Network Middleware Architecture, which one of the four layers in the Akogrimo architecture. In the project a set of scenarios have been presented where user context is used to enhance the provided application [Loos05]. These include several scenarios within eLearning, eHealth, and crisis handling and management.

References:
[BaDu04] M. Baldauf & S. Dustdar, A Survey on Context-aware systems, technical report, Distributed Systems Group, Technical University of Vienna, 2004
[Dey01] A. K. Dey, Understanding and Using context, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal, Volume 5 (1), 2001, pp. 4-7.
[HIR02] K. Henricksen, J. Indulska, and A. Rakotonirainy, Modeling Context Information in Pervasive Computing Systems, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Pervasive Computing, 2002.
[Loos05] Christian Loos et al: Testbed description, Akogrimo deliverable 2.3.1. February 2005. URL: www.akogrimo.org -> Downloads -> Deliverables -> Akogrimo Testbed Description
[MLP] Open Mobile Alliance, Mobile Location Protocol, 3.2Draft Version 2004-11-02, http://member.openmobilealliance.org/ftp/public_documents/loc/Permanent_documents/OMA-MLP-Spec-V3_2-20041102-D.zip
[Most03] S. Kouadri Mostéfaoui, G. Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Towards A Contextualisation of Service Discovery and Composition for Pervasive Environments, University of Fribourg, 2003.
[OOK] Østhus, Egil C., Osland, P.O., Kristiansen, Lill, “ENME: An ENriched MEdia application utilizing context for session mobility; technical and human issues” (accepted for publication in proceedings UISW in LNCS, Japan Dec. 2005)
[SAW94] Schilit B., Adams, N. & Want, R. (1994). Context-aware computing applications, Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, 85-90. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE.
[Weis92] M. Weiser, The Computer for the Twenty-First Century, Scientific American, pp. 94-10, September 1991.

Source:
Proceedings of ICIN2006: Convergence in Services, Media and Networks

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