How is the role of context awareness in mobile computing

1. Context Awareness in Mobile Computing
The Revolutionary Impact of Pervasive Mobile Computing
Bob Hardian
hardian@cs.ui.ac.id
Fakultas Ilmu Komputer, Universitas Indonesia
SRITI 2011
Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
1

2. Pervasive – Ubiquitous – Mobile Computing
Level of embeddedness
High
Pervasive Ubiquitous
Computing Computing
Low High
Level of mobility
Traditional
Business Mobile
Computing Computing
Low
[1]
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
2

3. Mobile Computing: the Next Decade
 Scenario 1: Lost Child
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
3

4. Mobile Computing: the Next Decade
 Scenario 2: Disaster Relief
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
4

5. Mobile Computing: the Next Decade
 Scenario 3: Cognitive Assistance
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
5

6. Mobile Computing: the Next Decade
 Scenario 4: Medical Consultation
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
6

7. Reflecting on these Scenarios [3]
 Embody a number of themes
 Rich sensors
 Crowd sourcing
 Near-real-time data consistency
 Opportunism
 Transient use of infrastructure
 User interaction
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
7

8. Reducing Distraction
 User attention is a precious resource
The most successful mobile computing
systems of the next decade will be those that
are able to reduce or eliminate user
interactions
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
8

9. User Interaction with Mobile Device
 Mobile application autonomy can reduce user
interaction.
 Mobile application should place greater dependence
on contextual information
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
9

10. Context Definitions
 Context defined variously as:
 An application/user’s environment or situation
 A combination of computing, user and physical features
 Definition from Dey & Abowd [2]:
“Context is any information that can be used to characterise
the situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place or
object that is considered relevant to the interaction
between a user and an application, including the user and
the application themselves.”
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
10

11. Context Awareness
 Context of computation may change
 Context of computation may be (partially) captured by context
information
 Context information can be used to
 provide seamless computing
 provide relevant services to users
Needed: Information about requirements and
current status of computations and their
environments
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
11

12. Context Information - Example
 user location, devices, applications
 user preferences and QoS requirements
 application QoS requirements and status
 device and network capabilities and their current status
 relationships between context information
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
12

13. Context Awareness & Mobile Apps
 Context-aware applications tend to be enhanced
mobile applications for the following reasons:
 User context changes frequently subject to the user’s
mobility behavior
 The need for context-aware behavior is greater in a mobile
environment (user location, network resources, and device
capabilities)
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
13

14. Context-Aware Logic Space [4]
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
14

15. Proximity selection
 Proximity selection is primarily based on the user location
context
 Such context can be:
 resources and devices in the vicinity of the user
 places of interests closest to the user current position
 computational objects with which the mobile user is
currently interacting
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
15

16. Context Modeling
 Modeling context is a technique focuses on
how to find and relate contextual information
that better captures the observation of certain
worlds of interest
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
16

17. Context Modeling - Example
has device
Person Device
Conceptual model (CML) (name) (id)
located at
Location
(name)
Maps to
HasDevice(Person, Device)
Logical model (relational model)
LocatedAt(Person, Location)
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
17

18. Disruption Level
has disruption level (name)
has allow status Allow Status
(nr)
Profile
(code) has divert status
Divert Status
(name)
has profile
has location type
Location Type
(Name) has divert type
has nearest base station
Device Base Station
(id) (nr)
has network strength
Network
Strength Number Type
(nr) (name)
has device
has phone number has number type
Person Phone Number
(name) (nr)
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
18

19. Context-Aware Application
A Context-aware application should have a set of characteristics related
to context modeling, handling, adaptation:
 Context acquisition  Context adaptation
 Context aggregation  Context reasoning
 Context consistency  Context quality indicators
 Context discovery  Context integration
 Context query
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
19

20. Typical Architecture
Context-Aware Applications
Programming Toolkit
Context Manager Preference
Middleware Manager
Context
Model
Context Gathering & Processing Layer
Sensor Sensor Sensor
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
20

21. User Control of
Context-Aware Mobile Apps
 Context-aware mobile application may not always behave in
the way users expected, due to
 Imperfect context information
 Incorrect user preferences
 Incorrect adaptation rules
 Users may feel loss of control over their application.
 The system must provide mechanisms to strike a suitable
balance of control
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
21

22. Balance of User Control
 A continuum of user control versus application autonomy
A B C
Application autonomy
User control
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
22

23. Providing Suitable Balance of Control
 Make users aware of reasons for application adaptation
 User may be able to correct undesirable actions
 Users may have varying levels of expertise
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
23

24. Exposing the System’s view
 Exposing system’s view of the context and its corresponding
actions provides a sufficient understanding to correct
inappropriate action (increases user control)
 An appropriate modelling of context and preference is needed
for revealing the information to the users
Context-aware System
Context
Information Interactions
Adaptation Users
Logic
User
Preferences
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
24

25. Example Approach
Exposed
Context and application
preference state
change Information Filter information
&
Explanation Generator
Programming Toolkit
Information
Context & request
Preference (scrutinize)
USER
Context Manager Traces
Database Database
Semantic Manager
User
Context Graph
Preference Descriptions
User Model
User
Preference
Database
User feedback
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
25

26. User
Outside World
context
User interaction changes
Context-Aware Application
Context
Context Web
Windows Interface Client
preferences context context
and profile changes changes
information
Context and
Preference Proxy
inquiry revealed context information
(scrutinizing) information and preference context and
evaluation scores preference changes
Context and
Semantic Manager
Preference Manager
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
26

27. Summary
 User attention is a precious resource in mobile
environment
 Mobile application should reduce user interaction
 Mobile application should place greater dependence
on context
 Need balance of user control due to imperfect context
information
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
27

28. References
[1] K. Lyytinen, Y. Yoo, Issues and Challenges in Ubiquitous Computing,
CACM, Vol.4, No.12, 2002
[2] A. K. Dey and G. D. Abowd, Towards a better understanding of context
and context-awareness. In CHI 2000 Workshop on the What, Who,
Where,vWhen and How of Context-Awareness. The Hague, April 2000.
[3] M. Satyanarayanan, Mobile computing: the next decade, in MCS '10
Proceedings of the 1st ACM Workshop on Mobile Cloud Computing &
Services: Social Networks and Beyond, 2010
[4] Christos B. Anagnostopoulos , Athanasios Tsounis , Stathes
Hadjiefthymiades, Context Awareness in Mobile Computing
Environments, Wireless Personal Communications: An International
Journal, v.42 n.3, p.445-464, August 2007
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
28

29. TERIMA KASIH
SRITI 2011 - Seminar Riset Tenologi Informasi
29