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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2007

Eleftheria Katsiri, Jean Bacon and Alan Mycroft

The event‐driven paradigm is appropriate for context aware, distributed applications, yet basic events may be too low level to be meaningful to users. The authors aim to argue…

753

Abstract

Purpose

The event‐driven paradigm is appropriate for context aware, distributed applications, yet basic events may be too low level to be meaningful to users. The authors aim to argue that this bottom‐up approach is insufficient to handle very low‐level sensor data or to express all the queries users might wish to make.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose an alternative model for querying and subscribing transparently to distributed state in a real‐time, ubiquitous, sensor‐driven environment such as is found in Sentient Computing.

Findings

The framework consists of four components: a state‐based, temporal first‐order logic (TFOL) model that represents the concrete state of the world, as perceived by sensors; an expressive TFOL‐based language, the Abstract Event Specification Language (AESL) for creating abstract event definitions, subscriptions and queries; a higherorder service (Abstract Event Detection Service) that accepts a subscription containing an abstract event definition as an argument and in return publishes an interface to a further service, an abstract event detector; and a satisfiability service that applies classical, logical satisfiability in order to check the satisfiability of the AESL definitions against the world model, in a manner similar to a constraint‐satisfaction problem.

Originality/value

The paper develops a model‐based approach, appropriate for distributed, heterogeneous environments.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2007

Abraham Bernstein, Peter Vorburger and Patrice Egger

People are subjected to a multitude of interruptions. In order to manage these interruptions it is imperative to predict a person's interruptability – his/her current readiness or…

275

Abstract

Purpose

People are subjected to a multitude of interruptions. In order to manage these interruptions it is imperative to predict a person's interruptability – his/her current readiness or inclination to be interrupted. This paper aims to introduce the approach of direct interruptability inference from sensor streams (accelerometer and audio data) in a ubiquitous computing setup and to show that it provides highly accurate and robust predictions.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors argue that scenarios are central for evaluating the performance of ubiquitous computing devices (and interruptability predicting devices in particular) and prove this on the setup employed, which was based on that of Kern and Schiele.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that scenarios provide the foundation for avoiding misleading results, and provide the basis for a stratified scenario‐based learning model, which greatly speeds up the training of such devices.

Practical implications

The direct prediction seems to be competitive or even superior to indirect prediction methods and no drawbacks have been observed yet.

Originality/value

The paper introduces a method for accurately predicting a person's interruptability directly from simple sensors without any intermediate steps/symbols.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2007

Tarak Chaari, Frédérique Laforest and Augusto Celentano

The simple environment for context aware systems (SECAS) Project deals with the adaptation of applications to the context (user preferences and environment, terminal, etc.). The…

1089

Abstract

Purpose

The simple environment for context aware systems (SECAS) Project deals with the adaptation of applications to the context (user preferences and environment, terminal, etc.). The authors aim to develop a platform which makes the services, data and the user interface of applications adaptable to different context situations.

Design/methodology/approach

Previous research has concentrated on how to capture context data and how to carry it to the application. The present work focuses on the impact of context on the application core. A case study in the medical field is also analysed.

Findings

The paper illustrates a new definition of the context which separates the application data from the parameters of the context. This definition helps to establish a complete study on how to adapt applications on their three dimensions (services, content and presentation) to the context.

Originality/value

The paper presents the SECAS platform, one that ensures the deployment of adaptive context‐aware applications.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 6 September 2011

Ronan Fox, James Cooley and Manfred Hauswirth

The purpose of this paper is to identify the gap that currently exists between enterprise and consumer‐focused mashup tools in terms of personalized, trusted collaboration. The…

367

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the gap that currently exists between enterprise and consumer‐focused mashup tools in terms of personalized, trusted collaboration. The authors describe how Sqwelch, a semantically enabled mashup maker, addresses this gap during the design of mashups and in their execution.

Design/methodology/approach

Sqwelch enables the composition of mashups based on the concept of trust explicitly specified by users through a visual interface. Taxonomies are used to enable lightweight mediation of payloads delivered through a publish/subscribe mechanism.

Findings

The authors demonstrate the use of Sqwelch as a proof of concept in the remote delivery of healthcare, and how Sqwelch has been used to address areas of trust and collaboration in the delivery of telehealth services.

Originality/value

Integrating trust and collaboration across the boundaries of enterprises is required where sensitive data are transferred across those boundaries in the expectation of the delivery of a service. Across these boundaries, the authors find variations in users' skills, their expectations, and their responsibilities. The prototype described here enables users to discover, compose, share and collaborate in the day‐to‐day use of systems that match personalized requirements.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2007

Ronny Kramer, Marko Modsching and Klaus ten Hagen

The behavior of tourists strongly depends on the availability and quality of information. Too little information as well as too much can be disorienting and forces many tourists…

1421

Abstract

Purpose

The behavior of tourists strongly depends on the availability and quality of information. Too little information as well as too much can be disorienting and forces many tourists to join the majority visiting major sights. This causes a few crowded places in contrast to many which are under‐utilized. A Destination Management Organization has the goal to spread tourists more evenly, whereas the tourists would like to enjoy the destination to its full potential according to their personal interests. The paper aims to focus on the issues surrounding the creation of a mobile tourist guide.

Design/methodology/approach

A field trial was conducted in the summer of 2005 to study the following questions as a precondition for the development: Is it possible to seed generic interest profiles in the mobile context that allow the accurate prediction of actual rankings? Are the interest profiles sufficiently diverse to base personalized tours on individual interest profiles instead of interest prototypes? How do personalized tours affect the spatial behavior of tourist? Three methods to elicit the generic preferences of tourist in the mobile context are compared with actual rankings using Spearman's rank order coefficient.

Findings

The diversity of the interest profiles is analyzed in various ways leading to the conclusion that personalized interest profiles are necessary. For the gathered profiles tours are computed and simulated in order to gain a first insight into the effect on the spatial behavior of tourists.

Originality/value

The dynamic tour guide is supporting both goals by means of pervasive computing based on the actual context which is defined by personal interests, location and schedule of a tourist. It enables a personalized, spontaneous and guided tour.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 31 December 2007

Kostas Stefanidis, Evaggelia Pitoura and Panos Vassiliadis

A context‐aware system is a system that uses context to provide relevant information or services to its users. While there has been a variety of context middleware infrastructures…

563

Abstract

Purpose

A context‐aware system is a system that uses context to provide relevant information or services to its users. While there has been a variety of context middleware infrastructures and context‐aware applications, little work has been done on integrating context into database management systems. The purpose of this paper is to consider a preference database system that supports context‐aware queries, that is, queries whose results depend on the context at the time of their submission.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proposes using data cubes to store the dependencies between context‐dependent preferences and database relations and on‐line analytical processing techniques for processing context‐aware queries. This allows for the manipulation of the captured context data at various levels of abstraction, for instance, in the case of a context parameter representing location, preferences can be expressed, for example, at the level of a city, the level of a country or both. To improve query performance, the paper uses an auxiliary data structure, called context tree. The context tree stores results of past context‐aware queries indexed by the context of their execution. Finally, the paper outline the implementation of a prototype context‐aware restaurant recommender.

Findings

The use of context is important in many applications such as pervasive computing where it is important that users receive only relevant information.

Originality/value

Although there is much research on location‐aware query processing in the area of spatial‐temporal databases, integrating other forms of context in query processing is a rather new research topic.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 6 September 2011

Ismail Khalil

429

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

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Article
Publication date: 25 November 2013

Bhzad Sidawi and Mark Deakin

Diabetes mellitus is the most common non-communicable medical condition worldwide, yet little is known about the relationship this disease has to the built environment. The…

789

Abstract

Purpose

Diabetes mellitus is the most common non-communicable medical condition worldwide, yet little is known about the relationship this disease has to the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to throw some much needed light on the matter by shifting attention away from the epidemiology of the medical condition and towards the anthropology of the unhealthy lifestyles whose habit-persistent practices are associated with the spread of the disease.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews the delicate relation between diabetes, unhealthy lifestyles and built environments. It discusses the potential of smart city technologies to promote healthy lifestyles, particularly for diabetic patients.

Findings

Smart cities currently being developed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) do not highlight the health-related benefits of their design and layout and there are currently no plans for the community to address the unhealthy lifestyles of existing neighbourhoods as part of a sustainable urban development programme. So, realising the health-related benefits of smart city neighbourhoods in the KSA shall be challenging.

Research limitations/implications

In attempting to tackle diabetes, cities not only need to be “green and lean” in planning the healthy lifestyles they set out for the development of communities, but also “get smart” about the digital technologies and platform of electronically enhanced services which are required to meet the design and layout challenges smart city neighbourhoods pose.

Originality/value

Gulf and Saudi cities should adopt the IntelCities analogy, so the virtual planning and development of “smart city neighbourhoods”, along with their design and layout of buildings, can tackle the underlying causes.

Details

Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6099

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