The purpose of the study is to explore the context, from the users’ perspective, in order to find relevant context parameters that can be useful in the development of the future context-aware technology. The goal is to find some of the context parameters relevant to the situated activity and investigate to what extent and in which way they influence the user in everyday planning activities. The method used in the study was based on scenario descriptions. A total of 41 participants reported how they would have acted in the different situations and they also rated how important they believed the different context factors were in the situations. Analyses were made to reveal relationships between context factors and service properties used by the participants in the scenarios. In the study several interesting relationships between context factors and the use of services were discovered. The level of urgency was in several situations considered to be important, and it was also found to have an impact on how the participants chose to communicate. The cost was introduced by the participants during the study. It seemed to be important; however, in situations with high urgency it became less important. The study revealed a potential relationship between the risk of disturbing the people in the vicinity and the effort to communicate quietly. Another interesting finding was the relationship between privacy and the choice of modality when communicating: voice-based services were avoided. Further, the importance of privacy and disturbance also appeared to have greater influence in non-anonymous situations than in anonymous. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka kontexten, utifrån användarens perspektiv, för att kunna hitta relevanta kontextfaktorer som kan vara användbara i utvecklingen av kontextmedveten teknologi. Målet är att finna kontextfaktorer som är relevanta för den pågående aktiviteten och undersöka i vilken utsträckning och på vilka sätt dessa faktorer påverkar användaren i de dagliga planeringsaktiviteterna. Metoden som användes i studien baserades på scenariobeskrivningar. 41 stycken försöksdeltagare fick beskriva hur de skulle ha handlat i de olika situationerna och de fick också skatta hur viktiga de olika kontextfaktorerena var i situationerna. Analyser genomfördes för att finna samband mellan kontextfaktorer och egenskaper hos de tjänster som försöksdeltagarna använde sig av i scenarierna. I studien upptäcktes en rad intressanta relationer mellan kontextfaktorer och användningen av tjänster. Exempelvis ansågs nivån av brådska vara betydelsefull i flera situationer och den verkade också ha inverkan på hur försöksdeltagarna valde att kommunicera. Försöksdeltagarna introducerade under studien kontextfaktorn kostnad. Kostnaden påverkade valet av tjänster men blev mindre betydande i situationer med stor brådska. Studien visade också på potentiella samband mellan risken att störa människor i sin omgivning och viljan att kommunicera tyst. En annan intressant upptäckt var sambandet mellan avskildhet och kommunikationssätt: röstbaserade tjänster undveks när andra människor fanns i närheten. Dessutom verkade det som om det var viktigare att värna om sin avskildhet och att inte störa andra i ickeanonyma situationer än i situationer där man var helt anonym.

A identificação de características que sejam importantes sobre um dado estudante durante o processo de ensino-aprendizagem tem sido alvo de muitos estudos nos últimos tempos. Docentes, coordenadores e pedagogos têm defendido que cada indivíduo possui características particulares e importantes dentro do processo de desenvolvimento do conhecimento. A necessidade de adaptar as estratégias de ensino de acordo com as preferências do aprendiz é uma realidade dentro das salas de aula, sejam estas presenciais ou virtuais. Porém, isto não significa que numa sala de aula deva haver criação de um método para cada aluno, mas sim que se aponte qual a melhor forma de interação para cada um deles construindo grupos de aprendizes com características comuns. Trabalhando desta forma se torna possível identificar perfis de aprendizes dentro de um conjunto de estudantes, possibilitando que se possa trabalhar com conteúdos e ambientes de aprendizagem mais adequados aos aprendizes.O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar a arquitetura de um sistema que possibilita a criação de cenários de aprendizagem baseados no perfil do aluno. O docente deve indicar as características que devem ser observadas durante as interações do aprendiz em um dado ambiente de aprendizagem eletrônica. Estas características serão modeladas como informações de contexto, permitindo que os pontos definidos como observáveis sejam organizados e modelados de forma a facilitar a monitoração das interações. A classificação do aluno em um determinando tipo de perfil de aprendizagem, previamente definido pelo docente, é realizado considerando-se as informações sobre o contexto da interação e os tipos de perfis de aprendizagem. Para que seja possível construir os cenários de aprendizagem considerando o perfil do aluno este trabalho propõe criar um relacionamento entre os tipos de perfis de aprendizagem e as estratégias de ensino através das categorias descritoras dos objetos de aprendizagem. / The identification of characteristics of a given student that are important during the teachinglearning process has been the focus of numerous studies in recent years. Teachers, coordinators and pedagogues have defended the notion that each individual presents particular and important characteristics in the developing knowledge process. The need to adapt teaching strategies to the student\'s preferences is a reality in classrooms, being physical or virtual classrooms. However, this does not mean that a method should be created for each student in a classroom, but that the best form of interaction for each of them be identified, building groups of learners with common characteristics. Working in this way makes it possible to identify learner profiles within a group of students, allowing one to work with learning contents and environments more suited to the learners. The objective of this work is to present the architecture of a system that allows for the creation of learning scenarios based on the studen profile. The teacher should point out the features which may be observed during the student interaction in a given e-elearning environment. These features are designed as context information, allowing defined observation points to be organized and modeled for facilitating the monitoring of interactions. The student classification in a given learning profile type, defined previously by the teacher, is realized considering information about the context of interaction and the learning profile types. For the learning environment to build the learning scenarios according to the student profile, this work proposes to create a relationship between the learning profile types and the teaching strategies through the description of learning objects categories.

La notion de contexte est fondamentale dans le champ de l’informatique ubiquitaire. En particulier lorsque des services assistent un utilisateur dans ses activités quotidiennes. Parce qu’elle implique plusieurs disciplines, une maison équipée d’informatique ubiquitaire dédiée au maintien à domicile de personnes âgées demande l’implication d’une variété d’intervenants, tant pour concevoir et développer des services d’assistance, que pour déployer et maintenir l’infrastructure sous-jacente. Cette grande diversité d’intervenants correspond à une diversité de contextes. Ces différents contextes sont généralement étudiés séparément, empêchant toute synergie. Cette thèse présente une méthodologie permettant d’unifier la conception et le développement de services sensibles au contexte et de répondre aux besoins de tout type d’intervenant. Dans un premier temps, nous traitons les besoins des intervenants concernant l’infrastructure de capteurs/actionneurs : installation, maintenance et exploitation. Le modèle d’infrastructure de capteurs et un ensemble de règles en résultant permettent de superviser en continu l’infrastructure et de détecter des dysfonctionnements. Cette supervision simplifie le processus de développement d’applications, en faisant abstraction des problèmes d’infrastructure. Dans un second temps, nous analysons un large éventail de services d’assistance domiciliaire dédié aux personnes âgées, en considérant la variété des besoins des intervenants. Grâce à cette analyse, nous généralisons l’approche de modèle d’infrastructure à tout type de services. Notre méthodologie permet de définir des services de façon unifiée, à travers un langage dédié, appelé Maloya, exprimant des règles manipulant les concepts d’état et d’évènement. Nous avons développé un compilateur de notre langage vers un langage événementiel dont l’exécution s’appuie sur un moteur de traitement d’évènements complexes (CEP). Nous avons validé notre approche en définissant un large éventail de services d’assistance à la personne, à partir de services existants, et concernant l’ensemble des intervenants du domaine. Nous avons compilé et exécuté les services Maloya sur un moteur de traitement d’évènements complexes. Les performances obtenues en terme de latence et d’occupation mémoire sont satisfaisantes pour le domaine et compatible avec une exécution 24 heures sur 24 sur le long terme. / The notion of context is fundamental to the field of pervasive computing, and in particular when such services are dedicated to assist a user in his daily activities. Being at the crossroad of various fields, a context-aware home dedicated to aging in place involves a variety of stakeholders to design and develop assistive services, as well as to deploy and maintain the underlying infrastructure. This considerable diversity of stakeholders raises correspondingly diverse context dimensions : each service relies on specific contexts (e.g., sensor status for a maintenance service, fridge usage for a meal activity recognition service). Typically, these contexts are considered separately, preventing any synergy. This dissertation presents a methodology for unifying the design and development of various domestic context-aware services, which addresses the requirements of all the stakeholders. In a first step, we handle the needs of stakeholders concerned by the sensors infrastructure : installers, maintainers and operators. We define an infrastructure model of a home and a set of rules to continuously monitor the sensor infrastructure and raise failure when appropriate. This continuous monitoring simplifies application development by abstracting it from infrastructure concerns. In a second step, we analyze a range of services for aging in place, considering the whole diversity of stakeholders. Based on this analysis, we generalize the approach developed for the infrastructure to all assistive services. Our methodology allows to define unified services, in the form of rules processing events and states. To express such rules, we define a domain-specific design language, named Maloya. We developed a compiler from our langage using as a backend an event processing language, which is executed on a complex event processing (CEP) engine. To validate our approach, we define a wide range of assistive services with our language, which reimplement existing deployed services belonging to all of the stakeholders. These Maloya services were deployed and successfully tested for their effectiveness in performing the specific tasks of the stakeholders. Latency and memory consumption performance turned out to be fully compatible with a 24/7 execution in the long run.

Humans live in physical world and perform activities that are physical, natural and biological. But humans are forced to shift explicitly from physical world to virtual world and vice-versa in performing computer aided physical activities. The research reported here is investigating: How implicit human-computer interaction can be used as a means to bridge the gap between physical world and virtual world. An agent-centric approach is introduced to extend ubiquitous computing to unlimited geographical space and a framework for implicit human-computer interaction is also discussed. The benefits of standardized ontologies are used as a base upon which this framework is built. This semantic approach together with agent-centric approach is discussed to visualize the visions of implicit Human-Computer Interaction (i-HCI). / PHYVIR project

The prevalent visions of ambient intelligence leverage natural interactions between users and available services in a smart space. In recent years, we have seen a huge interest from industry and academia in using handheld devices to interact with things, places and people in the real world. To facilitate such interactions, things are usually annotated with RFID tags or visual markers. These tags or markers are read by a handheld device equipped with an integrated RFID reader or a camera, in order to fetch related information and initiate further actions. Interacting with the Internet of Things (IoT) in a real environment has become increasingly desirable and feasible. This thesis contributes to the domain of physical interactions with IoT; however, we use a spatial-geometric approach instead of RFID or marker based solutions. Using this approach, for example, a user can point his/her handheld device to an annotated thing, from a distance, for the purpose of interaction. The pointing direction and location is determined based on the fusion of the mobile position and of the accelerometer data of the handheld device. To annotate things, their geometric coordinates are specified and related information or services are associated to them. In this thesis, we present a comprehensive and extensible framework to integrate various physical interactions with IoT into multimedia applications. The framework supports the implementations of pointMe, touchMe, and context-aware based interactions with geometrically annotated IoT. We define specific methods and practices that can be incorporated in order to build the interactions. We realize smart home, atlas learning, presentation interaction, smart haptic interaction, and learning based video interaction game prototypes in order to perform experiments and demonstrate the applicability and potential of the proposed geometric based annotation approach. In the analysis of the interaction techniques of the prototypes, we present the advantages and disadvantages of the geometric based annotation of IoT as seen by potential users, in comparison to RFID tags or visual markers based approaches.

No description available.

De nos jours, la façon d’utiliser les applications mobiles dans le domaine des transports offre de nouveaux défis liés aux spécificités de l’environnement, comme la forte mobilité des terminaux, leur répartition, ou encore le réseau instable de communication. La plupart des applications existantes ont des contraintes de fonctionnement qui les rendent inadaptées si les conditions d’exécution évoluent rapidement. Cela rend intéressant l’utilisation d’un cadre unifié de conception et d’exécution, capable de gérer ces applications. Nos travaux portent, dans un premier temps, sur une étude des applications mobiles et de leur comportement, en fonction du contexte d’exécution. Nous considérons le cas des applications dédiées aux transports, conçues pour accompagner et assister un usager dans son déplacement (navigation, sécurité routière, applications des moyens de transports, etc.). Nous identifions les éléments du contexte propres aux applications fortement mobiles et les modélisons. Dans un second temps, nous proposons un cadre dynamique et sensible au contexte, permettant le déploiement de nouveaux services « à la volée » ainsi que leur adaptation pour une meilleure utilisation des ressources dans des milieux très évolutifs. Nous nous focalisons sur le côté réactif, permettant d’adapter le comportement des applications à leurs nouvelles conditions d’utilisation. Les applications sont décomposées en services de base avec un couplage lâche pour une plus grande flexibilité. Nous utilisons une architecture orientée service, qui permet la réutilisation des services communs à plusieurs applications mais aussi la gestion du contexte au travers de services équivalents mais capables de fonctionner dans des conditions différentes.Nous montrons, grâce au prototype de notre plateforme CATS (Context-Aware Transportation Services), d’abord la faisabilité d’une plateforme à services sur des terminaux portables. Nous testons ensuite plusieurs scénarios afin de démontrer la réactivité des adaptations aux changements de contexte. Dans cette thèse nous proposons une vue d’ensemble sur la création et la gestion des applications sensibles au contexte pour le domaine des transports. Le but de notre démarche est d’assurer le bon fonctionnement de l’ensemble des applications d’un utilisateur, malgré les changements dynamiques du contexte. / The use of mobile applications in the transportation domain raises a multitude ofchallenges, related to the specific execution environment: highly mobile and distributed devices, unstable communication networks, etc. Most of the existing applications are not flexible enough to cope with the rapidly changing environment. It would be interesting to provide a unified frame for the design and execution of such applications, offering management capabilities as well. We propose a study of the mobile applications and their behavior in relation with thecontext. We consider a certain type of applications, designed to accompany and assist users on the move (navigation, traffic security, applications related to a means of transport, etc.). We identify the context elements which are characteristic to highly mobile applications and we propose a context model for the transportation domain. In order to handle multiple applications at a time, we propose a dynamic and contextaware framework, capable of deploying services “on the fly”. We consider applications built through the assembly of services, allowing them to adapt to the execution environment and make the best use of the available resources. We focus on the reaction of the applications to the changes in the environment. Applications are built of services and thus benefit from loose coupling, allowing them to be flexible. A service oriented architecture brings further advantages, notably that services can be shared between applications and that a service can have multiple implementations. We manage the adaptation to new conditions of use through equivalent services built for different context situations. The framework that we have proposed, called CATS (Context-Aware Transportation Services), has been tested thanks to a prototype. We were able to prove the feasibility of the framework as well as evaluate several testing scenarios, showing the reactivity of the applications to context changes. This work proposes a complete view of the design and management of context-aware applications for the transport domain. Our goal is to enhance user experience by ensuring the well functioning of his/her applications despite the ever changing context.

In this paper, a mockup application is created to examine how the commuter’s context, with a focus on the train the commuter is on, can be used to suggest individual alternative travel routes to support the commuter in arriving at the requested destination based on minimal delay with consideration of an uncertainty factor. Based on investigations of various travel applications, four different concepts are created that are used in a user survey where commuters can answer questions regarding, alternative travel routes, uncertainty factors and guidance to the requested destination. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how context can be used in a travel application and which information is relevant to the commuter. Based on the context the commuter will receive proposed alternative travel routes in the event of disruptions in public transport to simplify traveling by public transport, which in turn can attract more people to travel by public transport. A concluded user survey consisting of 47 respondents show the user perspective on how a commuter’s context can be used to recommend alternative routes, which contexts are relevant to provide better support for the commuter and which type of information the commuter thinks would best support them / I detta arbete skapas en mockup-applikation för att undersöka hur resenärens kontext, medfokus på tåget resenären befinner sig på, kan användas för att föreslå individanpassade alternativa resvägar som stöd till resenären för att ankomma till begärd destination medminimal försening och osäkerhetsfaktor i åtanke. Utifrån undersökningar av olika reseapplikationer skapas fyra olika koncept som används i en enkätundersökning där resenärer får besvara frågor angående bland annat, alternativa resvägar, osäkerhetsfaktorer och vägledning till begärd destination. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur kontext kan användas i en reseapplikation och vilken information som är relevant för resenären. Utifrån detta ska resenären få förslag på alternativa resvägar vid störningar i kollektivtrafiken för att ge känslan av trygghet och kontroll, samt förenkla kollektivt resande vilket i sin tur kan locka till att fler väljer att resa kollektivt. En genomförd enkätundersökning bestående av 47 respondenter visar användarperspektivet på hur resenärens kontext kan användas för att rekommendera alternativa resvägar, vilka kontexter som är relevanta för att bidra med bättre stöd för resenären samt vilken typ av information anses stödja resenären bäst.

This masters thesis project, "Occupancy Sensor System", was conducted at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, during the period 2007-04-24 – 2007-12-17. The goal of the project was to design an occupancy sensor system that determines if there exists more than one person in a defined region. The output of this system is for use in a context-aware system at the KTH Center for Wireless Systems (Wireless@KTH). The system is important because there is a need for specific input to context-aware systems concerning occupancy of spaces and because this thesis has focused on a problem that enables new complex and interesting services. Additionally, the specific problem of determining not only occupancy, but if this occupancy is zero, one, many has not been widely examined previously. The significance of zero occupants indicating an empty room has already been recognized as having economic and environmental value in terms of heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and lighting. However, there has not been an effort to differentiate between a person being alone or if more than one person is present. A context-aware system might be able to use this later information to infer that a meeting is taking place in a meeting room, a class taking place in a classroom or that an individual is alone in a conference room, class room, etc. Thus enabling context-aware services to change their behavior based upon the differences in these situations. An occupancy sensor system prototype was designed to monitor a boundary by using a thermal detector, gumstix computer, an analog to digital converter prototype board, laptop computer, and a context broker. The testing and evaluation of the system, proved it to be sound. However, there are still further improvements and tests to be made. These improvements include: dynamic configuration of the system, communication between the different system entities, detection algorithms, and code improvements. Tests measuring accuracy of a detection algorithm and determining optimal detector placement need to be performed. The next step is to design applications that use the context information provided from the occupancy sensor system and expand the system to use multiple detectors. / Examensarbetet "Occupancy Sensor System" genomfördes på Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Stockholm, Sverige, under perioden 2007-04-24 – 2007-12-17. Målet med examensarbetet var att designa ett sensorsystem, som avgör om ett rum är befolkat med fler än en person i ett definierat område. Resultatet av detta system är till för användning i ett kontextmedvetet system som finns i KTH Center for Wireless Systems (Wireless@KTH). Systemet är viktigt eftersom det finns ett behov för specifik input till kontextmedvetna system som berör befolkning av rum och eftersom detta examensarbete har fokuserat på ett problem som möjliggör nya komplexa och intressanta tjänster. Dessutom har det inte tidigare undersökts i vidare bemärkelse hur man kan avgöra om ett rum befolkats av noll, en eller flera personer. Betydelsen av att ett rum är obefolkat har redan ansetts ha ekonomiskt och miljöbetingat värde vad gäller uppvärming, ventilation, luftkonditionering och belysning. Däremot har det inte gjorts ansträngningar att differentiera mellan att en ensam person eller flera är närvarande. Ett kontextmedvetet system skulle kunna använda den senare nämnda informationen för att dra slutsatsen att ett möte pågår i ett mötesrum, en lektion är igång i ett klassrum o.s.v. Detta möjliggör i sin tur för kontextmedvetna tjänster att ändra på sina beteenden baserat på skillnaderna i dessa situationer. En prototyp utvecklades för att övervaka en gräns genom användningen av en termisk detektor, gumstixdator, analog till digital signalkonverterare, bärbar dator och en context broker (kontextförmedlare). Testningar och utvärderingar av systemet visade att systemet var dugligt. Flera förbättringar och tester behöver dock göras i framtiden. Dessa förbättringar inkluderar: dynamisk konfiguration av systemet, kommunikation mellan de olika systementiteterna, detektionsalgoritmer och kodförbättringar. Återstående tester inkluderar mätning av en detektionsalgoritms tillförlitlighet samt optimal placering av detektorer. Nästa steg är att utveckla applikationer som använder kontextinformationen från systemet samt att utveckla systemet till att kunna använda flera detektorer.

Pour fournir aux utilisateurs des services personnalisés d'adaptation en utilisant uniquement les ressources informatiques accessibles dans un environnement de cloud computing, les applications contexte, conscients besoin d'assimiler à la fois le contexte accessible et dérivés, c'est à dire une combinaison de plus d'un senti données et d'informations dans l'environnement. Contexte des données de dépendance, la dépendance qui se pose entre le contexte des données du producteur et du consommateur, peut se présenter dans un système en raison de nombreuses raisons. Mais comme le nombre de dépendances de contexte pour une augmentation des services, la plus complexe, le système devient à gérer. La thèse aborde les questions de la façon d'identifier les dépendances de contexte, représentent des dépendances de contexte tels, puis les réduire dans un système. Dans la première partie de la thèse, nous présentons deux approches efficaces pour déterminer les relations de dépendance entre les différents services du contexte dans l'environnement informatique ubiquitaire pour aider à mieux analyser les services omniprésents. Une approche est basée sur la théorie des graphes, et nous avons utilisé le tri topologique pour déterminer les dépendances de contexte. La deuxième approche est basée sur la résolution des réseaux de contraintes qui détermine si une entité est affectée lorsque l'état d'une certaine entité autre a changé son état, c.-à-détermination de la nature dynamique de la dépendance contexte. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous présentons un mode de représentation des dépendances de contexte au sein d'un système. Notre modèle qui représente les dépendances de contexte est basé sur la théorie des ensembles et la logique des prédicats du premier ordre. Le modèle de représentation contexte de dépendance représente également d'autres sources pour l'acquisition de contexte qui peuvent être utilisés dans une affaire dans laquelle les producteurs contexte privilégiées ne sont pas disponibles pour desservir le contexte souhaité pour le consommateur un contexte pertinent, pas plus. En outre, nous essayons de réduire les dépendances de contexte en présentant l'idée du contexte de profil, qui est basé sur la proposition d'un cadre ouvert pour l'acquisition de contexte, la gestion et la distribution. Cette approche heuristique est basée sur l'idée d'utiliser les nœuds mobiles dans un réseau ad hoc avec superposition de plus de ressources que le producteur lui-même contexte pour stocker diverses informations contextuelles sous la bannière du contexte profil, et en outre, fournir le contexte profil au lieu de chaque contexte individuellement sur la base sur les requêtes des nœuds reçoivent des consommateurs contexte. Réunissant les informations de contexte et de mises à jour de contexte à partir de diverses sources, le soutien aux décisions contexte, conscients peut être mis en œuvre efficacement dans un environnement mobile en s'attaquant aux problèmes de dépendance en utilisant le contexte contexte profil / To provide users with personalized adaptive services only using the accessible computing resources in a cloud environment, context aware applications need to assimilate both the accessed and derived context, i.e. a combination of more than one sensed data and information in the environment. Context data dependency, dependency that arises between the context data producer and consumer, may get introduced in a system due to numerous reasons. But as the number of context dependencies for a service increases, the more complex the system becomes to manage. The thesis addresses issues of how to identify context dependencies, represent such context dependencies and then reduce them in a system. In the first part of the thesis, we present two efficient approaches to determine context dependency relations among various services in ubiquitous computing environment to help better analyse the pervasive services. One approach is based on graph theory, and we have used the topological sort to determine the context dependencies. The second approach is based on solving constraint networks which determines whether an entity is affected when the state of a certain other entity has its state changed, i.e. determining the dynamic nature of context dependency. In the second part of the thesis, we present a mode for representation of context dependencies within a system. Our model that represents context dependencies is based on set theory and first-order predicate logic. The context dependency representation model also represents alternative sources for context acquisition that can be utilized in a case in which the preferred context producers are not available to service the desired context to the relevant context consumer any more. Further, we try to reduce the context dependencies by presenting the idea of profile context, which is based on the proposal of an open framework for context acquisition, management and distribution. This heuristic approach is based on the idea of utilizing mobile nodes in an ad hoc overlay network with more resources than the context producer itself to store various contextual information under the banner of profile context, and further, provide profile context instead of each context individually based on the queries the nodes receive from the context consumers. Bringing together the context information and context updates from various sources, support for context aware decisions can be implemented efficiently in a mobile environment by addressing the issues of context dependency using profile context