Progettazione ed implementazione di un sistema di navigazione in realtà aumentata per motocicli

Questa tesi ha l'obiettivo di mostrare i fondamenti per lo sviluppo di un sistema di navigazione per caschi motociclistici in realtà aumentata. L'applicazione implementata sfrutta i concetti principali di realtà aumentata sensor based, cioè basata su geo-localizzazione, al fine di fornire i dati di interesse all'interno del campo visivo del guidatore. Lo scopo del progetto è di realizzare un sistema in grado di interagire con l'utente attraverso i suoi movimenti, e rendere fruibili le informazioni riguardanti la navigazione all'interno di un casco. Non sono pochi i vantaggi che questi strumenti potrebbero introdurre nella guida veicolare, anche in ambito di sicurezza stradale. Infatti, in questo modo, l'utilizzatore del casco non sarà più costretto a distrarsi dalla guida per consultare le informazioni del percorso da seguire, ma avrà la possibilità di vederle proiettate direttamente all'interno del suo campo visivo. Tutte le informazioni che oggi siamo abituati a ricevere da un comune navigatore satellitare (o dal nostro smartphone), saranno disponibili nella visione reale del mondo che ci circonda in modo rapido e intuitivo. Si è scelto di utilizzare Android come sistema operativo per lo sviluppo del sistema, utilizzando la libreria droidAR per la realtà aumentata.

Desing and Validation of a Light Inference System to Support Embedded Context Reasoning

Embedded context management in resource-constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones, autonomous sensors or smart objects) imposes special requirements in terms of lightness for data modelling and reasoning. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art on data representation and reasoning tools for embedded mobile reasoning and propose a light inference system (LIS) aiming at simplifying embedded inference processes offering a set of functionalities to avoid redundancy in context management operations. The system is part of a service-oriented mobile software framework, conceived to facilitate the creation of context-aware applications—it decouples sensor data acquisition and context processing from the application logic. LIS, composed of several modules, encapsulates existing lightweight tools for ontology data management and rule-based reasoning, and it is ready to run on Java-enabled handheld devices. Data management and reasoning processes are designed to handle a general ontology that enables communication among framework components. Both the applications running on top of the framework and the framework components themselves can configure the rule and query sets in order to retrieve the information they need from LIS. In order to test LIS features in a real application scenario, an ‘Activity Monitor’ has been designed and implemented: a personal health-persuasive application that provides feedback on the user’s lifestyle, combining data from physical and virtual sensors. In this case of use, LIS is used to timely evaluate the user’s activity level, to decide on the convenience of triggering notifications and to determine the best interface or channel to deliver these context-aware alerts.d

Design and Validation of a Light Inference System to Support Embedded Context Reasoning

Embedded context management in resource-constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones, autonomous sensors or smart objects) imposes special requirements in terms of lightness for data modelling and reasoning. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art on data representation and reasoning tools for embedded mobile reasoning and propose a light inference system (LIS) aiming at simplifying embedded inference processes offering a set of functionalities to avoid redundancy in context management operations. The system is part of a service-oriented mobile software framework, conceived to facilitate the creation of context-aware applications?it decouples sensor data acquisition and context processing from the application logic. LIS, composed of several modules, encapsulates existing lightweight tools for ontology data management and rule-based reasoning, and it is ready to run on Java-enabled handheld devices. Data management and reasoning processes are designed to handle a general ontology that enables communication among framework components. Both the applications running on top of the framework and the framework components themselves can configure the rule and query sets in order to retrieve the information they need from LIS. In order to test LIS features in a real application scenario, an ?Activity Monitor? has been designed and implemented: a personal health-persuasive application that provides feedback on the user?s lifestyle, combining data from physical and virtual sensors. In this case of use, LIS is used to timely evaluate the user?s activity level, to decide on the convenience of triggering notifications and to determine the best interface or channel to deliver these context-aware alerts.

A novel context ontology to facilitate interoperation of semantic services in environments with wearable devices

The LifeWear-Mobilized Lifestyle with Wearables (Lifewear) project attempts to create Ambient Intelligence (AmI) ecosystems by composing personalized services based on the user information, environmental conditions and reasoning outputs. Two of the most important benefits over traditional environments are 1) take advantage of wearable devices to get user information in a nonintrusive way and 2) integrate this information with other intelligent services and environmental sensors. This paper proposes a new ontology composed by the integration of users and services information, for semantically representing this information. Using an Enterprise Service Bus, this ontology is integrated in a semantic middleware to provide context-aware personalized and semantically annotated services, with discovery, composition and orchestration tasks. We show how these services support a real scenario proposed in the Lifewear project.

User Experience in Human-Technology Interaction. Communication, context and evaluation methodology

En esta Tesis se presentan dos líneas de investigación relacionadas y que contribuyen a las áreas de Interacción Hombre-Tecnología (o Máquina; siglas en inglés: HTI o HMI), lingüística computacional y evaluación de la experiencia del usuario. Las dos líneas en cuestión son el diseño y la evaluación centrada en el usuario de sistemas de Interacción Hombre-Máquina avanzados. En la primera parte de la Tesis (Capítulos 2 a 4) se abordan cuestiones fundamentales del diseño de sistemas HMI avanzados. El Capítulo 2 presenta una panorámica del estado del arte de la investigación en el ámbito de los sistemas conversacionales multimodales, con la que se enmarca el trabajo de investigación presentado en el resto de la Tesis. Los Capítulos 3 y 4 se centran en dos grandes aspectos del diseño de sistemas HMI: un gestor del diálogo generalizado para tratar la Interacción Hombre-Máquina multimodal y sensible al contexto, y el uso de agentes animados personificados (ECAs) para mejorar la robustez del diálogo, respectivamente. El Capítulo 3, sobre gestión del diálogo, aborda el tratamiento de la heterogeneidad de la información proveniente de las modalidades comunicativas y de los sensores externos. En este capítulo se propone, en un nivel de abstracción alto, una arquitectura para la gestión del diálogo con influjos heterogéneos de información, apoyándose en el uso de State Chart XML. En el Capítulo 4 se presenta una contribución a la representación interna de intenciones comunicativas, y su traducción a secuencias de gestos a ejecutar por parte de un ECA, diseñados específicamente para mejorar la robustez en situaciones de diálogo críticas que pueden surgir, por ejemplo, cuando se producen errores de entendimiento en la comunicación entre el usuario humano y la máquina. Se propone, en estas páginas, una extensión del Functional Mark-up Language definido en el marco conceptual SAIBA. Esta extensión permite representar actos comunicativos que realizan intenciones del emisor (la máquina) que no se pretende sean captadas conscientemente por el receptor (el usuario humano), pero con las que se pretende influirle a éste e influir el curso del diálogo. Esto se consigue mediante un objeto llamado Base de Intenciones Comunicativas (en inglés, Communication Intention Base, o CIB). La representación en el CIB de intenciones “no claradas” además de las explícitas permite la construcción de actos comunicativos que realizan simultáneamente varias intenciones comunicativas. En el Capítulo 4 también se describe un sistema experimental para el control remoto (simulado) de un asistente domótico, con autenticación de locutor para dar acceso, y con un ECA en el interfaz de cada una de estas tareas. Se incluye una descripción de las secuencias de comportamiento verbal y no verbal de los ECAs, que fueron diseñados específicamente para determinadas situaciones con objeto de mejorar la robustez del diálogo. Los Capítulos 5 a 7 conforman la parte de la Tesis dedicada a la evaluación. El Capítulo 5 repasa antecedentes relevantes en la literatura de tecnologías de la información en general, y de sistemas de interacción hablada en particular. Los principales antecedentes en el ámbito de la evaluación de la interacción sobre los cuales se ha desarrollado el trabajo presentado en esta Tesis son el Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), la herramienta Subjective Assessment of Speech System Interfaces (SASSI), y la Recomendación P.851 de la ITU-T. En el Capítulo 6 se describen un marco y una metodología de evaluación aplicados a la experiencia del usuario con sistemas HMI multimodales. Se desarrolló con este propósito un novedoso marco de evaluación subjetiva de la calidad de la experiencia del usuario y su relación con la aceptación por parte del mismo de la tecnología HMI (el nombre dado en inglés a este marco es Subjective Quality Evaluation Framework). En este marco se articula una estructura de clases de factores subjetivos relacionados con la satisfacción y aceptación por parte del usuario de la tecnología HMI propuesta. Esta estructura, tal y como se propone en la presente tesis, tiene dos dimensiones ortogonales. Primero se identifican tres grandes clases de parámetros relacionados con la aceptación por parte del usuario: “agradabilidad ” (likeability: aquellos que tienen que ver con la experiencia de uso, sin entrar en valoraciones de utilidad), rechazo (los cuales sólo pueden tener una valencia negativa) y percepción de utilidad. En segundo lugar, este conjunto clases se reproduce para distintos “niveles, o focos, percepción del usuario”. Éstos incluyen, como mínimo, un nivel de valoración global del sistema, niveles correspondientes a las tareas a realizar y objetivos a alcanzar, y un nivel de interfaz (en los casos propuestos en esta tesis, el interfaz es un sistema de diálogo con o sin un ECA). En el Capítulo 7 se presenta una evaluación empírica del sistema descrito en el Capítulo 4. El estudio se apoya en los mencionados antecedentes en la literatura, ampliados con parámetros para el estudio específico de los agentes animados (los ECAs), la auto-evaluación de las emociones de los usuarios, así como determinados factores de rechazo (concretamente, la preocupación por la privacidad y la seguridad). También se evalúa el marco de evaluación subjetiva de la calidad propuesto en el capítulo anterior. Los análisis de factores efectuados revelan una estructura de parámetros muy cercana conceptualmente a la división de clases en utilidad-agradabilidad-rechazo propuesta en dicho marco, resultado que da cierta validez empírica al marco. Análisis basados en regresiones lineales revelan estructuras de dependencias e interrelación entre los parámetros subjetivos y objetivos considerados. El efecto central de mediación, descrito en el Technology Acceptance Model, de la utilidad percibida sobre la relación de dependencia entre la intención de uso y la facilidad de uso percibida, se confirma en el estudio presentado en la presente Tesis. Además, se ha encontrado que esta estructura de relaciones se fortalece, en el estudio concreto presentado en estas páginas, si las variables consideradas se generalizan para cubrir más ampliamente las categorías de agradabilidad y utilidad contempladas en el marco de evaluación subjetiva de calidad. Se ha observado, asimismo, que los factores de rechazo aparecen como un componente propio en los análisis de factores, y además se distinguen por su comportamiento: moderan la relación entre la intención de uso (que es el principal indicador de la aceptación del usuario) y su predictor más fuerte, la utilidad percibida. Se presentan también resultados de menor importancia referentes a los efectos de los ECAs sobre los interfaces de los sistemas de diálogo y sobre los parámetros de percepción y las valoraciones de los usuarios que juegan un papel en conformar su aceptación de la tecnología. A pesar de que se observa un rendimiento de la interacción dialogada ligeramente mejor con ECAs, las opiniones subjetivas son muy similares entre los dos grupos experimentales (uno interactuando con un sistema de diálogo con ECA, y el otro sin ECA). Entre las pequeñas diferencias encontradas entre los dos grupos destacan las siguientes: en el grupo experimental sin ECA (es decir, con interfaz sólo de voz) se observó un efecto más directo de los problemas de diálogo (por ejemplo, errores de reconocimiento) sobre la percepción de robustez, mientras que el grupo con ECA tuvo una respuesta emocional más positiva cuando se producían problemas. Los ECAs parecen generar inicialmente expectativas más elevadas en cuanto a las capacidades del sistema, y los usuarios de este grupo se declaran más seguros de sí mismos en su interacción. Por último, se observan algunos indicios de efectos sociales de los ECAs: la “amigabilidad ” percibida los ECAs estaba correlada con un incremento la preocupación por la seguridad. Asimismo, los usuarios del sistema con ECAs tendían más a culparse a sí mismos, en lugar de culpar al sistema, de los problemas de diálogo que pudieran surgir, mientras que se observó una ligera tendencia opuesta en el caso de los usuarios del sistema con interacción sólo de voz. ABSTRACT This Thesis presents two related lines of research work contributing to the general fields of Human-Technology (or Machine) Interaction (HTI, or HMI), computational linguistics, and user experience evaluation. These two lines are the design and user-focused evaluation of advanced Human-Machine (or Technology) Interaction systems. The first part of the Thesis (Chapters 2 to 4) is centred on advanced HMI system design. Chapter 2 provides a background overview of the state of research in multimodal conversational systems. This sets the stage for the research work presented in the rest of the Thesis. Chapers 3 and 4 focus on two major aspects of HMI design in detail: a generalised dialogue manager for context-aware multimodal HMI, and embodied conversational agents (ECAs, or animated agents) to improve dialogue robustness, respectively. Chapter 3, on dialogue management, deals with how to handle information heterogeneity, both from the communication modalities or from external sensors. A highly abstracted architectural contribution based on State Chart XML is proposed. Chapter 4 presents a contribution for the internal representation of communication intentions and their translation into gestural sequences for an ECA, especially designed to improve robustness in critical dialogue situations such as when miscommunication occurs. We propose an extension of the functionality of Functional Mark-up Language, as envisaged in much of the work in the SAIBA framework. Our extension allows the representation of communication acts that carry intentions that are not for the interlocutor to know of, but which are made to influence him or her as well as the flow of the dialogue itself. This is achieved through a design element we have called the Communication Intention Base. Such r pr s ntation of “non- clar ” int ntions allows th construction of communication acts that carry several communication intentions simultaneously. Also in Chapter 4, an experimental system is described which allows (simulated) remote control to a home automation assistant, with biometric (speaker) authentication to grant access, featuring embodied conversation agents for each of the tasks. The discussion includes a description of the behavioural sequences for the ECAs, which were designed for specific dialogue situations with particular attention given to the objective of improving dialogue robustness. Chapters 5 to 7 form the evaluation part of the Thesis. Chapter 5 reviews evaluation approaches in the literature for information technologies, as well as in particular for speech-based interaction systems, that are useful precedents to the contributions of the present Thesis. The main evaluation precedents on which the work in this Thesis has built are the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Subjective Assessment of Speech System Interfaces (SASSI) tool, and ITU-T Recommendation P.851. Chapter 6 presents the author’s work in establishing an valuation framework and methodology applied to the users’ experience with multimodal HMI systems. A novel user-acceptance Subjective Quality Evaluation Framework was developed by the author specifically for this purpose. A class structure arises from two orthogonal sets of dimensions. First we identify three broad classes of parameters related with user acceptance: likeability factors (those that have to do with the experience of using the system), rejection factors (which can only have a negative valence) and perception of usefulness. Secondly, the class structure is further broken down into several “user perception levels”; at the very least: an overall system-assessment level, task and goal-related levels, and an interface level (e.g., a dialogue system with or without an ECA). An empirical evaluation of the system described in Chapter 4 is presented in Chapter 7. The study was based on the abovementioned precedents in the literature, expanded with categories covering the inclusion of an ECA, the users’ s lf-assessed emotions, and particular rejection factors (privacy and security concerns). The Subjective Quality Evaluation Framework proposed in the previous chapter was also scrutinised. Factor analyses revealed an item structure very much related conceptually to the usefulness-likeability-rejection class division introduced above, thus giving it some empirical weight. Regression-based analysis revealed structures of dependencies, paths of interrelations, between the subjective and objective parameters considered. The central mediation effect, in the Technology Acceptance Model, of perceived usefulness on the dependency relationship of intention-to-use with perceived ease of use was confirmed in this study. Furthermore, the pattern of relationships was stronger for variables covering more broadly the likeability and usefulness categories in the Subjective Quality Evaluation Framework. Rejection factors were found to have a distinct presence as components in factor analyses, as well as distinct behaviour: they were found to moderate the relationship between intention-to-use (the main measure of user acceptance) and its strongest predictor, perceived usefulness. Insights of secondary importance are also given regarding the effect of ECAs on the interface of spoken dialogue systems and the dimensions of user perception and judgement attitude that may have a role in determining user acceptance of the technology. Despite observing slightly better performance values in the case of the system with the ECA, subjective opinions regarding both systems were, overall, very similar. Minor differences between two experimental groups (one interacting with an ECA, the other only through speech) include a more direct effect of dialogue problems (e.g., non-understandings) on perceived dialogue robustness for the voice-only interface test group, and a more positive emotional response for the ECA test group. Our findings further suggest that the ECA generates higher initial expectations, and users seem slightly more confident in their interaction with the ECA than do those without it. Finally, mild evidence of social effects of ECAs was also found: the perceived friendliness of the ECA increased security concerns, and ECA users may tend to blame themselves rather than the system when dialogue problems are encountered, while the opposite may be true for voice-only users.

Modelling and using imperfect context information

Most recently developed context-aware software applicationsmake unrealistic assumptions about the quality of the available context information, which can lead to inappropriate actions by the application and frustration on the part of the user. In this paper, we explore the problem of imperfect context information and some of its causes, and propose a novel approach for modelling incomplete and inaccurate information. Additionally, we present a discussion of our experiences in developing a contextaware communication application, highlighting design issues that are pertinent when developing applications that rely on imperfect context information.

Context obfuscation for privacy via ontological descriptions

Context information is used by pervasive networking and context-aware programs to adapt intelligently to different environments and user tasks. As the context information is potentially sensitive, it is often necessary to provide privacy protection mechanisms for users. These mechanisms are intended to prevent breaches of user privacy through unauthorised context disclosure. To be effective, such mechanisms should not only support user specified context disclosure rules, but also the disclosure of context at different granularities. In this paper we describe a new obfuscation mechanism that can adjust the granularity of different types of context information to meet disclosure requirements stated by the owner of the context information. These requirements are specified using a preference model we developed previously and have since extended to provide granularity control. The obfuscation process is supported by our novel use of ontological descriptions that capture the granularity relationship between instances of an object type.

Modelling context information with ORM

Context-aware applications rely on implicit forms of input, such as sensor-derived data, in order to reduce the need for explicit input from users. They are especially relevant for mobile and pervasive computing environments, in which user attention is at a premium. To support the development of context-aware applications, techniques for modelling context information are required. These must address a unique combination of requirements, including the ability to model information supplied by both sensors and people, to represent imperfect information, and to capture context histories. As the field of context-aware computing is relatively new, mature solutions for context modelling do not exist, and researchers rely on information modelling solutions developed for other purposes. In our research, we have been using a variant of Object-Role Modeling (ORM) to model context. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences and outline some research challenges in this area.

Towards a standards-based autonomic context management system

Pervasive computing applications must be sufficiently autonomous to adapt their behaviour to changes in computing resources and user requirements. This capability is known as context-awareness. In some cases, context-aware applications must be implemented as autonomic systems which are capable of dynamically discovering and replacing context sources (sensors) at run-time. Unlike other types of application autonomy, this kind of dynamic reconfiguration has not been sufficiently investigated yet by the research community. However, application-level context models are becoming common, in order to ease programming of context-aware applications and support evolution by decoupling applications from context sources. We can leverage these context models to develop general (i.e., application-independent) solutions for dynamic, run-time discovery of context sources (i.e., context management). This paper presents a model and architecture for a reconfigurable context management system that supports interoperability by building on emerging standards for sensor description and classification.

What Google Maps can do for Biomedical Data Dissemination: Examples and a Design Study

Background: Biologists often need to assess whether unfamiliar datasets warrant the time investment required for more detailed exploration. Basing such assessments on brief descriptions provided by data publishers is unwieldy for large datasets that contain insights dependent on specific scientific questions. Alternatively, using complex software systems for a preliminary analysis may be deemed as too time consuming in itself, especially for unfamiliar data types and formats. This may lead to wasted analysis time and discarding of potentially useful data. Results: We present an exploration of design opportunities that the Google Maps interface offers to biomedical data visualization. In particular, we focus on synergies between visualization techniques and Google Maps that facilitate the development of biological visualizations which have both low-overhead and sufficient expressivity to support the exploration of data at multiple scales. The methods we explore rely on displaying pre-rendered visualizations of biological data in browsers, with sparse yet powerful interactions, by using the Google Maps API. We structure our discussion around five visualizations: a gene co-regulation visualization, a heatmap viewer, a genome browser, a protein interaction network, and a planar visualization of white matter in the brain. Feedback from collaborative work with domain experts suggests that our Google Maps visualizations offer multiple, scale-dependent perspectives and can be particularly helpful for unfamiliar datasets due to their accessibility. We also find that users, particularly those less experienced with computer use, are attracted by the familiarity of the Google Maps API. Our five implementations introduce design elements that can benefit visualization developers. Conclusions: We describe a low-overhead approach that lets biologists access readily analyzed views of unfamiliar scientific datasets. We rely on pre-computed visualizations prepared by data experts, accompanied by sparse and intuitive interactions, and distributed via the familiar Google Maps framework. Our contributions are an evaluation demonstrating the validity and opportunities of this approach, a set of design guidelines benefiting those wanting to create such visualizations, and five concrete example visualizations.

Of Marx and Makers: an Historical Perspective on Generative Justice

In Marxist frameworks “distributive justice” depends on extracting value through a centralized state. Many new social movements—peer to peer economy, maker activism, community agriculture, queer ecology, etc.—take the opposite approach, keeping value in its unalienated form and allowing it to freely circulate from the bottom up. Unlike Marxism, there is no general theory for bottom-up, unalienated value circulation. This paper examines the concept of “generative justice” through an historical contrast between Marx’s writings and the indigenous cultures that he drew upon. Marx erroneously concluded that while indigenous cultures had unalienated forms of production, only centralized value extraction could allow the productivity needed for a high quality of life. To the contrary, indigenous cultures now provide a robust model for the “gift economy” that underpins open source technological production, agroecology, and restorative approaches to civil rights. Expanding Marx’s concept of unalienated labor value to include unalienated ecological (nonhuman) value, as well as the domain of freedom in speech, sexual orientation, spirituality and other forms of “expressive” value, we arrive at an historically informed perspective for generative justice. 

Layering the Internet-of-Things with Multicasting in Flow-sensors for Internet-of-services

Development of Internet-of-Services will be hampered by heterogeneous Internet-of-Things infrastructures, such as inconsistency in communicating with participating objects, connectivity between them, topology definition & data transfer, access via cloud computing for data storage etc. Our proposed solutions are applicable to a random topology scenario that allow establishing of multi-operational sensor networks out of single networks and/or single service networks with the participation of multiple networks; thus allowing virtual links to be created and resources to be shared. The designed layers are context-aware, application-oriented, and capable of representing physical objects to a management system, along with discovery of services. The reliability issue is addressed by deploying IETF supported IEEE 802.15.4 network model for low-rate wireless personal networks. Flow- sensor succeeded better results in comparison to the typical - sensor from reachability, throughput, energy consumption and diversity gain viewpoint and through allowing the multicast groups into maximum number, performances can be improved.

Context-awareness privacy in data communications

Internet users consume online targeted advertising based on information collected about them and voluntarily share personal information in social networks. Sensor information and data from smart-phones is collected and used by applications, sometimes in unclear ways. As it happens today with smartphones, in the near future sensors will be shipped in all types of connected devices, enabling ubiquitous information gathering from the physical environment, enabling the vision of Ambient Intelligence. The value of gathered data, if not obvious, can be harnessed through data mining techniques and put to use by enabling personalized and tailored services as well as business intelligence practices, fueling the digital economy. However, the ever-expanding information gathering and use undermines the privacy conceptions of the past. Natural social practices of managing privacy in daily relations are overridden by socially-awkward communication tools, service providers struggle with security issues resulting in harmful data leaks, governments use mass surveillance techniques, the incentives of the digital economy threaten consumer privacy, and the advancement of consumergrade data-gathering technology enables new inter-personal abuses. A wide range of fields attempts to address technology-related privacy problems, however they vary immensely in terms of assumptions, scope and approach. Privacy of future use cases is typically handled vertically, instead of building upon previous work that can be re-contextualized, while current privacy problems are typically addressed per type in a more focused way. Because significant effort was required to make sense of the relations and structure of privacy-related work, this thesis attempts to transmit a structured view of it. It is multi-disciplinary - from cryptography to economics, including distributed systems and information theory - and addresses privacy issues of different natures. As existing work is framed and discussed, the contributions to the state-of-theart done in the scope of this thesis are presented. The contributions add to five distinct areas: 1) identity in distributed systems; 2) future context-aware services; 3) event-based context management; 4) low-latency information flow control; 5) high-dimensional dataset anonymity. Finally, having laid out such landscape of the privacy-preserving work, the current and future privacy challenges are discussed, considering not only technical but also socio-economic perspectives.

Dynamically managing sensed context data

This thesis reports on an investigation of the feasibility and usefulness of incorporating dynamic management facilities for managing sensed context data in a distributed contextaware mobile application. The investigation focuses on reducing the work required to integrate new sensed context streams in an existing context aware architecture. Current architectures require integration work for new streams and new contexts that are encountered. This means of operation is acceptable for current fixed architectures. However, as systems become more mobile the number of discoverable streams increases. Without the ability to discover and use these new streams the functionality of any given device will be limited to the streams that it knows how to decode. The integration of new streams requires that the sensed context data be understood by the current application. If the new source provides data of a type that an application currently requires then the new source should be connected to the application without any prior knowledge of the new source. If the type is similar and can be converted then this stream too should be appropriated by the application. Such applications are based on portable devices (phones, PDAs) for semi-autonomous services that use data from sensors connected to the devices, plus data exchanged with other such devices and remote servers. Such applications must handle input from a variety of sensors, refining the data locally and managing its communication from the device in volatile and unpredictable network conditions. The choice to focus on locally connected sensory input allows for the introduction of privacy and access controls. This local control can determine how the information is communicated to others. This investigation focuses on the evaluation of three approaches to sensor data management. The first system is characterised by its static management based on the pre-pended metadata. This was the reference system. Developed for a mobile system, the data was processed based on the attached metadata. The code that performed the processing was static. The second system was developed to move away from the static processing and introduce a greater freedom of handling for the data stream, this resulted in a heavy weight approach. The approach focused on pushing the processing of the data into a number of networked nodes rather than the monolithic design of the previous system. By creating a separate communication channel for the metadata it is possible to be more flexible with the amount and type of data transmitted. The final system pulled the benefits of the other systems together. By providing a small management class that would load a separate handler based on the incoming data, Dynamism was maximised whilst maintaining ease of code understanding. The three systems were then compared to highlight their ability to dynamically manage new sensed context. The evaluation took two approaches, the first is a quantitative analysis of the code to understand the complexity of the relative three systems. This was done by evaluating what changes to the system were involved for the new context. The second approach takes a qualitative view of the work required by the software engineer to reconfigure the systems to provide support for a new data stream. The evaluation highlights the various scenarios in which the three systems are most suited. There is always a trade-o↵ in the development of a system. The three approaches highlight this fact. The creation of a statically bound system can be quick to develop but may need to be completely re-written if the requirements move too far. Alternatively a highly dynamic system may be able to cope with new requirements but the developer time to create such a system may be greater than the creation of several simpler systems.

Situational-Context: A Unified View of Everything Involved at a Particular Situation

As the interest in the Web of Things increases, specially for the general population, the barriers to entry for the use of these technologies should decrease. Current applications can be developed to adapt their behaviour to predefined conditions and users preferences, facilitating their use. In the future,Web of Things software should be able to automatically adjust its behaviour to non-predefined preferences or context of its users. In this vision paper we define the Situational-Context as the combination of the virtual profiles of the entities (things or people) that concur at a particular place and time. The computation of the Situational-Context allow us to predict the expected system behaviour and the required interaction between devices to meet the entities’ goals, achieving a better adjustment of the system to variable contexts.