Designing an Analysis Procedure for Context Aware Applications in Ubiquitous Environments

Abstract

Embedded and invisible computing resources are paving the way to a new paradigm known as ubiquitous computing. In this paradigm, more attention needs to be paid to the development of context aware applications. Several proposals for the development of these applications are based on a context awareness loop with four phases. First, monitoring context information (Collect). Second, analyzing the collected context information to detect changes (Analysis), third, deciding adaptation actions relative to the changes (Decide). Finally, executing the corresponding adaptation actions to deal accordingly with the changes (Act). In this paper, we discuss the Analysis phase. We propose an analysis approach that aims at detecting the context changes and raising notifications when changes occur. The analysis approach is based on thresholds and formalized through an analysis procedure that aims to facilitate the design of the analysis phase to develop context aware applications in ubiquitous environments. The analysis procedure is described by a set of steps used by the application designers to design context aware applications. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of our approach, we present a Smart Building case study and we illustrate the use of our analysis procedure through a Smart Building application scenario.