OSMOSIS - Semantic Work-Spaces for Smart Environments

Abstract

Recent advances in device miniaturization have clearly contributed to make Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing closer to reality. However, such vision is still far from being accomplished because some difficult problems remain to be solved. It is still hard to develop applications that take advantage of the disappearance of the real/virtual barrier, and to support such applications in a way that can be easily integrated with current environments. We propose a middleware approach (OSMOSIS) that employs pragmatic approach to solve the previous drawbacks so that ubiquitous computing can become a reality. It provides a file-system abstraction in order to make real objects virtual so that each real-world object has a virtual counterpart in the form of a file. Thus, the topology of a workplace, or a house, is reflected in the directories and subdirectories organization. The OSMOSIS middleware combines the use of RFID, Location and Context Management and a Policy Engine in order to provide to applications a context-aware file-system enriched with semantic-information.