Context awareness

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Context awareness originated as a term from ubiquitous computing or as so-called pervasive computing which sought to deal with linking changes in the environment with computer systems, which are otherwise static. Although it originated as a computer science term, it has also been applied to business theory in relation to business process management issues.[1]

Contents

[edit] Computer science

In computer science it refers to the idea that computers can both sense, and react based on their environment. Devices may have information about the circumstances under which they are able to operate and based on rules, or an intelligent stimulus, react accordingly. The term context-awareness in ubiquitous computing was introduced by Schilit (1994) [2][3]. Context aware devices may also try to make assumptions about the user's current situation. Dey (2001) define context as "any information that can be used to characterise the situation of entities." [4]

While the computer science community has initially perceived the context as a matter of user location, as Dey discuss in [4], in the last few years this notion has been considered not simply as a state, but part of a process in which users are involved; thus, sophisticated and general context models have been proposed (see [5] for a updated survey), to support context-aware applications which use them to (a) adapt interfaces, (b) tailor the set of application-relevant data, (c) increase the precision of information retrieval, (d) discover services, (e) make the user interaction implicit, or (f) build smart environments. For example: A context aware mobile phone may know that it is currently in the meeting room, and that the user has sat down. The phone may conclude that the user is currently in a meeting and reject any unimportant calls[6] .

Context aware systems are concerned with the acquisition of context (e.g. using sensors to perceive a situation), the abstraction and understanding of context (e.g. matching a perceived sensory stimulus to a context), and application behaviour based on the recognized context (e.g. triggering actions based on context)[7] .

Context awareness is regarded as an enabling technology for ubiquitous computing systems. Context awareness is used to design innovative user interfaces, and is often used as a part of ubiquitous and wearable computing. It is also beginning to be felt in the internet with the advent of hybrid search engines. Schmidt, Beigl & Gellersen [8] define human factors and physical environment as two important aspects relating to computer science.

Human factors related context is structured into three categories: information on the user (knowledge of habits, emotional state, biophysiological conditions, ...), the user’s social environment (co-location of others, social interaction, group dynamics, ...), and the user’s tasks (spontaneous activity, engaged tasks, general goals,...). Likewise, context related to physical environment is structured into three categories: location (absolute position, relative position, co-location,...), infrastructure (surrounding resources for computation, communication, task performance...), and physical conditions (noise, light, pressure,...).

[edit] Business process design

In Business process design, the term context-awareness is expanded past the bounds of computer design systems to deal with business management issues. Incorporating flexibility into process design using the same strategies which have been successful in context-aware pervasive systems.[1]

[edit] Social context

From a psychology point of view, context awareness is the idea that societies may be constructed, however they are still based on reality, and hence should be aware of the history and context surrounding social interactions[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Rosemann, M., & Recker, J. (2006). "Context-aware process design: Exploring the extrinsic drivers for process flexibility". T. Latour & M. Petit 18th international conference on advanced information systems engineering. proceedings of workshops and doctoral consortium: 149-158, Luxembourg: Namur University Press. 
  2. ^ B. Schilit, N. Adams, and R. Want. (1994). "Context-aware computing applications" (PDF). IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (WMCSA'94), Santa Cruz, CA, US: 89-101. 
  3. ^ Schilit, B.N. and Theimer, M.M. (1994). "Disseminating Active Map Information to Mobile Hosts". IEEE Network 8 (5): 22–32. doi:10.1109/65.313011. 
  4. ^ a b Dey, Anind K. (2001). "Understanding and Using Context". Personal Ubiquitous Computing 5 (1): 4–7. doi:10.1007/s007790170019. 
  5. ^ Cristiana Bolchini and Carlo A. Curino and Elisa Quintarelli and Fabio A. Schreiber and Letizia Tanca (2007). "A data-oriented survey of context models" (PDF). SIGMOD Rec. (ACM) 36 (4): 19--26. doi:10.1145/1361348.1361353. ISSN 0163-5808. http://carlo.curino.us/documents/curino-context2007-survey.pdf. 
  6. ^ Schmidt, A.; Aidoo, K.A.; Takaluoma, A.; Tuomela, U.; Van Laerhoven, K; Van de Velde W. (1999). "Advanced Interaction in Context" (PDF). 1th International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing (HUC99), Springer LNCS, Vol. 1707: 89-101. 
  7. ^ Schmidt, Albrecht (2003). "Ubiquitous Computing - Computing in Context". PhD dissertation, Lancaster University.. 
  8. ^ Albrecht Schmidt, Michael Beigl and Hans-W. Gellersen (December 1999). "There is more to Context than Location" (PDF). Computers & Graphics Journal, Elsevier 23 (6): 893–902. http://www.teco.uni-karlsruhe.de/~albrecht/publication/draft_docs/context-is-more-than-location.pdf. 
  9. ^ Blank, T. O. (1989). "Social psychology, contexts of aging, and a contextual world view". The International Journal of Aging & Human Development 29 (3): 225–239. PMID 2634031. 
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