Workshop on Context Aware Computing: 28 September 2007 Monash University
Seminar/Tutorial on Context Modelling: 25 October 2007 Monash University
Tutorial on Management of Knowledge in Context: 1 November 2007 The University of Queensland

OVERVIEW

Recent developments in computer hardware, software, networking and sensor technologies are making possible a class of systems called context-aware pervasive systems, or in short, context-aware systems. These systems are aware of not only the computational environment, but also, importantly, of the physical environment, of human users, places, locations and things, can respond intelligently to such context information, and might be ubiquitous (not only on users but situated in the environment).

Tremendous opportunities and challenges reside in implementing and organizing such context aware systems on different scales, distribution, and intelligence, ranging from context-aware mobile phones that know what to do with incoming calls, context-aware printing, context aware enterprises that respond with agility to an understanding of physical circumstances, context-aware toys that interacts with children with understanding, context-aware bookshops that interact with personalised interested users, context-aware parking areas that tell drivers where to go, to context-aware road intersections that warn drivers of dangerous situations. We can envision a proliferation of such systems in different walks of life.

The semantics and definition of what constitutes “context” has been widely discussed in the literature. Pascoe [1] suggests that “context is a subjective concept that is defined by the entity that perceives it”. As a subjective concept, context has been described in various ways. Schilit et al. [2] view context as the user’s location, the social situation and the nearby resources. Schmidt et al. [3] describe context using a context model with three dimensions of Environment (physical and social), Self (device state, physiological and cognitive) and Activity (behaviour and task). Chen and Kotz [4] make a distinction between active and passive aspects of context by defining context as “a set of environmental states and settings that either determines an application’s behaviour or in which an application event occurs and is interesting to the user”. Chen and Kotz [4] believe that two types of context provide a deeper understanding of context-aware computing. A more general definition by Dey et al. [5] that is adopted by most of researchers describes context as “any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application, including the user and the applications themselves”. The only drawback of this definition is that it limits the interactions to those only between the user and the applications without considering the possibility of including other parties such as services or network components [6,7].

The question that faces the pervasive computing community is no longer “what is context awareness”, but rather the challenge of enabling smart, proactive applications, which are indeed aware of their context and are capable of verifying and validating that context [9]. This awareness is recognized as essential underpinning for realizing the true potential of pervasive computing [10, 11]. While the general need for context-awareness has been widely accepted, there are many open issues and challenges that need to be addressed in the move towards enabling the next generation of “smart” pervasive computing applications:

general principles and paradigms that govern the assembly of such systems;
techniques and models of the information, structure and run-time behaviour of such systems;
an identification of the classes of such systems, each with their specific design patterns, models, applicable techniques, and design;
principles and tailored methodologies for engineering context-awareness;
general methods for acquiring, modeling, querying [12] and making sense of context information for such systems, with an involvement (and possible interaction) of data analysis techniques and ontologies;
the reliability of such systems given that they need to take action proactively;
the performance of such systems given that they need to be timely in acting;
effective models of user interaction with such systems, including their update, improvements over time, and maintenance and the development of query languages;
enabling proactivity in such systems through learning and reasoning;
integration with the services computing paradigm for the provision of context as a service to a wide range of applications;

SCOPE

The principal aims and objectives of this task force are as follows:

provide a focal point for bringing together research and researchers in Australia working in the area of context-awareness in pervasive computing (it is noteworthy that many of the key research groups and researchers in the area are part of this taskforce);
promote Australian research in this area through publications, focused workshops and web presence;
facilitate research collaboration through the identification of research synergies;
develop materials that will be a useful resource for teaching/learning in this area for postgraduate and PhD scholars as well as researchers who want to begin work in context-awareness;
dentify and publish a comprehensive enumeration of open research issues and future directions for the area – which will be a definitive roadmap for future research;
provide a bridge to foster and enable collaboration between international research groups, Australian researchers and potential industry partners;
build on EII 2005 taskforce achievements, particularly in the area of sensor networks and wireless connectivity.

SIGNIFICANCE

The taskforce topic is strongly aligned with EII theme of “Computing Platforms” – which focuses on highly distributed and networked systems. Pervasive computing (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/pervasive_computing.html ) is an integration of ubiquity and mobility of devices, applications and users. The mobile workforce is steadily growing and it is believed that the mobile workforce spending “will grow faster than IT budgets” and moreover Gartner has urged CIOs to look beyond “mobile workforce enablement projects to […] innovative applications such as wireless enabled intelligent products and services” [8]. Thus, the future focus of organizations and enterprises using mobile applications will aim to support context specific and personalised needs of field-workers to significantly improve business processes and reduce operational costs.

Context-awareness forms an integral part of the underlying support infrastructure in enabling such systems and supporting organizations in realizing the full potential of opportunities provided by the paradigm of anywhere, anytime computing. It is the key for operation in the face of changing and limited computational resources and varying levels of connectivity.

This task-force falls within the stated goals of EII as follows:

1. It fosters collaboration by bringing together EII researchers and industry practitioners in the area through the conducting of workshops.

2. It aims to strengthen Australia’s research profile in this area by a roadmap for future research in the area.

3. It provides a means for international collaboration through the workshop keynote speakers and targeted research visits.

OUTCOMES

The key outcomes and deliverables of this taskforce will be as follows:

Development of an online repository of resources and bibliography for the area of context-aware pervasive computing – linked through the EII website;
The development of tutorial/lecture material on context-aware computing with exercises that facilitate self-learning;
The running of a series of one-day tutorials based on the tutorial/lecture materials and exercises;
The publication of a text-book style edited book in this area that will target researchers and post-graduate students;
The publication of a paper that provides a roadmap for current and future research in this area to serve as a cohesive framework for future PhD scholars;
The conducting of two workshops that will focus on developing the comprehensive roadmap for future research in the area, initiating collaborative research initiatives (amongst taskforce members and with potential industry partners), bringing international experts for interaction with Australian researchers and to present the outcomes of the taskforce.