A Context-Aware Middleware for Context Modeling and Reasoning: A Case-Study in Smart Cultural Spaces

Abstract

The proliferation of smart things and the subsequent emergence of the Internet of Things has motivated the deployment of intelligent spaces that provide automated services to users. Context-awareness refers to the ability of the system to be aware of the virtual and physical environment, allowing more efficient personalization. Context modeling and reasoning are two important aspects of context-aware computing, since they enable the representation of contextual data and inference of high-level, meaningful information. Context-awareness middleware systems integrate context modeling and reasoning, providing abstraction and supporting heterogeneous context streams. In this work, such a context-awareness middleware system is presented, which integrates a proposed context model based on the adaptation and combination of the most prominent context categorization schemata. A hybrid reasoning procedure, which combines multiple techniques, is also proposed and integrated. The proposed system was evaluated in a real-case-scenario cultural space, which supports preventive conservation. The evaluation showed that the proposed system efficiently addressed both conceptual aspects, through means of representation and reasoning, and implementation aspects, through means of performance.

Enhancing user interaction with context-awareness in cultural spaces

“…1, accompanied by other internal or external components. The context categorization schema proposed in [39] and adapted in [14] includes sensed, profiled and derived context. This categorization is depicted in the proposed architecture as follows:…”

“…The proposed middleware implements a context modelling technique presented in [14] The abstract modelling schema is illustrated in Fig. 2, which depicts the five main core classes.…”

“…Each one of the five core classes includes sub-classes that model characteristics such as profile and role. A more detailed analysis of the implemented context model is available in [14]. Mapping the core classes to the cultural space objects, Thing can be considered a sensor attached to an exhibit, a sensor related to functionality or a visitor.…”

“…The middleware integrates context acquisition, modelling, reasoning and dissemination on the server, supporting context-aware applications which act as context consumers. The context modelling technique used by the middleware is based on a model proposed in [14] which utilizes five core classes: thing, activity, location, time and asserted context. The proposed context reasoning technique used by the middleware is a hybrid approach which exploits rules, probabilistic logic and supervised and unsupervised learning in order to address each specific problem with the most suitable technique.…”

An Activity Theory-Based Approach for Context Analysis, Design and Evolution

“…Inadequate modeling or design can give rise to misadaptations that will result in future problems. Several studies and proposals on context-aware software engineering have been published, especially in areas such as requirements gathering [1], software architectures [2], middleware [3,4], programming [5], and testing [6]. However, these approaches only provide pieces of a bigger puzzle that needs to be solved.…”