The Context Modelling Toolkit: A Unified Multi-Layered Context Modelling Approach

Presentation given at EICS 2017, 9th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Lisbon, Portugal.

ABSTRACT: Context awareness plays an important role in recent smart environments and embedded interactions. In order to increase user satisfaction and acceptance, these context-aware solutions should be controllable by end users. Over the last few years we have therefore seen an emerging trend towards visual programming tools for context-aware applications based on simple "IF this THEN that" rules. However, existing solutions often do not support the simple reuse of the "this" part in order to define more sophisticated rules. Given that the desired level of control varies among individuals, we propose a unified multi-layered context modelling approach distinguishing between end users, expert users and programmers. Our Context Modelling Toolkit (CMT) consists of the necessary context modelling concepts and offers a rule-based context processing engine. We further illustrate how end users and expert users might interact with the CMT framework. Finally, we highlight some advantages of our Context Modelling Toolkit by discussing a number of use cases.

Research paper: https://beatsigner.com/publications/the-context-modelling-toolkit-a-unified-multi-layered-context-modelling-approach.pdf

Transcript

1. Sandra Trullemans Lars Van Holsbeeke Beat Signer The Context Modelling Toolkit: A Unified Multi-layered Context Modelling Approach Sandra.Trullemans@vub.be WEB & INFORMATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
2. End User Control of Smart Homes End User
3. Related Work Jigsaw – Humble et al. ICAP – Dey et al. Ghiani et al.
4. IF situation THEN action IF THEN I Sleep IF THEN Message in meeting Situation Situation
5. Where We Can do Better • Sensor-level knowledge required • Hard for complex situations • Trade-off between control and automation Collaboration Reusing Situations
6. Multi-layered Modelling Approach End User Expert User Programmer
7. Context Modelling + Reusing Situations Templates
8. Reusing Situations IF THEN I Sleep IF THEN I Sleep Situation Situation
9. Situation Rules IF THEN I Sleep IF THEN Situation Situation I Sleep
10. Context Modelling + Reusing Situations Templates
11. Templates IF THEN Someone is Sleeping A Time A Bed A Room A State Situation Expert User
12. Filling In a Template IF THEN Someone is Sleeping A Time A Bed A Room A State 20:00 Her Bed Her Bedroom OFF End User
13. Multi-Layered Context Modelling Facts Actions Situations Rules Tool Rule Templates Filled in Template Situations End User Expert User Programmer
14. Context Modelling Toolkit - CMT Programmer
15. Client-Server Interactions
16. Creation of a Template Expert User
17. The IF side of a Situation Rule Expert User
18. A New Situation on the THEN side Expert User
19. Filling In a Template End User
20. Filling In a Template End User
21. Reusing Templates End User
22. Making Context Rules End User
23. Lessons Learned • Importance of intelligibility
24. Context Modelling Toolkit (CMT) End User Expert User Programmer Collaboration Reusing Situations
25. References • Sandra Trullemans, Lars Van Holsbeeke and Beat Signer, The Context Modelling Toolkit: A Unified Multi-Layered Context Modelling Approach, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), 1(1), June 2017, presented at EICS 2017, 9th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2017 – http://beatsigner.com/publications/trullemans_EICS2017.pdf