Context and Preference Modelling

Introduction

Context modelling and management

Context-aware applications are typically constructed using context models and abstractions that are informal, lacking in expressiveness and designed for narrow application domains. The PACE project has made significant advances in context modelling that address these limitations. The project has developed a set of generic modelling constructs that support:

The PACE project is also actively investigating issues in management of context information and constructing tools for automating the mapping of context models into management infrastructure for pervasive computing environments.

Programming models and abstractions

As an extension of its research in context modelling, the PACE project has a strong interest in developing further abstractions that can be used to simplify the task of building context-aware applications. This work has two strands:

Impact

The context models and programming abstractions developed by the PACE project lead to extremely flexible context-aware applications that are easily evolved to accommodate arbitrary types of context information as the environment or user requirements change, and customised to support new behaviours in response to the existing context information. These capabilities have been demonstrated in a variety of prototypes developed by the project team for the telecommunications domain. In the future, PACE will continue to work with DSTC participants to apply the models to additional domains including enterprise collaboration, health-care and defence.