Showing papers on "Context awareness published in 2000"

Sensing techniques for mobile interaction

Abstract: We describe sensing techniques motivated by unique aspects of human-computer interaction with handheld devices in mobile settings. Special features of mobile interaction include changing orientation and position, changing venues, the use of computing as auxiliary to ongoing, real-world activities like talking to a colleague, and the general intimacy of use for such devices. We introduce and integrate a set of sensors into a handheld device, and demonstrate several new functionalities engendered by the sensors, such as recording memos when the device is held like a cell phone, switching between portrait and landscape display modes by holding the device in the desired orientation, automatically powering up the device when the user picks it up the device to start using it, and scrolling the display using tilt. We present an informal experiment, initial usability testing results, and user reactions to these techniques.

Implicit human computer interaction through context

Abstract: In this paper the term “implicit human-computer interaction” is defined. It is discussed how the availability of processing power and advanced sensing technology can enable a shift in HCI from explicit interaction, such as direct manipulation GUIs, towards a more implicit interaction based on situational context. In the paper, an algorithm is given based on a number of questions to identify applications that can facilitate implicit interaction. An XML-based language to describe implicit HCI is proposed. The language uses contextual variables that can be grouped using different types of semantics as well as actions that are called by triggers. The term of perception is discussed and four basic approaches are identified that are useful when building context-aware applications. Two examples, a wearable context awareness component and a sensor-board, show how sensor-based perception can be implemented. It is also discussed how situational context can be exploited to improve input and output of mobile devices.

Using while moving: HCI issues in fieldwork environments

Abstract: “Using while moving” is the basic ability fieldwork users require of a mobile computer system. These users come from a wide range of backgrounds but have in common an extremely mobile and dynamic workplace. We identify four specific characteristics of this class of users: dynamic user configuration, limited attention capacity, high-speed interaction, and context dependency. A prototype is then presented that was designed to assist fieldworkers in data collection tasks and to explore the HCI design issues involved. The prototype was used in an extensive field trial by a group of ecologists observing giraffe behavior in Kenya. Following this trial, improvements were made to the prototype interface which in turn was tested in a subsequent field trial with another group of ecologists. From this experience, we have formulated our resulting ideas about interface design for fieldworkers into two general principles: Minimal Attention User Interfaces (MAUIs) and context awareness. The MAUI seeks to minimize the attention, though not necessarily the number of interactions, required from the user in operating a device. Context awareness enables the mobile device to provide assistance based on a knowledge of its environment.

A Context-Based Infrastructure for Smart Environments

Abstract: In order for a smart environment to provide services to its occupants, it must be able to detect its current state or context and determine what actions to take based on the context. We discuss the requirements for dealing with context in a smart environment and present a software infrastructure solution we have designed and implemented to help application designers build intelligent services and applications more easily. We describe the benefits of our infrastructure through applications that we have built.

Context awareness by analysing accelerometer data

Abstract: In this paper we describe continuing work being carried out as part of the Bristol Wearable Computing Initiative. We are researching processing techniques for data from accelerometers which enable the wearable computer to determine the user's activity. Techniques already employed by others have been explored and we propose new methods for analysing the data delivered by these devices. We try to minimise the number of devices needed by using a single X-Y accelerometer device. Using our techniques we have adapted our GPS based Tourist Guide application to vary its multimedia presentation according to the user's activity as well as location.

The what, who, where, when, why and how of context-awareness

Abstract: When humans talk with humans, they are able to use implicit situational information, or context, to increase the conversational bandwidth. This ability to use contextual information does not transfer well to human-computer interaction. Part of the problem is the impoverished mechanisms for providing input to computers. Another aspect of the problem is that often we don't know what contextual information is relevant, useful, or even how to use it. However, by improving the computer's access to its context, we can increase the richness of communication in human-computer interaction and make it possible to produce more useful computational services.

Context-Aware Telephony Over WAP

Abstract: In this paper we introduce a novel approach to sharing context in order to enhance the social quality of remote mobile communication. We provide an analysis of how people start a conversation in situations where they meet physically, especially looking at the influence of the situation. This is then compared to the way remote communication is initiated using mobile phones. The lack of knowledge about the situation at the other end leads to the initiation of calls which are not appropriate to that situation. The solution we propose is to exchange context information before initiating the call. We implemented this concept using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The application Context-Call offers a phone interface that provides information about the receiver when setting up a call. Based on that information, the caller can then decide to place the call, to leave a message or to cancel the call. Privacy issues that arise from this technology are discussed also.

Adding some smartness to devices and everyday things

Abstract: In mobile computing, context-awareness indicates the ability of a system to obtain and use information on aspects of the system environment. To implement context-awareness, mobile system components have to be augmented with the ability to capture aspects of their environment. Recent work has mostly considered location-awareness, and hence augmentation of mobile artifacts with locality. We discuss augmentation of mobile artifacts with diverse sets of sensors and perception techniques for awareness of context beyond location. We report experience from two projects, one on augmentation of mobile phones with awareness technologies, and the other on embedding of awareness technology in everyday non-digital artifacts.

Exploiting context to support social awareness and social navigation

Abstract: The utilization of context (such as user location and user profile) opens up many new avenues for encouraging social interaction. The web-based GUIDE system enables visitors to the city of Lancaster to interact with an information model that represents the city via a hand-held and context-aware tourist guide. Our current work is focusing on extending the functionality of the (previously single user) GUIDE system by making parts of the information model public. In particular, the physical location of visitors can now be represented in the information space in order to enable a form of social awareness among city visitors. In addition, visitors can also change the information space by, for example, augmenting existing descriptions of the city's attractions with their own ratings. We believe that explicitly capturing and tagging the context associated with ratings provides a powerful mechanism for automatically tailoring information presented to the user.

Enabling the use of context in interactive applications

Abstract: Context is an important, yet poorly understood and poorly utilized source of information in interactive computing. It will be of particular importance in the new millennium as users move away from their desktops and into settings where their contexts are changing rapidly. Context is difficult to use because, unlike other forms of user input, there is no common, reusable way to handle it. As a result, context-aware applications have been built in an ad hoc manner, making it difficult to build new applications or evolve existing ones. In this research, we are examining the requirements of context-aware applications, building a toolkit, which enables the use of context and fulfills these requirements, and testing the usability of this toolkit for application designers.

Sensor-Based Context-Awareness for Situated Computing

Abstract: It can be argued that pervasive access to information and services becomes more valuable when they are related and adapted to the real world situations of their use. We discuss sensor-based approaches to awareness of such situations based on experience from two projects, one investigating context-awareness as add-on technology for mobile devices, and the other exploring the use of everyday things as context suppliers.

Group awareness support in collaborative writing systems

Abstract: Collaborative writing systems allow co-authors, spread out across different locations, to work together sharing common documents. One key element that, in most cases, is poorly supported in collaborative writing systems is group awareness. Many research studies have defined several types of group awareness. The paper presents a comparative analysis of workspace and conversational awareness support in collaborative writing systems. For this purpose, we adapted R. Vertegaal's (1997) framework in order to analyze the group awareness mechanisms for collaborative writing. This framework considers the workspace and conversational awareness elements. Based on these elements, we analyzed and compared Quilt, GROVE, PREP, SASSE, Calliope and Alliance collaborative writing systems. Finally, we identified their strengths and weaknesses.

Distributed and Parallel Systems

Abstract: Distributed and Parallel Systems A selection of best papers of the 4th Austrian-Hungarian Workshop on Distributed and Parallel Systems are presented in this issue. The series of workshops started as a local meeting in 1992 and it grew to an interna- tionally acclaimed event of computing techniques covering not just parallel and distributed programming in the classical sense but also emerging topics like ubiquitous and pervasive computing, cluster and grid technology, multimedia and challenging applications. Thoai et al focus on a fundamental problem of parallel program development: debugging. Since the execu- tion of parallel programs is nondeterministic, forcing a certain execution trace among the many possible ones requires sophisticated replay techniques. The paper presents how the probe effect can be eliminated and the overhead can be minimised during replay based debugging. The paper by Lovas et al. presents parallel implementation of an ultra-short range weather prediction method, supported by a graphical development tool, P-GRADE. The paper introduces all stages of the program development from editing to performance analysis. A novel approach for resource discovery is presented by Juhi?½asz et al. A grid system should be able to provide brokering services for potentially thousands and millions of resources. Most approaches nowadays are either centralised or flat and in such a way are not really scaleable. The paper proposes a hierarchical fault-tolerant multicast discovery scheme. The paper by Heinzlreiter et al. presents a grid middleware that enables realising novel interactive visu- alisation systems in grid environments. Tools like the Grid Visualisation Kernel (GVK) are leading towards pioneering grid based Virtual Reality applications. Fault diagnosis is the central issue of the paper by Polgi?½ar et al. They propose a modification of P-graph model in order to improve fault diagnosis in complex multiprocessor systems. Bi?½osa et al. introduce advanced fault tolerating mechanisms for Distributed Maple, a parallel computer alge- bra system. The tolerance of failed links and nodes is enhanced by adding reconnection and restart mechanisms as well as change the virtual root node in order to avoid overall failure. Emerging mobile applications raise the issue of context awareness. Ferscha et al. introduce the techniques related to context sensing, representation and delivery and proposes a new approach for context based mobile computing. Goldschmidt et al. analyse the requirements of adaptive multimedia servers where the dynamic migration of multimedia applications is supported and an agent-based infrastructure is proposed. The idea is supported by a specification and implementation of a CORBA-based interface. The progress of multimedia over the internet is obvious that raises the need of intelligent video caches. The paper by Schojer et al. introduces a proxy cache that allows fast and efficient adaptation of video based on the MPEG-4 standard. These papers demonstrate the wide spectrum of the workshop topics: from distributed computing via grids towards novel complex systems. Zsolt Nemeth Dieter Kranzlmuller Peter Kacsuk Jens Volkert

Situated interaction in ubiquitous computing

Abstract: The situations in which human-computer interaction takes place are increasingly varied, as computers become highly portable and embedded in everyday environments. Research reported from different communities (Wearable Computing, Mobile Computing, HCI, CSCW, Augmented Reality) indicates that awareness of situations can lead to improvement of human-computer interaction. We propose a workshop at CHI2000 to provide a forum to discuss situational awareness and situated interaction.With the availability of sensing technologies, such as measuring the surrounding light conditions, the motion of the user, the orientation of a display, users' position relative to an information appliance, the number of users in front of a device, users' emotional state (bio-sensors), etc., this situational context can be captured and used as additional input to the system. The interaction process can benefit from the additional knowledge about the situation [1].

Context-awareness and multimodality

Abstract: User interfaces must adapt to the growing dissemination of computing power in our everyday environment. Computing devices and applications are now used beyond the desktop. Mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing allow users to integrate computing in the flow of their activities in the physical world. But most of our systems are still deaf and blind to anything that isn’t explicitly input by the user. By taking the environmental interaction context into account, context-awareness promises easier interaction and new possibilities for applications. On the surface, there are many similarities between the needs of multimodal and context-aware applications. What can we learn from multimodality to build context-aware systems ? What are the common research problems ? To investigate these issues, we give a brief overview of context-aware systems, including a simple classification. We describe some abstractions we have found useful to help build context-aware applications. We then turn to the main problems facing the developers of context-aware systems and relate them to issues encountered in multimodal systems development.

Design Issues for Conversational User Interfaces: Animating and Controlling 3D Faces

Abstract: Software agents and assistants, together with their adequate visual representations, lead to so-called social user interfaces, incorporating natural language interaction, context awareness and anthropomorphic avatars. Today’s challenge is to build a suitable visualization architecture for anthropomorphic conversational user interfaces, and to design believable and appropriate face-to-face interactions, including human attributes, such as emotions. An integrated approach to these tasks is presented.

Proceedings of the CHI 2000 Workshop on "The What, Who, Where, When, Why and How of Context-Awareness"

Abstract: When humans talk with humans, they are able to use implicit situational information, or context, to increase the conversational bandwidth. This ability to use contextual information does not transfer well to human-computer interaction. Part of the problem is the impoverished mechanisms for providing input to computers. Another aspect of the problem is that often we don't know what contextual information is relevant, useful, or even how to use it. However, by improving the computer's access to its context, we can increase the richness of communication in human-computer interaction and make it possible to produce more useful computational services.

A context-aware hoarding mechanism for location-dependent information systems

Abstract: When used in an outdoor environment mobile information systems often suffer from the disadvantages of wireless WANs, especially low bandwidth, high delay, and frequent disconnections. Hoarding is an effective method to overcome these disadvantages by transferring information which is probably needed by the user in advance. In this paper we propose a generic, context-aware hoarding mechanism. When selecting the information to hoard, it considers the user's future location as well as the expected speed of movement. In contrast to existing hoarding mechanisms it is universally applicable for different types of location-dependent, mobile information systems. Its flexibility allows it to rely on different knowledge sources in order to get information about a user's context.