Addressing the evolution of automated user behaviour patterns by runtime model interpretation

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10270-013-0371-3The use of high-level abstraction models can facilitate and improve not only system development but also runtime system evolution. This is the idea of this work, in which behavioural models created at design time are also used at runtime to evolve system behaviour. These behavioural models describe the routine tasks that users want to be automated by the system. However, users¿ needs may change after system deployment, and the routine tasks automated by the system must evolve to adapt to these changes. To facilitate this evolution, the automation of the specified routine tasks is achieved by directly interpreting the models at runtime. This turns models into the primary means to understand and interact with the system behaviour associated with the routine tasks as well as to execute and modify it. Thus, we provide tools to allow the adaptation of this behaviour by modifying the models at runtime. This means that the system behaviour evolution is performed by using high-level abstractions and avoiding the costs and risks associated with shutting down and restarting the system.This work has been developed with the support of MICINN, under the project EVERYWARE TIN2010-18011, and the support of the Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft and the BMWFJ, Austria.Serral Asensio, E.; Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2013). Addressing the evolution of automated user behaviour patterns by runtime model interpretation. Software and Systems Modeling. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-013-0371-3SWeiser, M.: The computer of the 21st century. Sci. Am. 265, 66–75 (1991)Serral, E., Valderas, P., Pelechano, V.: Context-adaptive coordination of pervasive services by interpreting models during runtime. Comput. J. 56(1), 87–114 (2013)Ajila, S.A., Alam, S.: Using a formal language constructs for software model evolution. In: Third IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing (IEEE-ICSC 2009). Berkeley, CA, USA, pp. 390–395 (2009)Bennett, K., Rajlich, V.: Software Maintenance and Evolution: A Roadmap. In: 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2000). Limerick, Ireland, pp. 75–87 (2000)Mens, T.: The ERCIM working group on software evolution: the past and the future. In: Proceedings of the Joint International and Annual ERCIM Workshops on Principles of Software Evolution (IWPSE) and Software Evolution (Evol) Workshops. ACM (2009)Mens, T., Wermelinger, M., Ducasse, S., Demeyer, S., Hirschfeld, R.: Challenges in software evolution. In: Report of the ChaSE 2005 Workshop Organised by the ERCIM Working Group on Software Evolution. IWPSE-05. Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 13–22 (2005)Hirschfeld, R., Kawamura, K., Berndt, H.: Dynamic service adaptation for runtime system extensions. In: Wireless On-Demand Network Systems, pp. 227–240. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Madonna di Campiglio, Italy (2004)Lientz, B.P., Swanson, E.B.: Software maintenance management: a study of the maintenance of computer applications software in 487 data processing organizations. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA (1980)Buckley, J., Mens, T., Zenger, M., Rashid, A., Kniesel, G.: Towards a taxonomy of software change. J. Softw. Maint. Evolut. Res. Pract. 17(5), 309–332 (2003)Hardian, B., Indulska, J., Henricksen, K.: Balancing autonomy and user control in context-aware systems—a survey. In: CoMoRea, IEEE PerCom Workshops 2006. (2006)Biegel, G., Cahill, V.: A framework for developing mobile, context-aware applications. In: The 2nd IEEE Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication (PerCom), pp. 361–365 (2004)Hofer, T., Schwinger, W., Pichler, M., Leonhartsberger, G., Altmann, J.: Context-awareness on mobile devices—the hydrogen approach. In: The 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 292–302 (2002)Dey, A.K.: Understanding and using context. Pers. Ubiquitous Comput. 5(1), 4–7 (2001)Sheng, Q.Z., Benatallah, B.: ContextUML: a UML-based modelling language for model-driven development of context-aware web services. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile, Business (ICMB’05). pp. 206–212 (2005)Henricksen, K., Indulska, J.: A software engineering framework for context-aware pervasive computing. In: Proceedings of the Second IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2004), pp. 77–86. IEEE, Orlando, FL, USA (2004)Baldauf, M., Dustdar, S., Rosenberg, F.: A survey on context-aware systems. Int. J. Ad Hoc Ubiquitous Comput. 2(4), 263–277 (2007)Ye, J., Coyle, L., Dobson, S., Nixon, P.: Ontology-based models in pervasive computing systems. Knowl. Eng. Rev. 22(4), 315–347 (2007)Chen, H., Finin, T., Joshi, A.: An ontology for context-aware pervasive computing environments. Special Issue on Ontologies for Distributed Systems. Knowl. Eng. Rev. 18(3), 197–207 (2004)Welty, C., McGuinness, D.L.: OWL Web Ontology Language Guide. vol. W3C Recomm. W3C Recommendation 10 Feb 2004 (2004)Shepherd, A.: HTA as a framework for task analysis. Ergonomics 41, 1537–1552 (1998)Serral, E., Valderas, P., Pelechano, V.: Towards the model driven development of context-aware pervasive systems. Special Issue on Context Modelling, Reasoning and Management. PMC 6(2), 254–280 (2010)Serral, E.: Automating Routine Tasks in Smart Environments. A Context-aware Model-driven Approach, Technical University of Valencia (2011)Mellor, S.J., Balcer, M.J.: Executable UML: A Foundation for Model Driven Architecture. Addison-Wesley, Indianapolis (2002)Muñoz, J., Ferragud, D.V.P.: Model Driven Development of Pervasive Systems. Building a Software Factory. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia (2008)Juric, M.B., Sarang, P.: Business Process Execution Language for Web Services: BPEL and BPEL4WS (2006)Loke, S.W., Smanchat, S., Ling, S., Indrawan, M.: Formal mirror models: an approach to just-in-time reasoning for device ecologies. Int. J. Smart Home 2(1), 15–32 (2008)Code Generation conference. http://www.codegeneration.net/cg2010/ (2010)Guy, M.: Report 2: API Good Practice Good practice for provision of and consuming APIs. UKOLN (2009)Bloch, J.: How to design a good API and why it matters. pp. 506–507 (2005)Sirin, E., Parsia, B., Grau, B.C., Kalyanpur, A., Katz, Y.: Pellet: A practical OWL-DL reasoner. J. Web Semant. 5(2), 51–53 (2007)Bernstein, P.: Multiversion concurrency control—theory and algorithms. ACM Trans. Database Syst. 8(4), 465–484 (1983)Cooper, S., Dann, W., Pausch, R.: Alice: a 3-D tool for introductory programming concepts. J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 15, 107–116 (2000)Pérez, F., Valderas, P.: Allowing end-users to actively participate within the elicitation of pervasive system requirements through immediate visualization. In: Fourth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering Visualization (REV), pp. 31–40. IEEE, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (2009)Lieberman, H., Paternó, F., Wulf, V.: End User Development. Springer, Dordrecht (2006)Nielsen, J.: Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc, San Francisco (1993)Van Welie, M., Trætteberg, H.: Interaction Patterns in User, Interfaces. pp. 13–16 (2000)Galitz, W.O.: The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques. Wiley, New York (2002)Kitchenham, B., Pickard, L., Pfleeger, S.L.: Case studies for method and tool evaluation. Softw. IEEE 12(4), 52–62 (1995)Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslén, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer, Berlin (2012)Jones, J.V.: Applied software measurement: assuring productivity & quality (2nd ed’97). McGraw-Hill, New York (1997)Strang, T., Linnhoff-Popien, C.: A context modeling survey. In: First International Workshop on Advanced Context Modelling, Reasoning And Management at UbiComp (2004)Lewis, J.R.: Psychometric Evaluation of an After-Scenario Questionnaire for Computer Usability Studies? The ASQ. SIGCHI Bulletin (1991)Cook, D.J., Youngblood, M., Heierman, I.I.I.E.O., Gopalratnam, K., Rao, S., Litvin, A., Khawaja, F.: MavHome: An Agent-based Smart Home. In: First IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and, Communications (PerCom’03), pp. 521–524 (2003)Hagras, H., Callaghan, V., Colley, M., Clarke, G., Pounds-Cornish, A., Duman, H.: Creating an ambient-intelligence environment using embedded agents. IEEE Intell. Syst. 19(6), 12–20 (2004)Rashidi, P., Cook, D.J.: Keeping the resident in the loop: adapting the smart home to the user. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 39(5), 949–959 (2009)Webb, G.I., Pazzani, M.J., Billsus, D.: Machine learning for user modeling. User model. User-Adapt Interact. 11(1–2), 19–29 (2001)Valiant, L.G.: A theory of the learnable. Commun. ACM 27(11), 1134–1142 (1984)Serral, E., Valderas, P., Pelechano, V.: (2011) Improving the cold-start problem in user task automation by using models at runtime. In: Information Systems Development, pp. 671–683. (2011)García-Herranz, M., Haya, P.A., Esquivel, A., Montoro, G., Alamán, X.: Easing the smart home: semi-automatic adaptation in perceptive environments. J. Univers. Comput. Sci. 14(9), 1529–1544 (2008)Henricksen, K., Indulska, J., Rakotonirainy, A.: Using context and preferences to implement self-adapting pervasive computing applications. Sofw. Pract. Exp. 36(11–12), 1307–1330 (2006)Johnson, P.: Tasks and situations: considerations for models and design principles in human computer interaction, pp. 1199–1204. HCI International. Munich, Germany (1999)Cook, D.J., Das, S.K.: Smart environments: technologies, protocols, and applications, vol. 43. Wiley-Interscience, New York (2005)Paternò, F.: ConcurTaskTrees: an Engineered approach to model-based design of interactive systems. In: The Handbook of Analysis for Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 483–500 (2002)Pribeanu, C., Limbourg, Q., Vanderdonckt1, J.: Task modelling for context-sensitive user interfaces. In: Interactive Systems: Design, Specification, and Verification (DSV-IS), pp. 49–68. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2001, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (2001)Souchon, N., Limbourg, Q., Vanderdonckt., J.: Task modelling in multiple contexts of use. In: Interactive Systems: Design, Specification, and Verification (DSV-IS), pp. 59–73 (2002)Huang, R., Cao, Q., Zhou, J., Sun, D., Su, Q.: Context-aware active task discovery for pervasive computing. In: International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering, pp. 463–466. IEEE, Wuhan, China (2008)Sousa, J.P., Poladian, V., Garlan, D., Schmerl, B.: Task-based adaptation for ubiquitous computing. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 36(3), 328–340 (2006)Masuoka, R., Parsia, B., Labrou, Y.: Task Computing—The Semantic Web Meets Pervasive Computing. In: 2nd International Semantic Web Conference on the Semantic Web (ISWC 2003), pp. 866–881. vol. LNCS 2870. Sanibel Island, FL, USA (2003)Oreizy, P., Gorlick, M.M., Taylor, R.N., Heimbigner, D., Johnson, G., Medvidovic, N., Quilici, A., Rosenblum, D.S., Wolf, A.L.: An architecture-based approach to self-adaptive software. IEEE Intell. Syst. Their Appl. 14(3), 54–62 (1999)Floch, J., Hallsteinsen, S., Stav, E., Eliassen, F., Lund, K., Gjørven, E.: Using Architecture Models for Runtime Adaptability. IEEE Software. 23(2), 62–70 (2006)Morin, B., Jézéquel, J.-M., Fleurey, F., Solberg, A.: Models at runtime to support dynamic adaptation. IEEE Comput. Soc. pp. 46–53 (2009)Cetina, C., Giner, P., Fons, J., Pelechano, V.: Using feature models for developing self-configuring smart homes. In: Fifth International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems, pp. 179–188. IEEE, Valencia, Spain (2009)Garlan, D., Schmerl, B.: Using architectural models at runtime: research challenges. In: Proceedings of the European Workshop on Software Architectures, pp. 200–205. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, St Andrews, UK (2004)Blumendorf, M., Lehmann, G., Feuerstack, S., Albayrak, S.: Executable models for human-computer interaction. In: Interactive Systems, Design, Specification, and Verification Workshop (DSV-IS 2008), pp. 238–251. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Kingston, Canada (2008)Ballagny, C., Hameurlain, N., Barbier, F.: MOCAS: a state-based component model for self-adaptation. In: Third IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems, pp. 206–215. IEEE, San Francisco, California (2009)Amoui, M., Derakhshanmanesh, M., Ebert, J., Tahvildari, L.: Achieving dynamic adaptation via management and interpretation of runtime models. J. Syst. Softw. 85(12), 2720–2737 (2012)Blair, G., Bencomo, N., France, R.B.: [email protected]. IEEE Comput. 42, 22–27 (2009)Zhang, J., Cheng, B.H.C.: Model based development of dynamically adaptive software. In: International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE’06), pp. 371–380. ACM, Shanghai, China (2006

Designing for user attention: a method for supporting unobtrusive routine tasks

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Science of Computer Programming. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Science of Computer Programming, [Volume 78, Issue 10, 1 October 2013, Pages 1987–2008] DOI 10.1016/j.scico.2013.03.002The automation of user routine tasks is one of the most important challenges in the development of Ambient Intelligence systems. However, this automation may be annoying since some tasks may grab users attention in inappropriate situations. Since user attention is a valuable resource, task automation must behave in a considerate manner demanding user attention only when it is required. To address this issue, this work presents a systematic method for supporting the design and automation of unobtrusive routine tasks that can adjust their obtrusiveness level at runtime according to the user attentional resources and context. This method proposes to design the routine tasks that the system must carry out and how they must interact with users in terms of obtrusiveness. The method also provides a software infrastructure that makes the execution of the tasks at the appropriate obtrusiveness degree a reality. Finally, the system has been validated by means of usefulness and performance tests and a practical case study that demonstrates the correctness and applicability of our approach without compromising system performance.This work has been developed with the support of MICINN under the project EVERYWARE TIN2010-18011 and co-financed with ERDF, in the grants program FPU, and it has also been supported by the Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft and the BMWFJ, Austria.Gil Pascual, M.; Serral Asensio, E.; Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2013). Designing for user attention: a method for supporting unobtrusive routine tasks. Science of Computer Programming. 78(10):1987-2008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2013.03.002S19872008781

Developing Unobtrusive Mobile Interactions: a Model Driven Engineering approach

In Ubiquitous computing environments, people are surrounded by a lot of embedded services. With the inclusion of pervasive technologies such as sensors or GPS receivers, mobile devices turn into an effective communication tool between users and the services embedded in their environment. All these services compete for the attentional resources of the user. Thus, it is essential to consider the degree in which each service intrudes the user mind when services are designed. In order to prevent service behavior from becoming overwhelming, this work, based on Model Driven Engineering foundations, is devoted to develop services according to user needs. In this thesis, we provide a systematic method for the development of mobile services that can be adapted in terms of obtrusiveness. That is, services can be developed to provide their functionality at different obtrusiveness levels by minimizing the duplication of efforts. For the system specification, a modeling language is defined to cope with the particular requirements of the context-aware user interface domain. From this specification, following a sequence of well-defined steps, a software solution is obtained.Gil Pascual, M. (2010). Developing Unobtrusive Mobile Interactions: a Model Driven Engineering approach. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/12745Archivo delegad

Unobtrusive Personalized Services in Ambient Media Environments

In the age of ambient media, people are surrounded by lots of physical objects (media objects) for rendering the digital world in the natural environment. These media objects should interact with users in a way that is not disturbing for them. To address this issue, this work presents a design strategy for augmenting the world around us with personalized services capable of adjusting its obtrusiveness level (i.e., the extent to which each service intrudes the user's mind) by using the appropriate media objects for each situation

Supporting ambient assisting living by using executable context-adaptive task models

[EN] The amount of elderly people with chronic diseases is constantly increasing, and current health systems are not able to provide a proper supervision. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a new research area that stands for the use of pervasive and mobile technologies in order to increase the quality of life, wellbeing and safety of elderly people. In this work, we present a tool-supported methodology to facilitate the creation of AAL systems through the use of executable models. AAL services are specified by executable context-adaptive task models by using concepts of a high level of abstraction, which facilitate the participation of medical professionals in the AAL specification. The task models are then interpreted and executed at runtime by a software infrastructure that automates the AAL services as specified. Thus, task models are the only implementation of the services, making it easy their further evolution after system deployment. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of our methodology, we have evaluated it in the development of an AAL system for assisting the patients of a nursing home.Serral Asensio, E.; Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2014). Supporting ambient assisting living by using executable context-adaptive task models. International Journal On Advances in Software. 7(1&2):77-87. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/52206S778771&

Towards fast metamodel evolution in LiquidML

The software industry is applying Model-driven development approaches due to a core set of benefits, such as raising the level of abstraction and reducing coding errors. However, their underlying modeling languages tend to be quite static, making their evolution hard, specifically when the corresponding metamodel does not support primitives and/or functionalities required in specific business domains. This paper presents an extension to the LiquidML language to support fast metamodel evolution by allowing experts to abstract new language concepts from primitives while supporting automatic tool evolution and zero application downtime. To probe our claims, we evaluate the evolutionary capabilities of existing modeling languages and LiquidML in a real world language extension.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science

[EN] Scientific workflows (SWFs) are widely used to model processes in e-Science. SWFs are executed by means of workflow management systems (WMSs), which orchestrate the workload on top of computing infrastructures. The advent of cloud computing infrastructures has opened the door of using on-demand infrastructures to complement or even replace local infrastructures. However, new issues have arisen, such as the integration of hybrid resources or the compromise between infrastructure reutilisation and elasticity. In this article, we present an ad hoc solution for managing workflows exploiting the capabilities of cloud orchestrators to deploy resources on demand according to the workload and to combine heterogeneous cloud providers (such as on-premise clouds and public clouds) and traditional infrastructures (clusters) to minimise costs and response time. The work does not propose yet another WMS but demonstrates the benefits of the integration of cloud orchestration when running complex workflows. The article shows several configuration experiments from a realistic comparative genomics workflow called Orthosearch, to migrate memory-intensive workload to public infrastructures while keeping other blocks of the experiment running locally. The article computes running time and cost suggesting best practices.This paper wants to acknowledge the support of the EUBrazilCC project, funded by the European Commission (STREP 614048) and the Brazilian MCT/CNPq N. 13/2012, for the use of its infrastructure. The authors would like also to thank the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad' for the project 'Clusters Virtuales Elasticos y Migrables sobre Infraestructuras Cloud Hibridas' with reference TIN2013-44390-R.Carrión Collado, AA.; Caballer Fernández, M.; Blanquer Espert, I.; Kotowski, N.; Jardim, R.; Dávila, AMR. (2017). Managing Workflows on top of a Cloud Computing Orchestrator for using heterogeneous environments on e-Science. International Journal of Web and Grid Services. 13(4):375-402. doi:10.1504/IJWGS.2017.10003225S37540213