Towards the Composition of Services by End-Users: A Mobile-Based Solution

[EN] Nowadays, we live surrounded by heterogeneous and distributed services that are available to people anytime and anywhere. Even though these services can be used individually, it is through their synchronized and combined usage that end-users are provided with added value. However, existing solutions to service composition are not targeted at ordinary end-users. In fact, these solutions require technical knowledge to deal with the technological heterogeneity in which they are offered to the market. To this end, the paper presents a tool-supported platform that is aided by: (1) EUCalipTool, an end-user mobile tool that implements a Domain Specific Visual Language, which has been specifically designed to compose services on mobile devices; (2) a Faceted Service Registry, which plays the role of gateway between service implementations and end-users, hiding technological issues from the latter when including services in a composition; and (3) a Generation Module, which transforms end-user descriptions into BPMN specification that are interpreted by an execution infrastructure developed for that purpose.This work has been developed with the financial support of the Spanish State Research Agency under the project TIN2017-84094-R and co-financed with ERDF.Valderas, P.; Torres Bosch, MV.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2020). Towards the Composition of Services by End-Users: A Mobile-Based Solution. 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A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4Currently, technologies and applications evolve to create eco-systems made up of a myriad of heterogeneous and distributed services that are accessible anytime and anywhere. Even though these services can be used individually, it is their coordinated and combined usage what provide an added value to end-users. In addition, user¿s wide adoption of mobile devices for daily activities have fostered a shift in the role played by end-users towards Internet data and services. However, existing solutions to service composition are not targeted to ordinary end-users. More easy-to-use tools have to be offered to end-users to make sure that they are successfully accepted and used by them. To this end, the work presented in this paper supports end-users in the creation of service compositions by using mobile devices. We present a Domain Specific Visual Language (DSVL) for end-users that allows them to create service compositions. A tool specifically designed for mobile devices supports this DSVL.This work has been developed with the support of MINECO under the project SMART ADAPT TIN2013-42981-P and co-financed with ERDF.Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Torres Bosch, MV.; Mansanet Benavent, I.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2016). A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4S131Athreya B, Bahmani F, Diede A, Scaffidi C (2012) End-user programmers on the loose: a study of programming on the phone for the phone. In IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), Innsbruck, Austria, pp. 75–82Atoma (2015) Atoomam, a touch of magic. Accesible at: https://www.atooma.com/ . 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Herramienta de usuario final para la composición de servicios en el IoT

[EN] There are two basic premises in this work. First, the change of the interaction user-machine favored by the Web 2.0 and the Internet of things. Second, the fact that, year after year, use of mobile devices -especially, smartphones and tablets- has been increased its extent and intensity. The combination of these two factors has led, among other consequences, to promote a new profile of end-user mobile devices. He requires not only applications that provide access to data, but application that provide flexible and accessible mechanisms in order to generate new content application in both their professional and private lives. We believe that there has not been a satisfactory response to this demand. Following this diagnosis, this paper proposes a tool that allows the end-user to compose services based primarily on the interaction provided by the Internet of Things. The specific objective pursued is to allow end-users, without programming experience or process modeling, to generate a complete model with active interaction in services.[ES] Dos son las premisas de partida de este trabajo. En primer lugar, la constatación irrefutable del cambio de interacción máquina-usuario favorecido por la Web 2.0 y el Internet de las cosas. En segundo lugar, el hecho de que, año tras año, el uso de dispositivos móviles –en especial, los teléfonos inteligentes y las tabletas– haya visto incrementarse su extensión e intensidad. La combinación de estos dos factores ha llevado, entre otras consecuencias, a favorecer un nuevo perfil de usuario final de dispositivos móviles que exige no ya solo aplicaciones que le proporcionen acceso a datos, sino que les proporcionen mecanismos ágiles y accesibles para generar nuevo contenido con aplicación tanto en su vida profesional como privada. Consideramos que aún no ha habido una respuesta satisfactoria a esta demanda. Atendiendo a este diagnóstico, este trabajo propone una herramienta que permita al usuario final componer servicios, apoyándose principalmente en la interacción que proporciona el Internet de las cosas. El objetivo concreto perseguido consiste en posibilitar a usuarios finales, sin experiencia en programación o modelado de procesos, generar un modelo completo con interacción activa en servicios. Dos son las premisas de partida de este trabajo. En primer lugar, la constatación irrefutable del cambio de interacción máquina-usuario favorecido por la Web 2.0 y el Internet de las cosas. En segundo lugar, el hecho de que, año tras año, el uso de dispositivos móviles –en especial, los teléfonos inteligentes y las tabletas– haya visto incrementarse su extensión e intensidad. La combinación de estos dos factores ha llevado, entre otras consecuencias, a favorecer un nuevo perfil de usuario final de dispositivos móviles que exige no ya solo aplicaciones que le proporcionen acceso a datos, sino que les proporcionen mecanismos ágiles y accesibles para generar nuevo contenido con aplicación tanto en su vida profesional como privada. Consideramos que aún no ha habido una respuesta satisfactoria a esta demanda. Atendiendo a este diagnóstico, este trabajo propone una herramienta que permita al usuario final componer servicios, apoyándose principalmente en la interacción que proporciona el Internet de las cosas. El objetivo concreto perseguido consiste en posibilitar a usuarios finales, sin experiencia en programación o modelado de procesos, generar un modelo completo con interacción activa en servicios. Dos son las premisas de partida de este trabajo. En primer lugar, la constatación irrefutable del cambio de interacción máquina-usuario favorecido por la Web 2.0 y el Internet de las cosas. En segundo lugar, el hecho de que, año tras año, el uso de dispositivos móviles –en especial, los teléfonos inteligentes y las tabletas– haya visto incrementarse su extensión e intensidad. La combinación de estos dos factores ha llevado, entre otras consecuencias, a favorecer un nuevo perfil de usuario final de dispositivos móviles que exige no ya solo aplicaciones que le proporcionen acceso a datos, sino que les proporcionen mecanismos ágiles y accesibles para generar nuevo contenido con aplicación tanto en su vida profesional como privada. Consideramos que aún no ha habido una respuesta satisfactoria a esta demanda. Atendiendo a este diagnóstico, este trabajo propone una herramienta que permita al usuario final componer servicios, apoyándose principalmente en la interacción que proporciona el Internet de las cosas. El objetivo concreto perseguido consiste en posibilitar a usuarios finales, sin experiencia en programación o modelado de procesos, generar un modelo completo con interacción activa en servicios.Rubio Garrido, F. (2014). Herramienta de usuario final para la composición de servicios en el IoT. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/59806Archivo delegad

Ami-deu : un cadre sémantique pour des applications adaptables dans des environnements intelligents

Cette thèse vise à étendre l’utilisation de l'Internet des objets (IdO) en facilitant le développement d’applications par des personnes non experts en développement logiciel. La thèse propose une nouvelle approche pour augmenter la sémantique des applications d’IdO et l’implication des experts du domaine dans le développement d’applications sensibles au contexte. Notre approche permet de gérer le contexte changeant de l’environnement et de générer des applications qui s’exécutent dans plusieurs environnements intelligents pour fournir des actions requises dans divers contextes. Notre approche est mise en œuvre dans un cadriciel (AmI-DEU) qui inclut les composants pour le développement d’applications IdO. AmI-DEU intègre les services d’environnement, favorise l’interaction de l’utilisateur et fournit les moyens de représenter le domaine d’application, le profil de l’utilisateur et les intentions de l’utilisateur. Le cadriciel permet la définition d’applications IoT avec une intention d’activité autodécrite qui contient les connaissances requises pour réaliser l’activité. Ensuite, le cadriciel génère Intention as a Context (IaaC), qui comprend une intention d’activité autodécrite avec des connaissances colligées à évaluer pour une meilleure adaptation dans des environnements intelligents. La sémantique de l’AmI-DEU est basée sur celle du ContextAA (Context-Aware Agents) – une plateforme pour fournir une connaissance du contexte dans plusieurs environnements. Le cadriciel effectue une compilation des connaissances par des règles et l'appariement sémantique pour produire des applications IdO autonomes capables de s’exécuter en ContextAA. AmI- DEU inclut également un outil de développement visuel pour le développement et le déploiement rapide d'applications sur ContextAA. L'interface graphique d’AmI-DEU adopte la métaphore du flux avec des aides visuelles pour simplifier le développement d'applications en permettant des définitions de règles étape par étape. Dans le cadre de l’expérimentation, AmI-DEU comprend un banc d’essai pour le développement d’applications IdO. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent une optimisation sémantique potentielle des ressources pour les applications IoT dynamiques dans les maisons intelligentes et les villes intelligentes. Notre approche favorise l'adoption de la technologie pour améliorer le bienêtre et la qualité de vie des personnes. Cette thèse se termine par des orientations de recherche que le cadriciel AmI-DEU dévoile pour réaliser des environnements intelligents omniprésents fournissant des adaptations appropriées pour soutenir les intentions des personnes.Abstract: This thesis aims at expanding the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) by facilitating the development of applications by people who are not experts in software development. The thesis proposes a new approach to augment IoT applications’ semantics and domain expert involvement in context-aware application development. Our approach enables us to manage the changing environment context and generate applications that run in multiple smart environments to provide required actions in diverse settings. Our approach is implemented in a framework (AmI-DEU) that includes the components for IoT application development. AmI- DEU integrates environment services, promotes end-user interaction, and provides the means to represent the application domain, end-user profile, and end-user intentions. The framework enables the definition of IoT applications with a self-described activity intention that contains the required knowledge to achieve the activity. Then, the framework generates Intention as a Context (IaaC), which includes a self-described activity intention with compiled knowledge to be assessed for augmented adaptations in smart environments. AmI-DEU framework semantics adopts ContextAA (Context-Aware Agents) – a platform to provide context-awareness in multiple environments. The framework performs a knowledge compilation by rules and semantic matching to produce autonomic IoT applications to run in ContextAA. AmI-DEU also includes a visual tool for quick application development and deployment to ContextAA. The AmI-DEU GUI adopts the flow metaphor with visual aids to simplify developing applications by allowing step-by-step rule definitions. As part of the experimentation, AmI-DEU includes a testbed for IoT application development. Experimental results show a potential semantic optimization for dynamic IoT applications in smart homes and smart cities. Our approach promotes technology adoption to improve people’s well-being and quality of life. This thesis concludes with research directions that the AmI-DEU framework uncovers to achieve pervasive smart environments providing suitable adaptations to support people’s intentions

MicroApps Development on Mobile Phones

The definition of an approach supporting an End-User in the development of mobile applications is a hard task because of the characteristics and the limitations of mobile device interfaces. In this paper we present an approach and a tool to enable End-Users to visually compose their own applications directly on their mobile phone. To this aim, a touchable interface and an ad-hoc visual language have been developed, enabling the user to compose simple focused applications, named MicroApps. The user has not in charge the creation of the user interface that is automatically generated