UbiREAL: Realistic Smartspace Simulator for Systematic Testing

UbiComp 2006 : 8th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing , Sep 17-21, 2006 , Orange County, CA, USAIn this paper, we propose a simulator for facilitating reliable and inexpensive development of ubiquitous applications where each application software controls a lot of information appliances based on the state of external environment, user’s contexts and preferences. The proposed simulator realistically reproduces behavior of application software on virtual devices in a virtual 3D space. For this purpose, the simulator provides functions to facilitate deployment of virtual devices in a 3D space, simulates communication among the devices from MAC level to application level, and reproduces the change of physical quantities (e.g., temperature) caused by devices (e.g., air conditioners). Also, we keep software portability between virtual devices and real devices. As the most prominent function of the simulator, we provide a systematic and visual testing method for testing whether a given application software satisfies specified requirements

Quality assessment technique for ubiquitous software and middleware

The new paradigm of computing or information systems is ubiquitous computing systems. The technology-oriented issues of ubiquitous computing systems have made researchers pay much attention to the feasibility study of the technologies rather than building quality assurance indices or guidelines. In this context, measuring quality is the key to developing high-quality ubiquitous computing products. For this reason, various quality models have been defined, adopted and enhanced over the years, for example, the need for one recognised standard quality model (ISO/IEC 9126) is the result of a consensus for a software quality model on three levels: characteristics, sub-characteristics, and metrics. However, it is very much unlikely that this scheme will be directly applicable to ubiquitous computing environments which are considerably different to conventional software, trailing a big concern which is being given to reformulate existing methods, and especially to elaborate new assessment techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper selects appropriate quality characteristics for the ubiquitous computing environment, which can be used as the quality target for both ubiquitous computing product evaluation processes ad development processes. Further, each of the quality characteristics has been expanded with evaluation questions and metrics, in some cases with measures. In addition, this quality model has been applied to the industrial setting of the ubiquitous computing environment. These have revealed that while the approach was sound, there are some parts to be more developed in the future

SmartMirror: A Glance into the Future

In todays society, information is available to us at a glance through our phones, our laptops, our desktops, and more. But an extra level of interaction is required in order to access the information. As technology grows, technology should grow further and further away from the traditional style of interaction with devices. In the past, information was relayed through paper, then through computers, and in todays day and age, through our phones and multiple other mediums. Technology should become more integrated into our lives - more seamless and more invisible. We hope to push the envelope further, into the future. We propose a new simple way of connecting with your morning newspaper. We present our idea, the SmartMirror, information at a glance. Our system aims to deliver your information quickly and comfortably, with a new modern aesthetic. While modern appliances require input through modules such as keyboards or touch screen, we hope to follow a model that can function purely on voice and gesture. We seek to deliver your information during your morning routine and throughout the day, when taking out your phone is not always possible. This will cater to a larger audience base, as the average consumer nowadays hopes to accomplish tasks with minimal active interaction with their adopted technology. This idea has many future applications, such as integration with new virtual or augmented reality devices, or simplifying consumer personal media sources

Ubiquitous Emotion Analytics and How We Feel Today

Emotions are complicated. Humans feel deeply, and it can be hard to bring clarity to those depths, to communicate about feelings, or to understand others’ emotional states. Indeed, this emotional confusion is one of the biggest challenges of deciphering our humanity. However, a kind of hope might be on the horizon, in the form of emotion analytics: computerized tools for recognizing and responding to emotion. This analysis explores how emotion analytics may reflect the current status of humans’ regard for emotion. Emotion need no longer be a human sense of vague, indefinable feelings; instead, emotion is in the process of becoming a legible, standardized commodity that can be sold, managed, and altered to suit the needs of those in power. Emotional autonomy and authority can be surrendered to those technologies in exchange for perceived self-determination. Emotion analytics promises a new orderliness to the messiness of human emotions, suggesting that our current state of emotional uncertainty is inadequate and intolerable

Proximal business intelligence on the semantic web

This is the post-print version of this article. The official version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 Springer.Ubiquitous information systems (UBIS) extend current Information System thinking to explicitly differentiate technology between devices and software components with relation to people and process. Adapting business data and management information to support specific user actions in context is an ongoing topic of research. Approaches typically focus on providing mechanisms to improve specific information access and transcoding but not on how the information can be accessed in a mobile, dynamic and ad-hoc manner. Although web ontology has been used to facilitate the loading of data warehouses, less research has been carried out on ontology based mobile reporting. This paper explores how business data can be modeled and accessed using the web ontology language and then re-used to provide the invisibility of pervasive access; uncovering more effective architectural models for adaptive information system strategies of this type. This exploratory work is guided in part by a vision of business intelligence that is highly distributed, mobile and fluid, adapting to sensory understanding of the underlying environment in which it operates. A proof-of concept mobile and ambient data access architecture is developed in order to further test the viability of such an approach. The paper concludes with an ontology engineering framework for systems of this type – named UBIS-ONTO

Metadata and ontologies for organizing students’ memories and learning: standards and convergence models for context awareness

Este artículo trata de las ontologías que sirven para la comprensión en contexto y la Gestión de la Información Personal (PIM)y su aplicabilidad al proyecto Memex Metadata(M2). M2 es un proyecto de investigación de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill para mejorar la memoria digital de los alumnos utilizando tablet PC, la tecnología SenseCam de Microsoft y otras tecnologías móviles(p.ej. un dispositivo de GPS) para capturar el contexto del aprendizaje. Este artículo presenta el proyecto M2, dicute el concepto de los portafolios digitales en las actuales tendencias educativas, relacionándolos con las tecnologías emergentes, revisa las ontologías relevantes y su relación con el proyecto CAF (Context Awareness Framework), y concluye identificando las líneas de investigación futuras.This paper focuses on ontologies supporting context awareness and Personal Information Management (PIM) and their applicability in Memex Metadata (M2) project. M2 is a research project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to improve student digital memories using the tablet PC, Microsoft’s SenseCam technology, and other mobile technologies (e.g., a GPS device) to capture context. The M2 project offers new opportunities studying students’ learning with digital technologies. This paper introduces the M2 project; discusses E-portfolios and current educational trends related to pervasive computing; reviews relevant ontologies and their relationship to the projects’ CAF (context awareness framework), and concludes by identifying future research directions