An Integrated Formal Task Specification Method for Smart Environments

This thesis is concerned with the development of interactive systems for smart environments. In such scenario different interaction paradigms need to be supported and according methods and development strategies need to be applied to comprise not only explicit interaction (e.g., pressing a button to adjust the light) but also implicit interactions (e.g., walking to the speaker’s desk to give a talk) to assist the user appropriately. A task-based modeling approach is introduced allowing basing the implementing of different interaction paradigms on the same artifact

Translating UAN into CSP

We define a translation from the User Action Notation (UAN) to the process algebra Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). UAN is an informal notation, used for task modeling and design. Translating a UAN task description to CSP provides a base for rigorous development of an interactive system. The resulting CSP description is a suitable abstract starting point for development, as it describes externally visible behaviour with no mention of presented or underlying state. Our translation covers all UAN constructs except for waiting, interruptibility and true concurrency which cannot be expressed in interleaving, un-timed CSP. Our approach integrates task models, typically based on user-oriented concerns, into rigorous development which is typically system-oriented. It provides a bases for a framework for formal development of interactive systems