Trust-based model for privacy control in context aware systems

In context-aware systems, there is a high demand on providing privacy solutions to users when they are interacting and exchanging personal information. Privacy in this context encompasses reasoning about trust and risk involved in interactions between users. Trust, therefore, controls the amount of information that can be revealed, and risk analysis allows us to evaluate the expected benefit that would motivate users to participate in these interactions. In this paper, we propose a trust-based model for privacy control in context-aware systems based on incorporating trust and risk. Through this approach, it is clear how to reason about trust and risk in designing and implementing context-aware systems that provide mechanisms to protect users' privacy. Our approach also includes experiential learning mechanisms from past observations in reaching better decisions in future interactions. The outlined model in this paper serves as an attempt to solve the concerns of privacy control in context-aware systems. To validate this model, we are currently applying it on a context-aware system that tracks users' location. We hope to report on the performance evaluation and the experience of implementation in the near future

Managing contextual information in semantically-driven temporal information systems

Context-aware (CA) systems have demonstrated the provision of a robust solution for personalized information delivery in the current content-rich and dynamic information age we live in. They allow software agents to autonomously interact with users by modeling the user’s environment (e.g. profile, location, relevant public information etc.) as dynamically-evolving and interoperable contexts. There is a flurry of research activities in a wide spectrum at context-aware research areas such as managing the user’s profile, context acquisition from external environments, context storage, context representation and interpretation, context service delivery and matching of context attributes to users‘ queries etc. We propose SDCAS, a Semantic-Driven Context Aware System that facilitates public services recommendation to users at temporal location. This paper focuses on information management and service recommendation using semantic technologies, taking into account the challenges of relationship complexity in temporal and contextual information

Users and Assessors in the Context of INEX: Are Relevance Dimensions Relevant?

The main aspects of XML retrieval are identified by analysing and comparing the following two behaviours: the behaviour of the assessor when judging the relevance of returned document components; and the behaviour of users when interacting with components of XML documents. We argue that the two INEX relevance dimensions, Exhaustivity and Specificity, are not orthogonal dimensions; indeed, an empirical analysis of each dimension reveals that the grades of the two dimensions are correlated to each other. By analysing the level of agreement between the assessor and the users, we aim at identifying the best units of retrieval. The results of our analysis show that the highest level of agreement is on highly relevant and on non-relevant document components, suggesting that only the end points of the INEX 10-point relevance scale are perceived in the same way by both the assessor and the users. We propose a new definition of relevance for XML retrieval and argue that its corresponding relevance scale would be a better choice for INEX

Understanding Older Vehicle Users: An Interpretative Approach

Future adaptations in vehicle design should be linked in some parts to the age-related changes often faced by the older users. The aim of this research is to investigate the multiple age-related changes of Chinese older vehicle users in order to assist designers to better understand current and future older users’ needs. Although qualitative interpretative approaches have rarely been applied in the field of traffic gerontology research, they are widely used in current design research to explore persons’ lived experiences, behaviours and emotions. Therefore, this study employed qualitative research methods consisting of observation, interview, travel logbook and co-discovery to explore older vehicle users’ travel needs. The interpretative analysis confirmed that multiple methods such as interview, travel logbook, and co-discovery are useful to gain a holistic understanding of older drivers’ travel needs. However, the one journey driving observation cannot provide valuable categories to explore older users’ multiple travel needs due to daily living context absence in the one trip experiment. It is clear that the useful methods for determining research for older users will depend on the product. The findings demonstrate that Chinese future older generations are more concerned about their age-related differences from social and cultural perspective rather than physiological perspective. Social and cultural context play important role to shape older vehicle users’ future travel needs. From design a point of view, understanding the social activity and cultural context surrounds older vehicle users should make it possible to predict older drivers’ needs related to vehicle property. Keywords: Older Vehicle Users; Cultural Context; Social Context; Vehicle Design; Qualitative Research</p

Linking in Context

This paper explores the idea of dynamically adding multi-destination links to Web pages, based on the context of the pages and users, as a way of assisting Web users in their information finding and navigation activities. The work does not make any preconceived assumptions about the information needs of its users. Instead it presents a method for generating links by adapting to the information needs of a community of users and for utilizing these in assisting users within this community based on their individual needs. The implementation of this work is carried out within a multi-agent framework where concepts from open hypermedia are extended and exploited. In this paper, the entities involved in the process of generating and using ?context links? as well as the techniques they employ to achieve their tasks, are described. The result of an experiment carried out to investigate the implications of linking in context on information finding, is also provided

Assessing user experience of context-aware interfaces in a retail store

Context-awareness is becoming an essential functionality of mobile applications. However, it remains challenging to capture the contextual experience in innovation research, since early-stage technologies have not reached maturity to be implemented in a real-life context. Moreover, users have difficulty in evaluating implicit interactions with context-aware interfaces since imagination of users is limited. Assuming that context impacts user experience, virtual reality (VR) provides an untapped potential for the domain of innovation research. The aim of this study (in progress) is to investigate the potential of user tests in virtual reality (here virtual retail store) for human-computer interaction to better match the needs of users and designers. Initially, the mock-up has been implemented in a retail store with its context-awareness being simulated using the Wizard of Oz methodology (N = 18). This approach is found to be time-consuming and not sufficient for evaluating radical context-aware innovations

Three-dimensional context-aware tailoring of information

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 EmeraldPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of context in ubiquitous computing. Personal Information Managers exploit the ubiquitous paradigm in mobile computing to integrate services and programs for business and leisure. Recognising that every situation is constituted by information and events, context will vary depending on the situation in which users find themselves. The paper aims to show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted after testing on a group of real world users. The test group used the application for approximately half a day each and performed a number of tasks. Findings – The results from the survey show the viability of tailoring contextual information to provide users with timely and relevant information. Among the questions in the questionnaire the users were asked to state whether or not they would like to use this application in their daily life. Statistically significant results indicate that the users found value in using the application. Originality/value – This work is a new exploration and implementation of context by integrating three dimensions of context: social information, activity information, and geographical position