Context Aware Browser

I will present the Context Aware Browser, a novel paradigm for context-aware access to Web contents with mobile devices. The idea is to allow automatic download of Web pages, and even automatic execution of Web applications, on user\u27s own mobile device. The Web resources are not simply pushed on the mobile device; rather, they are selected on the basis of the context the user is in: context data (mainly location, but not only) are used to build a query sent to an external search engine, that selects the most relevant Web content. I will describe the idea, provide some examples, show a video of a recently built prototype, present implementation issues, discuss our specific evaluation methodology and the results, and sketch future work and problems. This is an ongoing project, started about five years ago; it is joint work with the Context Aware and Mobile Systems laboratory (smdc.uniud.it) and the MoBe spinoff (www.mobe.it) at Udine University

Developing knowledge of nonadjacent dependencies

Characterizing the nature of linguistic representations and how they emerge during early development is a central goal in the cognitive science of language. One area in which this development plays out is in the acquisition of dependencies—relationships between co-occurring elements in a word, phrase, or sentence. These dependencies often involve multiple levels of representation and abstraction, built up as infants gain experience with their native language. The authors used the Headturn Preference Procedure to systematically investigate the early acquisition of 1 such dependency, the agreement between a subject and verb in French, at 6 different ages between 14 and 24 months. The results reveal a complex developmental trajectory that provides the first evidence that infants might indeed progress through distinct stages in the acquisition of this nonadjacent dependency. The authors discuss how changes in general cognition and representational knowledge (from reflecting surface statistics to higher-level morphological features) might account for their findings. These findings highlight the importance of studying language acquisition at close time intervals over a substantial age range

Designing for mobile interaction:Looking for a pragmatic middleground

The theme of this PhD project is designing for mobile interaction with devices and services, for the accessing, making, and sharing of information, taking into account the dynamic physical and social settings that embrace this interaction. To narrow down this theme, the whole project focuses on the exploitation of social interaction – in particular among senior citizens – to enhance and support mobile interaction. The diffusion of mobile technologies, able to play along with the user in his dynamic environment, is opening new challenges for the design of new services for mobile interaction. Before the first stance over Ubiquitous computing, the importance of understanding not just the individual but the relations among individuals, artifacts, and social groups that surround him was already evident. The research on context-aware computing has vastly investigated the concep

Collaborative Annotation for Context-Aware Retrieval

We discuss how collaborative annotations can be exploited to simplify and improve the management of context and resources in the context-aware retrieval field. We apply this approach to our Context Aware Browser, a general purpose solution to Web content perusal by means of mobile devices, based on the user’s context. Instead of relying on a pool of experts and on a rigid categorization, as it is usually done in the context-aware field, our solution allows the crowd of users to model, control and manage the contextual knowledge through collaboration and participation. We propose two models and we outline an example of application. 1