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GVU Technical Report Series

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Author: Abowd, Gregory D. × Author: Dey, Anind K. ×

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    The Family Intercom: Developing a Context-Aware Audio Communication System
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001) Nagel, Kristine Susanne ; Kidd, Cory D. ; O'Connell, Thomas ; Dey, Anind K. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    We have begun an exploration of how ubiquitous computing technology can facilitate different forms of audio communication within a family. We are interested in both intra- and inter-home communication. Though much technology exists to support this human-human communication, none of them make effective use of the context of the communication partners. In the Aware Home Research Initiative, we are exploring how to augment a domestic envi-ronment with knowledge of the location and activities of its occupants. The Family Intercom project is trying to explore how this context can be used to create a variety of lightweight communication opportunities between collo-cated and remote family members. It is particularly important that context about the status of the callee be communicated to the caller, so that the appropriate social protocol for continuing a conversation can be performed by the caller. In this paper, we will discuss our initial prototypes to develop a testbed for exploring these context-aware audio communication services.
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    Distributed Mediation of Imperfectly Sensed Context in Aware Environments
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000) Dey, Anind K. ; Mankoff, Jennifer C. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    Current context-aware services make the assumption that the context they are dealing with is correct. However, in reality, both sensed and interpreted context is often imperfect. In this paper, we describe an architecture that supports the building of context-aware services that assume context is imperfect and allows for the refinement of this imperfect context by mobile users in aware-environments. We discuss the architectural mechanisms and design heuristics that arise from supporting this refinement over space and time. We illustrate the use of our architecture and heuristics through two example context-aware services, an In-Out Board for the home and a situation-aware reminder tool.
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    The Conference Assistant: Combining Context-Awareness with Wearable Computing
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999) Dey, Anind K. ; Futakawa, Masayasu ; Salber, Daniel ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    We describe the Conference Assistant, a prototype mobile, context-aware application that assists conference attendees. We discuss the strong relationship between context-awareness and wearable computing and apply this relationship in the Conference Assistant. The application uses a wide variety of context and enhances user interactions with both the environment and other users. We describe how the application is used and the context-aware architecture on which it was based.
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    An Architecture to Support Context-Aware Applications
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999) Dey, Anind K. ; Salber, Daniel ; Futakawa, Masayasu ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    Context is an important, yet poorly utilized source of information in interactive computing. It is difficult to use because, unlike other forms of user input, there is not common, reusable way to handle context. Most context-aware applications have been built in an ad hoc manner. We discuss the requirements for dealing with context and present an architectural solution we have designed and implemented to help application designers build context-aware applications more easily. We illustrate the use of the architecture through a context-aware application that assists conference attendees.
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    Designing for Ubiquitous Computing: A Case Study in Context Sensing
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999) Salber, Daniel ; Dey, Anind K. ; Orr, Robert J. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    This paper reports ongoing experience with the design and everyday use of an electronic context-enabled in/out board. We designed this application as part of the development of a context toolkit and it proved a fruitful test-bed for investigating issues of context sensor fusion. We describe the first version of the application that used a single context sensor and explain some usability problems it raised. We analyze the limitations of available context sensors and conclude that the usability problems cannot be overcome using a single sensor. We suggest solutions relying on the use of multiple context sensors and sensor fusion.
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    A Context-based Infrastructure for Smart Environments
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999) Dey, Anind K. ; Salber, Daniel ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    In order for a smart environment to provide services to its occupants, it must be able to detect its current state and determine what actions to take based on the context. We discuss the requirements for dealing with context in a smart environment and present a software infrastructure solution we have designed and implemented to help application designers build intelligent services and applications more easily. We describe the benefits of our infrastructure through applications we have built.
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    Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999) Dey, Anind K. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    The use of context is important in interactive applications. It is particularly important for applications where the users context is changing rapidly, such as in both handheld and ubiquitous computing. In order to better understand how we can use context and facilitate the building of context-aware applications, we need to more fully understand what constitutes a context-aware application and what context is. Towards this goal, we have surveyed existing work in context-aware computing. In this paper, we provide an overview of the results of this survey and, in particular, definitions and categories of context and context-aware. We conclude with recommendations for how this better understanding of context inform a framework for the development of context-aware applications.
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    The Context Toolkit: Aiding the Development of Context-Enabled Applications
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1998) Salber, Daniel ; Dey, Anind K. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    Context-enabled applications are just emerging and promise richer interaction by taking environmental context into account. However, they are difficult to build due to their distributed nature and the use of unconventional sensors. The concepts of toolkits and widget libraries in graphical user interfaces has been tremendously successful, allowing programmers to leverage off existing building blocks to build interactive systems more easily. We introduce the concept of context widgets that mediate between the environment and the application in the same way graphical widgets mediate between the user and the application. We illustrate the concept of context widgets with the beginnings of a widget library we have developed for sensing presence, identity and activity for people and things. We assess the success of our approach with two example context-enabled applications we have built and an existing application to which we have added context-sensing capabilities.
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    Ubiquitous Computing: Defining an HCI Research Agenda for an Emerging Interaction Paradigm
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1998) Salber, Daniel ; Dey, Anind K. ; Abowd, Gregory D.
    Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is an emerging paradigm for interaction between people and computers. A guiding principle of ubicomp is to break away from desktop computing to provide computational services to a user when and where required. Although there has been a lot of experimental work in ubicomp, there has been little effort to define an agenda in ubicomp for HCI researchers. In this paper, we attempt to remedy that problem by defining the space of ubicomp applications in terms of the level of user mobility and transparency of interaction. Increases in user mobility will come with technological advances, but increased interaction transparency will come only with breakthroughs in HCI research. We conclude the paper with a discussion of two functional themes that we have found important across a number of ubicomp systems -context-awareness and automated capture, integration and access. Each of these themes raises special HCI issues and, together with the taxonomy for ubicomp applications, defines a clearer agenda for HCI research in ubiquitous computing.
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    Context-Awareness in Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1997) Abowd, Gregory D. ; Dey, Anind K. ; Orr, Robert J. ; Brotherton, Jason Alan
    A common focus shared by researchers in mobile, ubiquitous and wearable computing is the attempt to break away from the traditional desktop computing paradigm. Computational services need to become as mobile as their users. Whether that service mobility is achieved by equipping the user with computational power or by instrumenting the environment, all services need to be extended to take advantage of the constantly changing context in which they are accessed. This paper will report on work done in the Future Computing Environments Group at Georgia Tech to provide infrastructure for context-aware computing. We will describe some of the fundamental issues involved in context-aware computing, solutions we have generated to provide a flexible infrastructure and several applications that take advantage of context awareness to allow freedom from traditional desktop computing.