Abstract
Although usability of mobile devices increases steadily, use of mobile applications is still inconvenient. Adapting application behavior and functionality to the user’s current needs is a promising approach to compensate for limited input capabilities. Despite great effort in research, smart adaptable applications are still rare. With our approach, we build upon existing works and extend them with the notion of activity context. Activities are one of the most basic elements of context and are well suited to determine the relevance of context entities in a given situation. Such information can be used to realize more intelligent suggestion mechanisms for input elements in mobile applications. The feasibility of our approach has been proven by a prototype implementation of our Activity Awareness Architecture for the Android platform providing activity context for mobile applications and a context-aware calendar on top of it demonstrating the usefulness of activity context.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aitenbichler, E.: Event-based and publish/subscribe communication. In: Mühlhauser, M., Gurevych, I. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises, pp. 152–171. Idea Group Publishing (December 2007)
Baldauf, M., Dustdar, S.: A survey on context-aware systems. International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing 2(4) (2004)
Bardram, J.E.: The Java Context Awareness Framework (JCAF) – A Service Infrastructure and Programming Framework for Context-Aware Applications. In: Gellersen, H.-W., Want, R., Schmidt, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3468, pp. 98–115. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Bechhofer, S., van Harmelen, F., Hendler, J., Horrocks, I., McGuinness, D.L., Patel-Schneider, P.F., Stein, L.A.: Owl reference. W3C Recommendation (February 2004) (visited February 5, 2009)
Braubach, L.: Architekturen und Methoden zur Entwicklung verteilter agentenorientierter Softwaresysteme. PhD thesis, University of Hamburg (2007)
Chen, G., Kotz, D.: A survey of context-aware mobile computing research. Technical Report TR2000-381 (2000)
Chen, H.: An Intelligent Broker Architecture for Pervasive Context-Aware Systems. PhD thesis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (December 2004)
Chen, H., Finin, T., Joshi, A.: Using owl in a pervasive computing broker. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Ontologies in Agent Systems (OAS) (July 2003)
Cheverst, K., Mitchell, K., Davies, N.: Design of an object model for a context sensitive tourist guide. Computers and Graphics 23, 24–25 (1999)
Coursaris, C.K., Kim, D.J.: A qualitative review of empirical mobile usability studies. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth American Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS (2006)
Abowd, G.D., Dey, A.K., Brown, P.J., Davies, N., Smith, M., Steggles, P.: Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness. In: Gellersen, H.-W. (ed.) HUC 1999. LNCS, vol. 1707, pp. 304–307. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Dix, A., Rodden, T., Davies, N., Trevor, J., Friday, A., Palfreyman, K.: Exploiting space and location as a design framework for interactive mobile systems. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 7(3), 285–321 (2000)
Dourish, P.: What we talk about when we talk about context. Personal and UbiComp 8(1), 19–30 (2004)
Gartner, Inc. Market Share: Mobile Communication Devices by Region and Country 2Q11 (August 2011), http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1764714 (visited: August 11, 2011)
Greene, S., Finnegan, J.: Usability of mobile devices and intelligently adapting to a user’s needs. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Information and Communication Technologies, pp. 175–180. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin (2003)
Hartmann, M., Austaller, G.: Context models and context awareness. In: Mühlhauser, M., Gurevych, I. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises, pp. 235–256. Idea Group Publishing (December 2007)
Henricksen, K.: A framework for context-aware pervasive computing applications. PhD thesis, University of Queensland (September 2003)
Henricksen, K., Indulska, J.: Developing context-aware pervasive computing applications: models and approach. Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing 2(1), 37–64 (2005)
Henricksen, K., Indulska, J., McFadden, T., Balasubramaniam, S.: Middleware for Distributed Context-Aware Systems. In: Meersman, R. (ed.) OTM 2005, Part I. LNCS, vol. 3760, pp. 846–863. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Hess, C.K., Campbell, R.H.: A context file system for ubiquitous computing environments. Technical Report UIUCDCS-R-2002-2285 UILU-ENG-2002-1729, Department of Computer Science, University of illinois, Urbana, Illinois (July 2002)
Hofer, T., Schwinger, W., Pichler, M., Leonhartsberger, G., Altmann, J., Retschitzegger, W.: Context-awareness on mobile devices - the hydrogen approach. In: Proc. of the 36th Annual Hawaii Int. Conf. on System Sciences (HICSS 2003), p. 292.1. IEEE Computer Society (2003)
Jöst, M.: Adapting to the user. In: Mühlhauser, M., Gurevych, I. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises, pp. 282–295. Idea Group Publishing (December 2007)
Kaenampornpan, M., Ay, B.B.: An integrated context model: Bringing activity to context. In: Workshop on Advanced Context Modelling, Reasoning and Management, UbiComp 2004 (2004)
Kjær, K.E.: A survey of context-aware middleware. In: Proceedings of the 25th Conference on IASTED International Multi-Conference: Software Engineering, pp. 148–155. ACTA Press, Innsbruck (2007)
Kofod-Petersen, A., Cassens, J.: Using Activity Theory to Model Context Awareness. In: Roth-Berghofer, T.R., Schulz, S., Leake, D.B. (eds.) MRC 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3946, pp. 1–17. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Kuutti, K.: Activity theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research. In: Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 17–44. MIT Press (1996)
Lei, H., Sow, D.M., Davis II, J.S., Banavar, G., Ebling, M.R.: The design and applications of a context service. SIGMOBILE Mob. Comput. Commun. Rev. 6(4), 45–55 (2002)
Oulasvirta, A., Raento, M., Tiitta, S.: Contextcontacts: re-designing smartphone’s contact book to support mobile awareness and collaboration, pp. 167–174. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., Portal (2005)
Pham, T.-L., Schneider, G., Goose, S., Pizano, A.: Composite device computing environment: A framework for situated interaction using small screen devices. Personal UbiComp 5, 25–28 (2001)
Raento, M., Oulasvirta, A., Petit, R., Toivonen, H.: Contextphone: A prototyping platform for context-aware mobile applications. IEEE Pervasive Computing 4(2), 51–59 (2005)
Riekki, J., Davidyuk, O., Forstadius, J., Sun, J., Sauvola, J.: Enabling context-aware services for mobile users. In: Proceedings of IADIS Virtual Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, pp. 360–369 (April 2005)
Román, M., Hess, C., Cerqueira, R., Campbell, R.H., Nahrstedt, K.: Gaia: A middleware infrastructure to enable active spaces. IEEE Pervasive Computing 1, 74–83 (2002)
Ryan, C., Gonsalves, A.: The effect of context and application type on mobile usability: an empirical study. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Australasian Conference on Computer Science, vol. 38, pp. 115–124. Australian Computer Society, Inc., Newcastle (2005)
Salber, D., Dey, A.K., Abowd, G.D.: The context toolkit: aiding the development of context-enabled applications. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: The CHI is the Limit, pp. 434–441. ACM, Pittsburgh (1999)
Schilit, B.N., Adams, N., Want, R.: Context-aware computing applications. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pp. 85–90 (1994)
Schilit, W.N.: A System Architecture for Context-aware Mobile Computing. PhD thesis, Columbia University (1995)
Schmidt, A.: Implicit human computer interaction through context. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 4(2), 191–199 (2000)
Spreitzer, M., Theimer, M.: Providing location information in a ubiquitous computing environment (panel session). SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev. 27(5), 270–283 (1993)
Strang, T., Linnhoff-Popien, C.: A context modeling survey. In: Workshop on Advanced Context Modelling, Reasoning and Management, UbiComp 2004 - The Sixth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Nottingham/England (2004)
Turjalei, M.: Integration von Context-Awareness in eine Middleware für mobile Systeme. Diplomarbeit, University of Hamburg (June 2006)
Winograd, T.: Architectures for context. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 16(2), 401–419 (2001)
Wischweh, J.D.S.: Aktivitätsorientierte Kontextadaption in mobilen Anwendungen. Master’s thesis, University of Hamburg (July 2009)
Zimmermann, A., Lorenz, A., Oppermann, R.: An Operational Definition of Context. In: Kokinov, B., Richardson, D.C., Roth-Berghofer, T.R., Vieu, L. (eds.) CONTEXT 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4635, pp. 558–571. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wischweh, J.D.S., Bade, D. (2012). Activity-Oriented Context Adaptation in Mobile Applications. In: Puiatti, A., Gu, T. (eds) Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking, and Services. MobiQuitous 2011. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 104. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30973-1_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30973-1_30
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30972-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30973-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)