A formal framework for modeling context-aware behavior in ubiquitous computing

Abstract

A formal framework to contextualize ontologies, proposed in [3], provides several ways of composing ontologies, contexts or both. The proposed algebra can be used to model applications in which the meaning of an entity depends on environment constraints or where dynamic changes in the environment have to be considered. In this article we use this algebra to formalize the problem of interpreting context information in ubiquitous systems, based on a concrete scenario. The main goal is to verify, on one hand, how the formal approach can contribute with a better understanding of the fundamental concepts of ubiquitous computing and, on the other hand, if this formal framework is flexible and rich enough to adequately express specific characteristics of the concrete application domain and scenario. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.