Applying situation awareness to mobile proactive information delivery

Abstract

Proactive information delivery systems disseminate information to users based on their current tasks. Interests for proactive information delivery to mobile users are growing. In a mobile environment, users have access to additional ambient information that is not usually present in a fixed working location. It provides an opportunity to improve the quality of information delivery service by utilizing ambient information. However, mobile users tend to be distracted by their surroundings. Ideally, the information delivered to mobile users should match with their current tasks and needs. The challenge is how to determine users' needs. We tackle this issue by analyzing users' responses to delivered information and learning from their perceptions towards situations. This paper presents an interval-based approach for situation specification. We show a prototypical system that uses the reinforcement learning technique to obtain better understanding of users' perceptions towards situations. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2007.