Context and Machine Learning

Abstract

Machine learning is an ongoing research area in computing with multiple approaches and algorithms. Almost all machine learning is considered in the context of some application. However, most do not consider contextual features during the learning process. In this chapter, machine learning algorithms that are context-sensitive are reviewed. For this chapter, context-sensitive machine learning is defined as learning algorithms that use contextual features during the learning process. Several examples of context-sensitive machine learning algorithms are reviewed. However, the bulk of the chapter reviews context-sensitive applications designed to learn by observation of another entity. The machine learning approaches and algorithms in this chapter are related to, but not directly in the area of context-aware applications and middleware.