End-user centered events detection and management in the internet of things

Abstract

With the widespread of Internet of Things’ devices and sensors, the use of applications for combining data streams is increasing in a high number of dynamic contexts, with a huge variety of users having radically different backgrounds and a plethora of diverse tasks to perform. On the one hand, users need a system able to support them in detecting significant events with respect to their context of use. On the other hand, such users need an environment in which they can express proper requirements for enabling the system to react autonomously according to events in the real/physical world, by running processes that trigger actions and perform services. In this paper, we provide the design of a web environment that we are developing around the concept of event, that is simple or complex data streams gathered from physical and social sensors that are encapsulated with contextual information (space, time, thematic). Moreover, from a study of the most diffused applications for Internet of Things that provide the user with tools for controlling the combination of data streams coming from devices and sensors, we identify and discuss some open problems and proposes a new paradigm and language to address them and to be integrated in our web environment.