Developing context-aware ubiquitous computing systems with a unified middleware framework

Abstract

Context-awareness is one of the fundamental requirements for achieving user-oriented ubiquity. In this paper, we present the design and approach to a middleware solution that expedites context-awareness in a ubiquitous computing environment. Context-Aware Middleware for Ubiquitous computing Systems (CAMUS)1 envisions a comprehensive middleware solution that not only focuses on providing context composition at the software level but also facilitates dynamic features retrieval at the hardware level by masking the inherent heterogeneity of environment sensors. Complexity is handled by providing 'separation of concerns' between environment features extraction, contextual data composition and context interpretation. Different reasoning mechanisms are incorporated in CAMUS as pluggable services. Ontology based formal context modeling using OWL is described. With a systematic approach, CAMUS is proved to be a flexible and reusable middleware framework. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.