Context-Aware Computing

Problem
An important feature of ubiquitous and mobile computing systems is that they be able to adapt their behavior readily to the changing context of their use. For example, a mobile application should be able to adapt its behavior to the changing position of its users. An intelligent display should change its information based on knowledge of who is looking at it. Though it is easy to think of context-enabled behavior for an application, in practice it is difficult to build these kinds of systems.

One recent accomplishment in the FCE group (by Daniel Salber and Anind Dey) is the introduction of the Context Toolkit, a toolkit layer to assist applications programmers in developing context-enabled applications. Just as toolkits have eased the development of applications with sophisticated graphical user interfaces, so too it is hoped that this context toolkit will ease the development of context-enabled applications.

The objective of this project is to become familiar with the Context Toolkit, both through reading about it and using or extending it. The interested student is instructed to contact Dr. Abowd. A specific reading and development task will then be provided. There is a particular interest in applications of the Context Toolkit as part of The Aware Home Research Initiative.