There is more to Context than Location
Albrecht Schmidt, Michael Beigl and Hans-W. Gellersen
TecO, University of Karlsruhe,
Germany
albrecht@teco.edu, michael@teco.edu,
hwg@teco.edu
Abstract.
Context is a key issue in interaction between human and computer, describing
the surrounding facts that add meaning. In mobile computing research published
the parameter location is most often used to approximate context and to
implement context-aware applications. We propose that ultra-mobile
computing, characterized by devices that are operational and operated
while on the move (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, wearable computers), can significantly
benefit from a wider notion of context. To structure the field we introduce
a working model for context, discuss mechanisms to acquire context beyond
location, and application of context-awareness in ultra-mobile computing.
We investigate the utility of sensors for context-awareness and present
two prototypical implementations - a light sensitive display and an orientation
aware PDA interface. The concept is then extended to a model for sensor
fusion to enable more sophisticated context recognition. Based on an implementation
of the model an experiment is described and the feasibility of the approach
is demonstrated. Further we explore fusion of sensors for acquisition of
information on more sophisticated contexts.
Keywords.
Adaptive User Interface, Context-Awareness, Handheld Computing, Sensor-based
UI, Ultra-Mobile Computing, Wearable Computing,
In
Computers & Graphics Journal, Elsevier, Volume 23, No.6, December 1999,
pp 893-902
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