Modeling context information in pervasive computing systems, in: Pervasive '02

Abstract. As computing becomes more pervasive, the nature of appli-cations must change accordingly. In particular, applications must become more flexible in order to respond to highly dynamic computing environ-ments, and more autonomous, to reflect the growing ratio of applications to users and the corresponding decline in the attention a user can devote to each. That is, applications must become more context-aware. To fa-cilitate the programming of such applications, infrastructure is required to gather, manage, and disseminate context information to applications. This paper is concerned with the development of appropriate context modeling concepts for pervasive computing, which can form the basis for such a context management infrastructure. This model overcomes prob-lems associated with previous context models, including their lack of formality and generality, and also tackles issues such as wide variations in information quality, the existence of complex relationships amongst context information and temporal aspects of context.