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Developing a Context-Aware Application Using Existing Technology

This paper discusses the need for a context-aware system and presents a prototype application that utilizes existing technology to provide a solution. It explores existing context systems, the limitations of current approaches, and demonstrates the implementation of the prototype. The paper also provides recommendations for future work in this area.

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Developing a Context-Aware Application Using Existing Technology

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  1. Developing a Context-Aware Application Using Existing Technology A Prototype for Human-Centered ComputingDanyel Fisher Fall, 1999

  2. Overview • On context (Activity, Ecologies) • On existing context systems • On the need for a context-aware system • A possible prototype • Implementation • Demonstration • Recommendation

  3. On Existing Context • Computers require explicit invocation of applications: “Start | Programs | MS Word; File | Open Document; My Documents \ Reports \ Current \ Latest Results.doc” • Most projects require far more than • One document at a time • One interaction at a time

  4. The Problem “Ok, so I want to work on my Databases project. I need to find that article, in PDF; I need to pull up that web page with the algorithm; I need to start Java and Matlab; I need to look over that email from Kris—not the one about the party, and not the one about the other class—and I— Wait, I just got a note from one of my students. Where’s that gradebook gone?”

  5. Solutions • Multiple desktop managers • UNIXish solution. Lots of explicit setup • EMACS “Save desktop” • Lots of files to dig through • Long load time • “Recent documents” in Windows • Microsoft Binder • Web page histories

  6. A Little Closer… • Remembrance Agent • Watches what you, and people in your group, type. Stores and indexes old answers to questions. Search facility. • Insidious Big Brother Database (IBBDB) • EMACS attachment. Indexes all files that go through any buffer and continually recommends relevant entries in the database.

  7. What’s Still Missing? • Automatic, permanent associations. • Manual associations • Context awareness • What am I doing right now? • How do I usually interact with this artifact?

  8. Scope of the Problem • There is already some standing research on tracking ideas through various logs. • There are a few growing projects that try to calculate context and make recommendations. • With a poor interface, these are • Annoying (the Office Assistant) • Useless

  9. Information Ecologies • Can accommodate many types of interaction • Can change evolutionarily • Allow careful observation • Focus on people’s interaction with information. (Davenport)

  10. As the User Works… • The system calculates current context, suggests related artifacts • Alternately, the user navigates—and creates–a graph of related ideas.

  11. Extra-Low-Fidelity Prototype • Hand-recorded log of a day’s interactions • November 23, 1999 • Day included three different projects, advisor meeting, time in the lab with undergrads • Event Log.doc • Hand-processed and labeled into contexts • Placed into graphing software

  12. The Goal of this Demo • Conceptual model of how information is arranged • A graph of contexts, perhaps • Not really user-visible in this way

  13. Existing Software • The Brain • Tamara Munzer’s hyperbolic trees on spheres • Not available: Xerox’s hyperbolic graphs (pending patent dispute)

  14. DEMO: The Brain • www.thebrain.com

  15. Reflections: The Brain • Can’t see anything more than one link away, no sense of heaviness, weight, significance • Easy to move through • Disorienting transitions

  16. DEMO: Hyperviewer • http://graphics.stanford.edu/~munzner/h3/

  17. Reflections: Hyperviewer • Gives weight image • Harder to move through (Is this an inevitable tradeoff?) • This implementation has a poor UI, although that is not necessary.

  18. Last Notes • “Spanning tree plus shortcuts” structure is great • Would have preferred a system that could deal with clouds, not specific nodes • Conceptually reduce to a graph, with different display • Is this an OS addition or a window manager replacement?

  19. Future Work • Start collecting real-thing contexts • User studies to see examples of transitions: • Do non-research types switch topics, with so many documents, this often? • Start categorizing; apply research as it comes out

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