Achilles Kameas

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications

Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of what there is. Recently, however, a field called ontology has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name.Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications presents ontology in ways that philosophers are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical formalisms. It introduces the reader to current research on frameworks and applications in information technology in ways that are sure to invite reflection and constructive responses from ontologists in philosophy.

Intelligent Environments: a manifesto

We explain basic features of an emerging area called Intelligent Environments. We give a short overview on how it has developed, what is the current state of the art and what are the challenges laying ahead. The aim of the article is to make aware the Computer Science community of this new development, the differences with previous dominant paradigms and the opportunities that this area offers to the scientific community and society.

Ambient Ecologies in Smart Homes

An important characteristic of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) environments is the integration of information, communication and sensing technologies into our everyday objects, giving rise to a new proactive computing model in homes. A smart home uses networked sensors, devices and appliances to build an intelligent environment in which many activities in the home are automated and where devices and services seamlessly cooperate to support domestic tasks. Programming and maintaining such an infrastructure is challenging because suitable abstractions are currently missing. In this work we have attempted to define ambient ecologies as a metaphor for modeling UbiComp applications, specify design patterns and programming principles and develop infrastructure to provide a paradigm of application engineering and tools to support ambient ecology designers, developers and end-users. We describe our model and the middleware architecture and present the engineering of applications in a smart home environment.

An editing tool that manages device associations in an in-home environment

The forthcoming home environment will comprise numerous computationally enhanced artifacts that are autonomous, but interconnected via an invisible web of network-based services. The approach presented in this paper is to enable end users to make their own applications by linking such artifacts, which are treated as reusable “components.” A key requirement to achieve this is the availability of editing tools that meet the needs of different classes of users. A tool of this kind designed for end users is presented in this paper, together with the outcome of user evaluation sessions.

Extrovert gadgets

Configuring and reconfiguring ubiquitous applications composed of communicating artifacts.

Comparative study and categorization of high-level petri nets

Abstract The graphical formalism of Petri Nets (PNs) is established on a strong mathematical foundation that can be applied in systems specification, analysis and verification. However, classical (low-level) models suffer from the state explosion problem as resulting PNs become larger. Thus, their ability to represent and analyze realistic large scale systems is reduced. High-level PNs have been introduced in order to extend the modeling power of low-level models. This paper presents an assessment of high-level PNs from an engineering perspective. A set of categories is proposed for classifying several extensions presented in the literature. Models which belong to the same category are compared by discussing the formalism, the descriptive power and the inherent limitations of each. All categories are compared using a set of general criteria including compactness, ease of analysis, degree of supporting refinement/abstraction and specifying communication. The modeling power of representative models of each category is discussed by presenting illustrative application examples.

An ontology-driven system architecture for precision agriculture applications

Our research has been performed in the context of the EU-funded R&D project PLANTS. In this paper, we describe an ontology-driven architecture for developing systems that can be used in precision agriculture applications. Central to our approach is the use of an ontology, which views plants and associated computation as an integral part and allows the interaction of plants and artefacts in the form of synergistic mixed societies. PLANTS ontology sets up a conceptual framework that combines the knowledge about sensors, actuators and other domain concepts available, on the one hand, and the biological studies about plant stressing and sensing mechanisms and consequent plant behaviour, on the other hand, to make plants a proactive component of agricultural systems.

Ontology-Based Representation of UPnP Devices and Services for Dynamic Context-Aware Ubiquitous Computing Applications

Ontology and related technologies have been introduced into the Ambient Intelligence domain as a mean to provide declarative formal representations of the domain knowledge. The range of devices available in the scope of an Ambient Intelligence space becomes increasingly heterogeneous and at the same time ubiquitous. Hence there is a need to link the discovery, description and deployment of these ambient devices and their services with context and domain knowledge representations in order to facilitate an Ambient Intelligence space experience. The contribution of this work is an approach for bridging the gap between the non-semantic description mechanisms of XML based devices description protocols, such as UPnP, and the AmI domain knowledge representation. For this we design a prototype ontology-based representation for UPnP devices and services that provide a semantic linking between human-centric abstract description, and the software-centric concrete description that derives from the UPnP descriptors and is necessary to remotely execute method calls on devices. We also demonstrate the benefits of its use with a prototype implementation.

An Ontology Model for Building, Classifying and Using Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are statements that should accompany any type of educational material intended for lifelong learning. These statements deliver important information, which works as an indicator for students in the process of learning. However, in order for this information to be further utilizable within the context of intelligent e-learning applications, a more fine-grained definition and structure should be adopted. Having these in mind, we initially assign a strict and rather technical definition for the notion of learning outcomes, which is fully aligned, though, with their educational purpose. We then propose an ontological model for their representation and classification, which fully adheres to this definition. Our ultimate goal is to provide the mean for exploiting all aspects of knowledge implied by such statements within intelligent applications. To bear out this possibility, we apply our model to a selected piece of educational material provided by the Hellenic Open University.

The PLANTS System: Enabling Mixed Societies of Communicating Plants and Artefacts

In this paper we discuss research work that enables the development of mixed societies of communicating plants and artefacts. PLANTS is an EU-funded Research and Development project, which aims to investigate methods of creating “interfaces” between artefacts and plants in order to enable people to form mixed, interacting (potentially co-operating) communities. Amongst others the project aims to develop hardware and software components that should enable a seamless interaction between plants and artefacts in scenarios ranging from domestic plant care to precision agriculture. This paper deals with the approach that we follow for the development of the homonymous system and discusses its architecture with special focus on describing the communication among artefacts and plants and on designing an ontology that provides a formal definition of the domain under consideration.