Diego López de Ipiña

TRIP: A Low-Cost Vision-Based Location System for Ubiquitous Computing

Abstract:Sentient Computing provides computers with perception so that they can react and provide assistance to user activities. Physical spaces are made sentient when they are wired with networks of sensors capturing context data, which is communicated to computing devices spread through the environment. These devices interpret the information provided and react by performing the actions expected by the user. Among the types of context information provided by sensors, location has proven to be especially useful. Since location is an important context that changes whenever the user moves, a reliable location-tracking system is critical to many sentient applications. However, the sensor technologies used in indoor location tracking are expensive and complex to deploy, configure and maintain. These factors have prevented a wider adoption of Sentient Computing in our living and working spaces. This paper presents TRIP, a low-cost and easily deployable vision-based sensor technology addressing these issues. TRIP employs off-the-shelf hardware (low-cost CCD cameras and PCs) and printable 2-D circular markers for entity identification and location. The usability of TRIP is illustrated through the implementation of several sentient applications.

SoaM: A Web‐powered Architecture for Designing and Deploying Pervasive Semantic Devices

Despite several efforts during the last years, the web model and semantic web technologies have not yet been successfully applied to empower Ubiquitous Computing architectures in order to create knowledge‐rich environments populated by interconnected smart devices. In this paper we point out some problems of these previous initiatives and introduce SoaM (Smart Objects Awareness and Adaptation Model), an architecture for designing and seamlessly deploying web‐powered context‐aware semantic gadgets. Implementation and evaluation details of SoaM are also provided in order to identify future research challenges.

Theme issue: ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence

The ubiquitous computing (UC) idea envisioned by Weiser in 1991 has recently evolved to a more general paradigm known as Ambient Intelligence (AmI). This vision represents a new generation of user-centred computing environments aiming to find new ways to obtain a better integration of the information technology in everyday life devices and activities. AmI environments are integrated by several autonomous computational devices of modern life ranging from consumer electronics to mobile phones. Ideally, people in an AmI environment will not notice these devices, but they will benefit from the services they provide them. Such devices are aware of the people present in those environments by reacting to their gestures, actions and context. Recently, the interest in Ambient Intelligence Environments has grown considerably due to new challenges posed by society, giving place to new interesting associated research disciplines such as vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), e-Health, Internet of Things and Home Automation among others. This theme issue focuses on gathering research results coming from Ambient Intelligence and probably its most promising, socially and commercially speaking, application domain, namely Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The papers in this issue have been selected from two international conferences held in Valencia in September 2010, namely UCAmI and IWAAL, respectively. The Symposium of Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI) has consolidated, in its four editions, as a reference event in Europe and South America, and it is one of the two oldest Ambient Intelligence-specific events. On the other hand, the International Workshop of Ambient Assisted Living (IWAAL) is one of the few specific conferences on the topic of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). AAL is, without doubt, one of the most clear targets of Ubiquitous Computing/Ambient Intelligence since it attempts to solve a real problem, i.e. how the seamless integration of infocommunication technologies within homes and residences can enhance elderly people’s quality of life and autonomy, thus reducing their need for being institutionalized or aiding them when it happens. In what follows, a short overview of the papers included classified by their specific topic within AmI is given. Notice that contributions from researchers from Belgium, France, Mexico, Chile and Spain have been compiled in this issue. Firstly, several works have centred on the application of novel software engineering techniques and middleware to make reality the Ubiquitous Computing vision:

Sentient Computing for Everyone

Sentient Computing gives perception to computing systems so that they can detect, interpret and respond to changing aspects of user contexts. The location attribute of a user’s context is of special interest because it makes human-computer interactions more natural. In the last few years, several sophisticated indoor location technologies, which can track user whereabouts, have been developed. However, they are yet to be widely adopted because of their high cost and complexities in deployment, configuration and maintenance. This paper describes a novel vision-based software location system, known as TRIP, whose low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware requirements and easy deployment features overcome other systems’ limitations. Nevertheless, in order to foster the deployment of “sentient spaces” that bring services to users wherever they are or about to move to, a location system must also be accompanied by the middleware to facilitate user-bound software service activation, migration and deactivation. LocALE addresses this issue by providing a CORBA-based solution that deals with heterogeneous object lifecycle and location control. Some distributed applications combining TRIP’S and LocALE’s capabilities are presented to demonstrate that Sentient Computing can be made readily available for everyone and everywhere.

Towards a Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation for Asthma Treatment

There is a tremendous amount of effort involved in the definition of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) by physicians. Because the quality of medical assistance is highly impacted by the use of CPG, and establishing their use is difficult, we consider helpful to develop an effective solution that implements CPG through Decision Support Systems (DSS). Among the many existing representation models for CPG, we have selected and applied GLIF. In addition, we have created ontologies for the domains of asthma severity and Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision Aid approach (PROAFTN method). The results have been integrated into our DSS called Arnasa in order to provide support via Web to asthmatic patients.

An interaction model for passively influencing the environment

Adapting the environment in a user-centred view is at the core of ambient intelligence. This adaptation involves both context-awareness and interaction mechanisms that can be classified into active and passive. While active mechanisms have been fully explored in existing prototypes and systems, passive mechanisms and their implications need to be more deeply studied. In this work, we present some theoretical principles on passive interaction as well as their application to EMI²: an AmI architecture we are designing combining active and passive environment interaction via mobile devices.

A reflective middleware for controlling smart objects from mobile devices

Mobile devices are mainly used for communication, entertainment, and as electronic assistants. However, their increasing computational, storage, communicational and multimedia capabilities make them suitable for previously unexpected scenarios such as Ambient Intelligence (AmI). Thus, mobile devices may be used as intermediaries between us and the smart objects (everyday objects augmented with computational services) in our surroundings. This paper describes the design and implementation of a middleware to transform mobile devices into universal remote controllers of smart objects.

SOAM: an environment adaptation model for the pervasive semantic web

Nowadays, there is a major interest in applying Web and Semantic Web techniques for the creation of pervasive computing scenarios, where devices and objects communicate using these technologies. The Web model has largely proved validity both in Internet-wide and intranet scenarios, but it is starting to be applied in personal area networks as a communication and knowledge reasoning system. In this paper we present SOAM, an experimental model for the creation of pervasive smart objects that use Web and Semantic Web technologies in new ways – resulting in the novel concept of Pervasive Semantic Web – for enabling personal area semantic communication and reasoning processes in order to provide environment adaptation to user preferences.

An architecture for sentient GPRS-enabled MicroBots

Ambient intelligence is a user-centered concept which combines several computing disciplines with the purpose of enhancing/facilitating the users daily activities. We deem that autonomous or semiautonomous (remotely controlled) sentient MicroBots may also be first-class citizens within ambient intelligence. Those MicroBots would interact with their surrounding environment assisted by their built-in sensors, effectors and communication facilities, on behalf of the users they serve. In essence, they would also profit as users do from Ambient Intelligence to achieve their programmed goals. In this paper, we contribute with a solution to enable the realtime remote control of GPRS-accessible semiautonomous sentient MicroBots. Moreover, we discuss the extensions necessary to convert those MicroBots into care assistants for disabled and elderly people.

A language for expressing user-context preferences in the web

In this paper, we introduce WPML (WebProfiles Markup Language) for expressing user-context preferences information in the Web. Using WPML a service provider can negotiate and obtain user-related information to personalise service experience without explicit manual configuration by the user, while preserving his privacy using P3P.