Sarah McBurney

Managing User Preferences for Personalization in a Pervasive Service Environment

The importance of personalization in many application areas is now well accepted and this is true of both telecommunications and web services. One important research area which spans telecommunications and web services is that of pervasive systems. Here the role of personalization is essential in order for a pervasive system to function effectively without the need for unnecessary interaction with the user and for improving the user experience by providing appropriate support for the actions taken by the user. However, in order to provide personalization in such a system the system needs to build up an adequate set of user preferences. This is a non-trivial task. This paper describes briefly the approaches to personalization included in the development of the pervasive system in the Daidalos project. It discusses some of the strategies involved in managing user preferences and the approaches being taken in the Daidalos system. In particular in the second phase a novel approach is proposed to deal with this problem.

A Privacy Framework for Personal Self-Improving Smart Spaces

There are various critical privacy issues that need to be addressed in the majority of smart space environments. This paper elaborates on the design of a privacy protection framework for Personal Self-Improving Smart Spaces (PSSs), a concept introduced by the Persist project Consortium. Compared to other smart spaces, such as smart homes and vehicles, this new paradigm provides a truly ubiquitous and fully personalisable user-centric environment. However, the information that needs to be collected, processed and distributed in such an environment is by nature highly privacy-sensitive, as it includes user profile data and preferences, as well as data regarding the past, current and even future user activities and context in general. In this respect, the designed privacy framework aims to address all privacy issues that arise by providing facilities which support multiple digital identities of PSS owners and privacy preferences for deriving privacy policies based on the context and the trustworthiness of the third parties that interact with PSSs.

Using User Preferences to Enhance Privacy in Pervasive Systems

With the increasing interest in developing pervasive computing technologies there is growing recognition of the problems of maintaining user privacy. In the Daidalos pervasive system this is achieved primarily through the use of virtual identities, which are used to conceal the real identity of the user. One problem with this lies in determining to what extent the user should be engaged in the decisions relating to the selection of virtual identities, and what can be done automatically. The solution lies in creating a set of user preferences to assist in taking these decisions, refining them through the use of machine learning techniques. This paper outlines the approach being investigated and describes how this will be achieved when the processes involved in building up user preferences are not trusted.

Implicit Adaptation of User Preferences in Pervasive Systems

User preferences have an essential role to play in decision making in pervasive systems. However, building up and maintaining a set of user preferences for an individual user is a nontrivial exercise. Relying on the user to input preferences has been found not to work and the use of different forms of machine learning are being investigated. This paper is concerned with the problem of updating a set of preferences when a new aspect of an existing preference is discovered. A basic algorithm (with variants) is given for handling this situation. This has been developed for the Daidalos and Persist pervasive systems. Some research issues are also discussed.

Linking Privacy and User Preferences in the Identity Management for a Pervasive System

Two important concepts in developing ubiquitous or pervasive computing technologies that are acceptable to the end user are personalization and privacy. On the one hand it is essential to take account of user needs and preferences to personalize decision making within such a system, on the other hand it is equally important to protect user privacy. One approach to handling user privacy is through the use of virtual identities. This has the advantage that it can also benefit the handling of user preferences. In particular, virtual identities can be used as a substitute for roles. On the other hand user preferences can be used in identity management to assist in selecting a virtual identity to hide the real identity of the user, thereby improving user-friendliness of the system. This paper describes this symbiosis and how it is implemented in the Daidalos pervasive system.