The anatomy of a context-aware application

  • Authors:
  • Andy Harter;Andy Hopper;Pete Steggles;Andy Ward;Paul Webster

  • Affiliations:
  • AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QA, UK;AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QA, UK and Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK;AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QA, UK;AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QA, UK;AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QA, UK

  • Venue:
  • Wireless Networks - Selected Papers from Mobicom'99
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

We describe a sensor-driven, or sentient, platform for context-aware computing that enables applications to follow mobile users as they move around a building. The platform is particularly suitable for richly equipped, networked environments. The only item a user is required to carry is a small sensor tag, which identifies them to the system and locates them accurately in three dimensions. The platform builds a dynamic model of the environment using these location sensors and resource information gathered by telemetry software, and presents it in a form suitable for application programmers. Use of the platform is illustrated through a practical example, which allows a user's current working desktop to follow them as they move around the environment.